Magnifica Stress

[justinm]

Hello All!

I have had this magnifica anemone for about 3 months now. When I first acquired it… it had a couple of deflation cycles along with a gaping mouth. I treated it for 8 days in Cipro. I never saw another deflation after day 3. It seemed to respond very well to treatment.

I transferred it to my display tank, which is a Red Sea 200xl. Pretty much 24x24. It is going to be a species tank and I will fill in with coral later once it settles in and I see how large it grows. This tank has been running for just shy of one year. It is lit with a Red Sea Reef Led 90 and two 21” AI Blade Coral Grows.

The anemone did extremely well for a solid month and a half and I had a heater failure. I was using one heater so the temperature dropped to 69. Nothing in the tank died, and to be honest, the nem didn’t look too bad.

Once I was able to get the tank back up to temp, which is 77.9, it started having daily cycles of it deflating. These deflations are nothing like the beginning. The mouth is not gaping, and it’s not fully deflated, but much smaller with some deflated tentacles.

Parameters are:
All- 8.4(pretty consistent)
PO4- .03
NO3- 3

I was wondering if this is strictly stress or if it’s possible that it could be bacterial again. Would treating it be beneficial? I can provide a pic but if I’m being honest, the pictures don’t show how it truly looks. It looks good via pics.

Thanks for any help, peace of mind, that can be offered!!

Justin

 

[Paleozoic_reefer]

I would post pics of the deflating cycle and of your tank to help with suggestions. Mags are notoriously hard to get stabilized in a system, but once settled in they can be bullet proof. As long as the mouth isn’t gaping and its staying in one spot the deflating may be just a sign it’s still acclimating after the heater failure. To help it I would make sure you have the proper amount of PAR (the higher the better), flow (high and random), temp78-80, and water quality to help eliminate these possibilities if things go south. Best of luck!!

 

[justinm]

I would post pics of the deflating cycle and of your tank to help with suggestions. Mags are notoriously hard to get stabilized in a system, but once settled in they can be bullet proof. As long as the mouth isn’t gaping and its staying in one spot the deflating may be just a sign it’s still acclimating after the heater failure. To help it I would make sure you have the proper amount of PAR (the higher the better), flow (high and random), temp78-80, and water quality to help eliminate these possibilities if things go south. Best of luck!!

Thank you for the response! I will post some pics of it tonight, if it deflates. I don’t have access to a par meter and I don’t see myself buying one in the near future. I have some radion pros in the basement, but they’re just collecting dust. I feel like I have plenty of par for it, but without testing I won’t know.

For what it’s worth, it hasn’t moved, it’s probably 7-8” below the water surface directly below the LED 90. It’s slightly below a Nero 3 about 12” away. I have two Nero 3’s on random at max 75%. This changes throughout the day.

 

[D-Nak]

It's hard to assess without photos. Partial deflation might be fine, complete deflation may require treatment.

 

[justinm]

Here it is 3 days ago. It started to have what I thought was a deflation 2 days ago and it just slightly shrunk but looked healthy. Last night was completely normal. When I get home today I shall see what it looks like.

 

[justinm]

Here is what it looks like when it’s happy

 

[Paleozoic_reefer]

It looks “OK” but some suggestions: acclimate it the highest light setting you have, then add more lights (they need HIGH PAR and high random flow), they do best on shelf rock or any large flat surface they can spread their foot on, monitor the mouth (it should be tight and closed the majority of the time), did I mention PAR and flow?, cover all power heads (they may choose to walk or detach when you least expect it if they aren’t happy with PAR or flow), finally make sure you have HIGH PAR and random flow.
Best of luck and keep us posted!

 

[D-Nak]

How is the mag looking today? Is it still partially deflating?

Can you share a photo of it mid-day when it's fully open and in bright light?

 

[justinm]

I was on vacation for a week, hence why I was more worried than usual. I had a camera on it and would check periodically while away and it did not look to have a deflation at all.

It seems to be recovering quite well. I do think a big part of it was stress caused from the temperature drop. When I get home I will upload a picture of its current state.

As for lighting…I have some radions in the basement, but I’d like to keep them there. It can still go a few inches higher than where it’s at now, but it has not moved since the second day. There are two Nero 3’s in there for flow, they are covered and I believe that should be enough flow for anything in that tank. They’re set to random and I change the intensities throughout the day.

My only shortcoming, and I’m not even sure it is one, would be the Red Sea Reef LED. I have sps in there, lower than the magnifica, and they’re growing and constantly have growth tips.

 

[justinm]

The mouth for the most part is closed tight. It gets a little puckered here and there.

 

[justinm]

I just realized I uploaded a photo of the one I had taken before that was already uploaded. I was unable to edit it. This is from right now.

 

[D-Nak]

I think it looks good. Nothing to worry about!

 

[justinm]

Thanks for the help @D-Nak and @Paleozoic_reefer

 

[Willylumplump]

Just personal experience. I had one for nearly 5 years. Never deflated, never split. Died with tank crash with rust in my ro

 

[mmletzko]

Funny - I just posted about a similar experience with mine (https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/my-ritteri-anemone-journey.1146000/).

Here's a quick summary - it's been solid for 2 1/2 months since first introducing it and treating it with Cipro. It's been fully inflated 24x7 since then, but the other day it started to deflate and it has stayed in various states of deflation for the last 3 days. The mouth isn't gaping which is good, but my concern/question is how long I should wait before treating it again.

 

[justinm]

I never treated it again. I think that it was just under a lot of stress. It hasn’t had a single deflation since this thread, so 3 or so weeks.

It is my understanding that unless there is something bacterial happening in your tank, infecting it, then retreating is pointless.

After going over your thread, yours looked a lot like mine did when it was stressed. I would say let it be for now. It’s only been 3 days. Mine went on for some time, probably 10-14 days before it started looking happier and happier. Does it inflate during the day?