GBTA - Odd (?) Behavior

[Nate C]

Picked up a gbta from a fellow RT member last weekend, drip acclimated and put into the tank. Sunday and Monday he seemed to have found a good spot and on Monday evening after feeding the fish I fed him a small chunk of raw shrimp. Tuesday night and Wed morning he stayed put. Wed night he moved, but only a few inches to the rock he was on.

Prior to adding him to the tank I attached sponges to the intakes on my 2 MJ1200s, and I superglued eggcrate to the top of my overflow box. I thought I had the bases covered..

This morning I find him crammed into the *return/output* line from the sump. Not the intake - the return. This diffuser head is pushing approx 650gph all the time (estimated from 4' head loss off of Genx4100 pump)

What the heck? I know these guys like flow, but geez - he was trying to climb "upstream". Does anyone here who is keeping btas screen off their return lines? The previous owner said he had been a 'roamer' and had been pulled out of a drain/intake/overflow on at least one prior occasion.

I turned off the pump, (I have a spare, with a spare diffuser on the other end of the tank - that I am running right now) and hopefully today he will extract himself and find somewhere else to hangout. If he's not happy when I get home I will return him or find another suitable home for him.

A little about my tank specs:

I started running phos reactor a month ago - haven't seen any fallout from that - I feed every other day, my GHA is almost gone (thanks for the tips krux) phos, n03, n02, nh3, all undetectable. SG 1.025, temp 80d, dkh 12, ph 8.1.... Livestock 1 yellow tang, 2 percs, 1 lawnmower blenny, 5 bg chromis. Tank will have been running for 6 months next week.

The return pump plus the 2 MJs provide approx 1600gph turnover in a 90gal tank. I thought this would be enough for btas but apparently I was incorrect.

I'm running 440 watts of vho - 2 50/50 and 2 03s. Perhaps he is stressed from too little light?

[Illusion]

He is probably just Trying to split... Usually from wha tI have noticed is they are content unless they want to split then they will move into the most flow and use it to tear themselves in half... You might have 2 when you get home... After they split the will go back down into the rockwork..

James

[Nate C]

I hope you are correct.

Should I have left the pump running? He wasn't stuck... he was in there of his own will, actually he must've been working pretty hard to stay in there...

[Krux]

my rbta positioned himself so that he is about 4" from the output of my cl, which is running on a 3000 gph pump. he has been sitting there for about a month now.