Anemone Deflates During the Day

[BasicBitz]

Hello everybody,

I've got a weird issue... I've tried searching for this, but I am not finding anything. I have an anemone that has been super happy for a long while (over 5 months). Just recently, something caused it to walk across the aquarium and plant itself on the opposite end. Once it did that, it now deflates (and pukes/poops) daily in the morning. I have noticed it's been opening pretty fully at night under the moonlight. It's been doing this for over 8 days now.

My parameters are all still solid, and I have not changed my equipment (lighting included) since I got the anemone - so I'm not sure what it's doing. When it's puking/pooping, I can see it's mouth gaping and it freaks me out - but then it's just deflated as normal, followed by opening up all happy under the moonlight setting on my AI Primes when the lights go out.

I did add a VorTech MP10 a few days ago thinking maybe the flow was not as good on that side of the tank (added it on the far side to add a little more gentle flow over it, nothing crazy) as I thought maybe it was upset about the flow in that area. It's still doing the same thing, zero changes.

Any thoughts? It's freaking me out to the point that I may remove the rock that it's on and isolate it.

 

[BasicBitz]

Here is a pic of the anemone right now (11:35AM CST).

It's hard to see because I failed to use a filter to take this pic, but at the top of the anemone, you can see some of the stringy puke/poop I was talking about. You can also see it's mouth is open.

All that said, its foot has been firmly planted. I have no idea what is going on and I really don't want to lose this anemone.

 

[D-Nak]

Are you feeding it? If so, what are you feeding it? Are you missing any fish?

I'm guessing that it may have eaten something bad and it's taking longer than usual to expel it from its system.

 

[BasicBitz]

Are you feeding it? If so, what are you feeding it? Are you missing any fish?

I'm guessing that it may have eaten something bad and it's taking longer than usual to expel it from its system.

I haven't been able to successfully spot feed it since the clowns really took to it. I haven't attempted to spot feed it since it's been doing this, either.

To give you an idea as to why I couldn't feed it, with the clowns, if I tried spot feeding (mysis or krill), the clowns would immediately pick all the food out of it. If it was a smallish piece of krill, the clowns would literally pick it up and throw it out of the anemone.

From what I understand, the clowns allegedly feed the anemone, generally speaking... right? I didn't freak out too much about them pulling the food out or continuing to spot feed because I thought they were attempting to take care of it in some aspect.

I don't believe I'm missing any fish... but I will definitely double check. I do know it ate a medium diamond goby - but that was about two or two and a half months ago. I put the diamond goby in the tank and it immediately stirred up a storm of sand and accidentally swam straight into the anemone. I had never seen anything like it before, but the anemone seemed ultra happy after that for a good while. Nice $30 meal.

I do recall it having to expel waste for upwards of a week with that, but it never had a gaping mouth like this during that process.

 

[BasicBitz]

Are you feeding it? If so, what are you feeding it? Are you missing any fish?

I'm guessing that it may have eaten something bad and it's taking longer than usual to expel it from its system.

To your point though, I did find it curious that it planted its foot on a ceiling of sorts and has been hanging nearly upside down while expelling. At night under the moon light, it faces up towards the top of the tank and open as normal. I'm so confused.

 

[BasicBitz]

Update: my anemone has been somewhat happy for the last ~2 hours. Not fully open, but I’ll take the small win.

 

[ca1ore]

Cannot tell for certain what species. Possibly magnifica? Inflation/deflation cycles are indicative of bacterial infection, though it would be unusual for that to start after 5 months. Have you added another anemone recently?

 

[ThRoewer]

If it does this on a daily basis I would pull it out and treat it with Cipro. Having one, maybe two, bad days could be explained by it being unhappy. But if it happens frequently for a week it's usually sick.
I've learned the hard way that an anemone can harbor the pathogen for quite a while without really showing symptoms. But the slightest irritation, overfeeding, change in environment can push it over the edge and it gets visibly sick. Last year I lost a good number of anemones due to an infection making it into the system with one healthy-looking anemone. That's why, from now on, I treat every anemone whether it shows symptoms of being sick or not.

 

[BasicBitz]

Cannot tell for certain what species. Possibly magnifica? Inflation/deflation cycles are indicative of bacterial infection, though it would be unusual for that to start after 5 months. Have you added another anemone recently?

My LFS had these listed as "long tentacle anemone" - they are somewhat green/tan, which is hard to see with my lighting. I have only that single anemone in the tank - but I did recently add some corals (duncan, frogspawn).

 

[BasicBitz]

If it does this on a daily basis I would pull it out and treat it with Cipro. Having one, maybe two, bad days could be explained by it being unhappy. But if it happens frequently for a week it's usually sick.
I've learned the hard way that an anemone can harbor the pathogen for quite a while without really showing symptoms. But the slightest irritation, overfeeding, change in environment can push it over the edge and it gets visibly sick. Last year I lost a good number of anemones due to an infection making it into the system with one healthy-looking anemone. That's why, from now on, I treat every anemone whether it shows symptoms of being sick or not.

