Need help fast!

[Nemguy123]

Never heard of an infected nem. What is cipro and what does it do?

Really? Sea anemones are very prone to infection the most common cause of death in sea anemones is bacterial infection some species are more prone to it that others. The main reason the anemone gets an infection is from being stressed and just like all other animals when something is stressed its immune system become week and that makes very hard for the animal to fight an infection. Ciprofloxacin is a broad spectrum antibiotic used in humans and now animals it's been known to be effective in killing the common bacteria that are caused by some bacteria found in salt water and has been found affective in also treating sea anemones and fish as well it's not that common for bubble tips to get infections but it's not super uncommon I've had to treat a few for this reason I've been studying the effects of the cipro on almost every species of nem I can find that may be sick and the recovery rate is almost 100% it may be too late for you by the time you get the ciprofloxacin the nem might be too far gone I would separate it from the tank and give it daily water changes with water from the display but I would get it out of the tank with the other nems as if one becomes stressed it may be at risk of infection also.

 

[Nemguy123]

And cipro blocks Bacterium DNA and stops it from replicating helping the anemone in fighting off the infection

 

[Frosty Latte]

So I used my hand to relocate the nem today to a place where it might find more enjoyable for recovery. Should I be worried about being infected? I'm nervous about removing the nem from the display tank. My display is a nano and has 12 gallons. Last time I removed something from my display was 2 fresh water angels that just laid eggs and this stressed them and killed them about 5 years ago. I really don't want to remove the nem and kill it because I don't have a QT up and ready. Should I just buy a 10 gallon and a small pump tomorrow? Maybe air stone too? I do have an extra light and heater already though.

 

[Frosty Latte]

This is what the nem looks like now

and here is one top down

 

[Steve C.]

Have you done anything to the tank, that you normally don't do?

 

[Frosty Latte]

Before this happened, I did a few things. I fed the nems with some frozen food that was questionably old. I upped the light from 55% to maybe 65/70. I didn't do a water change for 3 weeks where before it was every 2 weeks at 50%. And I didn't replace my carbon bag until just recently but I don't think my new nem was in there ever when the carbon was in there.

 

[Frosty Latte]

I also added a new heater but that was after the nem started looking rough.

 

[Nemguy123]

Old frozen food could have been the reason for the nem getting sick just keep your water quality up hopefully he can recover without the meds I would definitely try to get some though to keep on hand :)

 

[Taylor t]

If I was you, I would make 9 gallons of fresh saltwater in a 10 gallon tank. Age 24 hours. Put the anemone in a tank by itself. Give it good light (not too strong) and gentle flow. Make enough water to do a 100% water change 24 hours later. How you make the water matters. Make it the same way every day at the same time, aged 24 hours. Use airstone in both tank and waiting fresh makeup replacement water. Keep that ph the same. There are chemical reactions and precipitation that happens as water ages. Keep it the same when trying to rehab anemones, meaning the values of chemical levels should be at the same time-that's why 24 hours is important-it changes with time. With or without meds, it doesn't look happy. If you don't make changes, I'm betting it turns to mush. I would start off by giving it the fresh saltwater changes, pretend/treat it as if you were medicating it, but focus on water. I'm guessing, there's a lot of anemones that would benefit from an internal water purge alone. Anemones are bags of water. When they deflate, you need to make a change and coax it into inflating. The longer they remain deflated, the higher the odds it won't ever inflate again. Waiting is a bad idea. Best of luck, looks like it had some nice color. Might be worth the extra effort.

 

[Frosty Latte]

If I was you, I would make 9 gallons of fresh saltwater in a 10 gallon tank. Age 24 hours. Put the anemone in a tank by itself. Give it good light (not too strong) and gentle flow. Make enough water to do a 100% water change 24 hours later. How you make the water matters. Make it the same way every day at the same time, aged 24 hours. Use airstone in both tank and waiting fresh makeup replacement water. Keep that ph the same. There are chemical reactions and precipitation that happens as water ages. Keep it the same when trying to rehab anemones, meaning the values of chemical levels should be at the same time-that's why 24 hours is important-it changes with time. With or without meds, it doesn't look happy. If you don't make changes, I'm betting it turns to mush. I would start off by giving it the fresh saltwater changes, pretend/treat it as if you were medicating it, but focus on water. I'm guessing, there's a lot of anemones that would benefit from an internal water purge alone. Anemones are bags of water. When they deflate, you need to make a change and coax it into inflating. The longer they remain deflated, the higher the odds it won't ever inflate again. Waiting is a bad idea. Best of luck, looks like it had some nice color. Might be worth the extra effort.

Well, I got some meds for it:

Also, I got a nice QT tank as well:

Going to give your 10 gallon of water sitting around for a day a try. Can't hurt or be any worse than it was today.

Thanks for the advice and wish my friend some luck to recovery.

 

[Frosty Latte]

Just wanted to post some good old days photos...

Also, this is day 2 of hospital tank. Wife said nem looked better earlier today while I was at work. When I got home didn't look any different from yesterday. While I was out to lunch, I figured I'd better stop at fish box store to get more salt. Lucky for me, I got a shirt too!

