Established haddoni sick

[gobirds4290]

So I’ve had my green haddoni since December. It looked healthy but deflated at night when I first got it so I ran it through a cipro treatment. It came out great and has grown a decent amount the past six months.

The last week it grabbed a few rather large chunks of squid when feeding the tank and I noticed it acting strangely. The past few days it’s been shrinking down to the size of a quarter at night and by morning it’s back fully inflated, not quite its biggest size, but maybe 80%. I’ve been pulling black and white gunk from its mouth a few times an hour. Today it deflated during the day, and appeared to fold in on itself to help it expel more black gunk. I think I’m going to start cipro treatment. Just wanted to document this for anyone who might have overfed and runs into similar problems

Back when I first had it. In a container in case it needed to be removed for treatment

First day of freedom after completing cipro initially and being let go from the container

A few weeks ago, bigger, fluffy and with crab

Starting of weird behavior a few days ago after lights out, post large meal

Here’s what it shrunk down to after stretching big, about the size of a quarter or half dollar

Then today, rapidly shrunk and folded in on itself to spit out gunk

Then opened up ten minutes later

During the reinflate; this is about as bad as the mouth has gotten

 

[Tahoe61]

I will only add that my Haddoni would completely bury itself and then reappear in a timely manner.

Bump

 

[gobirds4290]

Here it is tonight. Stayed inflated until about an hour after lights out, later than it has the past few nights. Nothing noticeable wrong with the mouth. Turbo snail for scale in the background

 

[Ocellaris123]

My haddonis would do this, i attributed it to feeding them too much and the food spoiling inside of them. I had to cipro my current green haddoni after this behavior and it recovered, i lost a purple and another green before this. I dont feed directly anymore and all is well. Haddonis do shrink a little when the lights go out but they should not deflate completely. If you feed i would only do mysis sized bits once every few weeks

 

[gobirds4290]

Yours look incredible!

I’m definitely not going to target feed anymore. I’ve started cipro on it so crossing fingers it goes well

 

[gobirds4290]

Looked back to about full size with the daylights today. A couple a really big and chunky discharges but stayed fully inflated the whole light cycle.

Then shrunk down again with the moonlights kicking in. This is two full days on the cipro so we should be hopefully turning the corner soon

 

[D-Nak]

I'm guessing it's a just a case of constipation. Give it a few more days. Hopefully it bounces back soon (I'm giving it a 90% chance of this happening).

In the future, if you choose to feed (you don't have to and it'll be fine) I recommend small particle food. The largest size I feed my anemones (including my 18"+ gigantea anemones) are mysis and whatever is found in frozen food like LRS Reef Frenzy.

Lastly, squid is probably one of the worst things to feed an anemone. The rubbery texture is harder to break down and Im guessing a lot of is expelled as waste.

 

[gobirds4290]

I'm guessing it's a just a case of constipation. Give it a few more days. Hopefully it bounces back soon (I'm giving it a 90% chance of this happening).

In the future, if you choose to feed (you don't have to and it'll be fine) I recommend small particle food. The largest size I feed my anemones (including my 18"+ gigantea anemones) are mysis and whatever is found in frozen food like LRS Reef Frenzy.

Lastly, squid is probably one of the worst things to feed an anemone. The rubbery texture is harder to break down and Im guessing a lot of is expelled as waste.

Never knew that about squid. Thanks for the info! I’m going to avoid directly feeding it anymore and just let it grab what it can from broadcast feeding the tank

 

[gobirds4290]

Still a bit shrunken after lights out, but stayed fully inflated through the day again and never got smaller than this. After the third full day of cipro I’m hoping we’re starting to turn the corner.

 

[D-Nak]

Sorry--I shouldn't have said "worst" because I'm sure there are far worse things to feed an anemone!

 

[gobirds4290]

Day four of the cipro. Looked good again today with lights on then shrunk back up at the end of the cycle. Far less stuff expelled from the mouth. It seems like we’re making progress but the shrinking down at night still has me concerned. Last night it puffed back up some so hoping it’ll do it again tonight after the latest dose

Day time: almost looks bigger than before

Just before lights out. It’s a rapid deflate, as if it knows the lights are going off

 

[gobirds4290]

And semi inflated again about an 60-90 minutes after the cipro dose and lights out. Almost like it purges and then settles back in pretty quick

 

[gobirds4290]

Looked good today. Fully inflated all day and viciously ate when a piece of mysis fell on it while broadcast feeding. It was curled up around it before I could even try to blow it off with a turkey baster. Seemed like a decent sign to me. Checked on it for its nighttime round of cipro and it was still inflated. Good progress for today

 

[gobirds4290]

Stayed open as of when I went to bed last night and still inflated as of lights on in the morning. First day of no deflation since starting cipro, about five full days of treatment

 

[Ocellaris123]

Very nice, was probably something it ate. These carpets sure do raise the blood pressure level when they act up

 

[gobirds4290]

Maybe we’re not totally out of the woods yet. It’s been fully inflated today but the mouth is a bit open and it’s been expelling more than recent days, but in frequency and not volume. Almost like a slow trickle if that makes sense. Mouth isn’t gaping, but looks more ‘stretchy’ like it usually does when it’s trying to eat. I suspect this is because it’s expelling. Seeing if it stays inflated all day again will probably be telling

 

[Ocellaris123]

The deflation usually ime starts an hour or so before the end of the photo period. See how it looks later today

 

[gobirds4290]

Here it is 30 seconds before lights out. Was good until ten minutes ago. We’ll see how quickly it reinflates. Mouth still looking good, still very sticky, and hasn’t moved at all, so still plenty of positive signs with it

 

[gobirds4290]

The latest just now after 6 full days of

cipro.

 

[Ocellaris123]

At 6 months it should be solid, we dont know exactly if its bacterial issue causing the deflation, which it may not be. We seeing cipro not having any effect on sick carpets in alot of threads nowadays. Did you introduce any new haddonis or nems to the system? If not i would attribute it to the squid as dnak said, i lost a few gigs and haddonis after having them solid for months after feeding heavily with salmon. I think the heavy oily salmon just rotted in them. I rarely spot feed anymore as a result and am having better results. The deflation doesn't look too bad, i would keep eye on it for now