Gotcha - so, this may be a stupid question... but what would be my best course of action here? Remove the entire rock that it's on or try and get it off the rock? I've never had to remove an anemone from a tank... being this is my first one. It's back to mouth gaping this morning.

 

[BasicBitz]

If it does this on a daily basis I would pull it out and treat it with Cipro.

Also, where do you source Cipro? I do not currently have that.

 

[BasicBitz]

I take that back - I ordered this on eBay about six months ago for some goldfish I was trying to help - "50 Tablets CIPROFISH FISH FLOX 500 mg AQUARIUM TREATMENT for FISH" - is that the Cipro you're referring to? How do you treat your anemones? What dosage?

 

[ThRoewer]

I take that back - I ordered this on eBay about six months ago for some goldfish I was trying to help - "50 Tablets CIPROFISH FISH FLOX 500 mg AQUARIUM TREATMENT for FISH" - is that the Cipro you're referring to? How do you treat your anemones? What dosage?

Yes, that's what you need. I use half a pill (=250mg) per 10 gallon each day (dose preferably after lights are out!). Water should be changed completely daily, though if the water isn't cloudy/milky you can also do water changes every other day. If the water gets very cloudy you may have to do 2 or more complete water changes a day.
If that rock isn't too large you can leave the anemone on it and just move both together into the treatment tank.
Make sure that you have high flow. And make sure that the anemone can't get sucked into the pump.

 

[BasicBitz]

Planning on using this LifeGard 10 gallon as my QT. Has an upgraded pump in it. I can stick an extra power head in it if needed, I’m just deathly afraid of having the anemone stuck in it.

 

[BasicBitz]

Added a nano reef light and Jebao wave maker I had spare. Flow seems pretty good. I’ll need to watch it to make sure the anemone doesn’t detach. Once I’m sure the temp is stable, I’ll get the anemone moved into the tank.

Thanks for all the help!

 

[BasicBitz]

 

[BasicBitz]

I gotta say, I've never used LifeGard tanks... but this one is pretty nice so far. Low iron glass, the rear filtration looks pretty legit, no leaks. I'm glad I scooped it up as used on Amazon for ~$30 off - it wasn't used at all.

 

[ThRoewer]

I usually use the cheap Aqueon/Tetra 10 gallon tanks (bought at the Petco $1/Gallon sales) for anemone treatments and most fish quarantine. I have a bunch of them so I can just swap a clean for a dirty one when a full tank cleaning is needed and clean the dirty tank at a convenient time.
I'm right now treating a number of anemones, so I will try to take a video of my set-up to give you an idea.
Also, while the standard treatment should be done in a week, I found that it sometimes pays off to go longer even if it looks like the anemone is not reacting. In my most recent case, I had a large magnifica that looked like a gonner even after a full week of treatment but I continued treatment anyway. Now, by the second week of treatment, the anemone is finally starting to recover.

 

[BasicBitz]

I usually use the cheap Aqueon/Tetra 10 gallon tanks (bought at the Petco $1/Gallon sales) for anemone treatments and most fish quarantine. I have a bunch of them so I can just swap a clean for a dirty one when a full tank cleaning is needed and clean the dirty tank at a convenient time.
I'm right now treating a number of anemones, so I will try to take a video of my set-up to give you an idea.
Also, while the standard treatment should be done in a week, I found that it sometimes pays off to go longer even if it looks like the anemone is not reacting. In my most recent case, I had a large magnifica that looked like a gonner even after a full week of treatment but I continued treatment anyway. Now, by the second week of treatment, the anemone is finally starting to recover.

Gotcha, that makes sense. I only have one spare 10 gallon Aqueon, but that's a good idea - I can easily swap to one of those tanks for water changes with this one. This LifeGard was just a spare I had that I've been meaning to test and figured why not.

Quick question on water changes - do you pull 10 gallons from your main reef/display every day to put in the quarantine, or once you've got the quarantine going, are you doing 100% changes with fresh salt water? Thanks in advance for all your help.

 

[ThRoewer]

Gotcha, that makes sense. I only have one spare 10 gallon Aqueon, but that's a good idea - I can easily swap to one of those tanks for water changes with this one. This LifeGard was just a spare I had that I've been meaning to test and figured why not.

Quick question on water changes - do you pull 10 gallons from your main reef/display every day to put in the quarantine, or once you've got the quarantine going, are you doing 100% changes with fresh salt water? Thanks in advance for all your help.

In the past, I have used water from the display tank and for the first 3 days it should be okay in any case, but later there is a chance of reinfection if the pathogen is still in the tank. So I would suggest doing water changes onward from day 4 of treatment with new water.

This is a video of the anemones I currently have/had in treatment:



The anemones in the tank on the left are done with treatment for 2 weeks, the magnifica on the right is the one I have in treatment for over two weeks now. The green gigantea and the little malu (in the breeder box) were not really sick but just got treated along prophylactically.

This is how the magnifica looked only a few days ago: