bta is open and healthy at night but then shrivels at night!

[hockeyhead019]

Hey everybody,

For those of you who don't know I've added a green BTA to my tank recently. It looks great during the day, the bubbles are in the tentacles (which I read is a sign of health) and is fully opened. However after lights out it begins to shrivel up and by the time morning rolls around its all shriveled and it's mouth is wide open expelling anything it snagged:/

Anybody any advice? Tank params are all spot on, lighting is 4 HOT5's antics on from 9am to 7pm and a daylight and blue plus on from 12 to 6.

Any ideas?

Cheers!

[Cliff]

Does he eat alright. If he is, I would not worry to much

Both of mine retract quite a bit at night. Sometimes almost completely.

[hockeyhead019]

He eats fine... and I just saw my one clownfish hosting the nem! So maybe the nem will stay a little more open tonight... idk I'll just have to keep an eye on it tomorrow.

Cliff does your nem ever open its mouth real wide? like almost to the size of the disc without any tentacles?

[Cliff]

Not that I've seen

It might have something to do with the fact my clowns mostly host in my leathers.

If he's eating fine, he should be OK. Just keep a close eye on him for a while

[sheamurai]

Wide open mouth isn't really a good sign, unless he's expelling stuff. Especially bad sign if its wide open during the day...

They do shrink down to almost nothing at night. They like light so when night time comes they pretty much shut'er down.

What and how much do you feed it? Too much food and they take it in and spit it out later...so if yours is spitting every day, you are likely feeding it too much. Some folks don't ever feed their nem and they do great.

[labnjab]

Before we had clowns hosting ours they would shrivel down completely at night, but now that the clowns host ours they stay around 50% open at night.

We haven't fed our nems in around 18 months and they are doing great. I think they are getting more then enough from the metal halides. We had 1 when we started the 75 and are now up to 5 or 6. Its too hard to count them cause they are all grouped together, lol It just looks like one massive 18 inch diameter BTA

[hockeyhead019]

Well I don't feed the nem and the mouth would shut during the day, it was expelling a ton of gunk (dunno from what though maybe the LFS?) but now that the clown is hosting it stayed open last night mouth closed and everything! :)

http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb54/hockeyhead019/2011-05-18_00-06-54_383.jpg

http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb54/hockeyhead019/2011-05-18_00-06-47_239.jpg

[sheamurai]

ahh, that nem looks fine!