Timfish Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 My display tank has 12 brown BTA's that are from a clone line started with a BTA purchased in 1997, 1 Rose BTA, 2 Green BTAs and a Teal w/ Pink Tip BTA. A few weeks ago I was out of town for a few days and had a friend feeding my fish. The day after I got back I noticed both Green BTA were dying along with several of the Brown BTAs and the rest of the brown BTA's didn't look very good. The Teal & Pink Tip BTA was looking kinda wilted but was opening up as was the Rose BTA. Immediatley I did a 15 gallon water change and put a internal canister filter on the tank with carbon. Checking with my friend (who has taken care of my fish numerous times over the years and will in the future) she fed some medicated frozen food to the tank once the day before I got back. I did leave instructions for her to feed the medicated food to my quarintine tanks twice daily and pellets to all my tanks once daily. The Teal & Pink Tip BTA was looking kinda wilted but was opening up as was the Rose BTA. The next day (2nd day back) I syphoned out 3 more of the Brown BTAs and this is when I noticed the tank was running about 84 degrees, it ususally runs about 78 but the thermostat on the heater appeared to be sticking. At this point the Teal & Pink Tip BTA was looking ok just not as full as normal, the Rose was wimpy and I could only find 4 of the Brown BTAs all pretty sad. Everything else was looking as good as ever including fish, brittle stars, cucumber, Protopalythoa grandis colony with about 20 polyps, Blue Coral and assorted leather corals. I contacted a friend and moved the Rose BTA to thier tank. Over the next week the remaining Brown BTAs slowly declined while the Teal & Pink Tip looked better and was inflating more. I also had access to a Brown BTA from the same clone line as mine that was in another tank and added it back to my tank. Now after 3 weeks I have only one of the original 12 Brown BTAs left, it is inflating, has not bleached but it only about 1/6 it's former size (as far as I know, there could be a couple behind the rock). The Teal & Pink Tip looks great and the Brown BTA returned to this tank looks great. So my dilemma is what caused the dieoff of just the Brown BTAs? It seems unlikely that just one feeding with medicated frozen food would have caused it but on the other hand I've seen Brown BTAs from this clone line in warmer water over the years and when exposed to excessive temperatures it doesn't kill them without bleaching them first which did not happen in this case and it doesn't appear to have adversly affected the Teal & Pink Tip BTA. So lessons learned: $&^% happens, always give explicit instructions on what to do (which I did) and on what NOT to do (which I didn't) and never trust a thermostat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Monnat Jr Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 That sucks. I am anemone-heavy and can feel your pain. It looks like they didn't totally nuke your tank which is a huge relief. If you discover the root cause, please share. I was feeding plain, uncooked HEB gulf shrimp to my BTAs for months with all going good. My "yellow" BTA colored up back to a green BTA and grew. Then about a month ago I fed another shrimp to it, my RBTA, my green MMCA and my pretty (wife's favorite) yellow BTA. The GBTA shriveled up and now spends about half it's time looking unhappy and smaller weeks later. The yellow MMCA, favorite out of a dozen anemones, crawled into the rocks and (presumably) died. No idea why, but I've changed to silversides. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted June 6, 2012 Author Share Posted June 6, 2012 It was pretty frustrating to see most of my animals happy as can be and the Brown BTAs melting in front of my eyes. Check your phospates. Most frozen and fresh seafood form the grocery stores have sodium triphosphate or polyphospate added as a preservative (active ingrediant in Spic and Span). Frotunately the Rose BTA is also doing well but for some reason whenever I want to go over to pick it up my friends say it would be inconvienent and I need to call back next week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Monnat Jr Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 Frotunately the Rose BTA is also doing well but for some reason whenever I want to go over to pick it up my friends say it would be inconvienent and I need to call back next week. Maybe your friend is waiting for it to clone first. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted June 6, 2012 Author Share Posted June 6, 2012 Yeah, that thought never crossed my mind! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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