Dying/very sick carpet anemone?

[schafon]

Hi everyone!
I purchased a not so good looking carpet anemone from my LFS yesterday with the thought that maybe I can make it fill better in my tank.
The anemone mouth was gapping at the store but I thought I'll give it a chance anyway, the lights at the store was very bad so I thought that it will do better at my tank.
Anyway, I've acclimated the anemone to my tank water for around 2.5 hours using drip acclimation, I put the bag in the sump and drip the water in the bag, that way I keep stabilized temp while dripping water.
After putting the anemone at the bottom of the tank it looked good (I think, I really don't have a lot of experience with the carpet anemones) but the mouth was still gapping.
This evening after lights off the anemone shrink to 1/3 of it's size and I think I can see it insides (check image).
I have corals fish and another anemone in the tank.


Tank parameters:
Established around 46 days ago.
Water temp is between 77-78 ( according to my heater controller, I don't trust it so much since my glass temp checker says I'm 76-77)
Alkalinity is 8.7
ph 8.0
salinity is 0.025-0.026
Phospate is high(0.4-0.6), most probably since I added uncured dry rock to the tank when I've started it.
Calcium is around 440-450.

My question is, should I give it time? or is it a lost call? I don't want it killing everything but I really want to see it survive this!
I have few cleaner shrimps in that tank that have no problem walking all over the anemone, I find it kind of weird, aren't they supposed to get stung by it?
The anemone is constantly moving in its place, the mouth is getting bigger and smaller every minute.

There are pictures of it from the store and pictures of it from this evening around 40 minutes from picture to picture.
Thanks in advance!

 

[outhouse]

Take your time, sometimes they split they look worse and then you have two. If you have issues and it looks worse, I highly recommend large water changes

 

[MaxTremors]

I don’t have any advice for saving the anemone other than to give it time (it likely needs antibiotics, but I don’t have any experience with that, so I will defer to someone with experience with that). So long as it’s not disintegrating or falling apart, it can come back. But a couple pieces of advice for the future.

First, unless you are very experience in disease treatment or in rehabilitating anemones/corals, don’t ever buy specimens thinking you’re going to ‘save it’, besides the fact that it just encourages the retailer to continue ordering livestock they’re unable to properly care for, you’re just asking for disease and a potential tank crash. Unless you have an established QT tank already set up and ready to go where you can properly treat and/or medicate the animal, putting sick or dying animals into your DT is just asking for disaster.

Secondly, putting a healthy anemone in a 46 day old tank started with dry rock that has parameter issues likely won’t end well, putting a sick anemone in that tank won’t end well. Anemones need a mature tank, like a minimum of six months if started or seeded with real live rock, if started with only dry rock then you should wait at least a year. We don’t completely understand the complexities of it, but Anemones just tend to not do well in immature tanks. On top of that, carpet Anemones are considered one of the more difficult species to keep.

And lastly, on top of all that, you’re having water quality issues (phosphates), which isn’t uncommon in new tanks (part of why it’s recommended to wait 6-12months for anemones). When you are having water quality issues, it is best to hold off on any additions to the tank until you’ve figured them out, especially if you’re inexperienced. It especially doesn’t make sense to add sick animals to a tank that is having water quality issues, as it’s likely just going to compound both issues (the sick animal and the water issue).

I don’t say all this to lecture or shame you, you had good intentions in trying to save the anemone. Just some advice for the next time you see a sick animal and think you can save it, you don’t want to risk your other inhabitants or derail the maturing of your tank (or worse crash it).

 

[schafon]

This is how it looks this morning.
Inflated but mouth still open

 

[Poof No Eyebrows]

Take it slow. If you haven’t already, lower your lights a bit and DO NOT try to feed it for a while. Inflating can be a good sign as is it’s foot staying attached to the ground. Beat thing you can do is leave it be and see if it recovers.

 

[Rtaylor]

This is how it looks this morning.
Inflated but mouth still open

Looks a lot better. I’d probably watch it for a bit to see if it continues to improve or starts to go the other way. You may want to get some Cipro just in case and lookup on here how to treat carpet anemones with Cipro.

 

[Duncan62]

I don’t have any advice for saving the anemone other than to give it time (it likely needs antibiotics, but I don’t have any experience with that, so I will defer to someone with experience with that). So long as it’s not disintegrating or falling apart, it can come back. But a couple pieces of advice for the future.

First, unless you are very experience in disease treatment or in rehabilitating anemones/corals, don’t ever buy specimens thinking you’re going to ‘save it’, besides the fact that it just encourages the retailer to continue ordering livestock they’re unable to properly care for, you’re just asking for disease and a potential tank crash. Unless you have an established QT tank already set up and ready to go where you can properly treat and/or medicate the animal, putting sick or dying animals into your DT is just asking for disaster.

Secondly, putting a healthy anemone in a 46 day old tank started with dry rock that has parameter issues likely won’t end well, putting a sick anemone in that tank won’t end well. Anemones need a mature tank, like a minimum of six months if started or seeded with real live rock, if started with only dry rock then you should wait at least a year. We don’t completely understand the complexities of it, but Anemones just tend to not do well in immature tanks. On top of that, carpet Anemones are considered one of the more difficult species to keep.

And lastly, on top of all that, you’re having water quality issues (phosphates), which isn’t uncommon in new tanks (part of why it’s recommended to wait 6-12months for anemones). When you are having water quality issues, it is best to hold off on any additions to the tank until you’ve figured them out, especially if you’re inexperienced. It especially doesn’t make sense to add sick animals to a tank that is having water quality issues, as it’s likely just going to compound both issues (the sick animal and the water issue).

I don’t say all this to lecture or shame you, you had good intentions in trying to save the anemone. Just some advice for the next time you see a sick animal and think you can save it, you don’t want to risk your other inhabitants or derail the maturing of your tank (or worse crash it).

He's not done yet.. Stress will cause them to split. Hope he makes it.

 

[Rtaylor]

He's not done yet.. Stress will cause them to split. Hope he makes it.

? It’s extremely rare for haddoni to split. Are you thinking of bta’s?

 

[Duncan62]

? It’s extremely rare for haddoni to split. Are you thinking of bta’s?

Just guessing. I've only had one carpet and struggled in the lights back then. 80s. Your new pics look like he's happier. I've got rbtas to give away. Lol. Much easier than the carpet. He'll be amazing.