Here is to hoping day 2 is better than day one. Hang in there little guy.

 

[Nemguy123]

Just keep the cipro going for 7 days don't stop treatment early it can take a few to start to see improvement best of luck!!

 

[Taylor t]

My thoughts were send it through treatment regimen without meds, but since meds have been started, try to go through the whole treatment using the meds. Keep an eye-take a picture same time every night and compare. I've never treated BTA with cipro, (only carpets) but have read enough to see the claims that cipro kills the symbiotic algae that lives inside, causing the dreaded bleaching people talk about. I'd use your best judgement, and if it starts to go down faster with meds, stop the meds. If it improves keep using the meds the full 7 days. IMO, I'm purely guessing, I'd bet there's a lot of anemones that would pull through and recover if people would just do the 24 hour 100% water change tank care for a week to purge internal crud water and give them a chance to reset, with no meds. It takes time and effort though.

Just a thought. Best of luck!

 

[Nemguy123]

I've tried the no medication with 24 hour changes with aged water and it just ended in misery carpets and Magnificas alike they all only responded fully to cipro the water changes made them happy and then after 10 days of it they would go into the display just to get sick again cipro just increases the chances better then just water changes IMO :)

 

[Taylor t]

I've tried the no medication with 24 hour changes with aged water and it just ended in misery carpets and Magnificas alike they all only responded fully to cipro the water changes made them happy and then after 10 days of it they would go into the display just to get sick again cipro just increases the chances better then just water changes IMO :)

Yeah you may be right. So you've done this? Question on your tries.... How many times did you try? So it sounds like, when tried, they initially improved, then got moved to the DT, then went down?

 

[Taylor t]

Sorry, no punctuation makes it hard for me to understand what you mean often. I tend to pass over much of your posts.

Let's eat grampa.
Let's eat, grampa.
Both same words, different meaning behind added small punctuation.

 

[Nemguy123]

Sorry, no punctuation makes it hard for me to understand what you mean often. I tend to pass over much of your posts.

Let's eat grampa.
Let's eat, grampa.
Both same words, different meaning behind added small punctuation.

Haha sorry I type fast once classes started I don't have much time do anything anymore including using grammar [emoji23] well me and a microbiologist at my collage conducted a few experiments with infections in sea anemones. she initially found out about my determination on keeping gigs and mags alive in captivity successfully with the use of antibiotics, as this is something she takes an interest in because it's what she practiced for a long time but with fish not anemones. I'm assuming she herd about my solo experiments from my marine science professor as it's a topic we talk about a lot and she thought it would be cool to get samples from the sick anemones and see what exactly was infecting them. Now before I was able to get my hands on cipro I ran a lot of tests with just water changes on 6 mags and 4 gigs all of which where kept in same temp, ph, salinity, alk, mag, and calcium. All of these specimens made it well through the 10 day daily water changes and became victims to infection a month or so after being moved into a display tank. The parameters were then in the display as in the separation 10 gallon QT tanks. We took samples from all the infected anemones and found it was a type of vibrio bacteria, we haven't found a specific strain but we need better equipment to do so. we used cipro to battle the bacteria. it proved affective so since then I've treated over a dozen Magnificas and around 10 gigs all with success all of which are still thriving today. I kept a few of the ones I liked and donated a few to my old high school and the marine science lab at my collage.

 

[Frosty Latte]

Sorry, no punctuation makes it hard for me to understand what you mean often. I tend to pass over much of your posts.

Let's eat grampa.
Let's eat, grampa.
Both same words, different meaning behind added small punctuation.

I know what you mean with the punctuation. But I've gotten better at taking good guesses due to playing online video games and working for a global company.

Also, I was basically doing hard core water changes for days and the nem was just going down fast. Last night before bed, the nem was actually very large! Again, this morning the nem was a little bigger.

Hard to tell in that bad photo, but he went from being the size of 4 quarters stacked tall, to maybe the size of a lacrosse ball! Also, the "arms" we're plump for the first time in days, and the foot was actually fully attached. I'll post another pic when I get home before a water change tonight. Thanks for the help.

One last thing, maybe the cipro knocks out the good bacteria and bad, but the nem was dying no matter what so I went out on a limb for the cipro. Looked better this morning so hopefully it is working.

 

[Frosty Latte]

Haha sorry I type fast once classes started I don't have much time do anything anymore including using grammar [emoji23] well me and a microbiologist at my collage conducted a few experiments with infections in sea anemones. she initially found out about my determination on keeping gigs and mags alive in captivity successfully with the use of antibiotics, as this is something she takes an interest in because it's what she practiced for a long time but with fish not anemones. I'm assuming she herd about my solo experiments from my marine science professor as it's a topic we talk about a lot and she thought it would be cool to get samples from the sick anemones and see what exactly was infecting them. Now before I was able to get my hands on cipro I ran a lot of tests with just water changes on 6 mags and 4 gigs all of which where kept in same temp, ph, salinity, alk, mag, and calcium. All of these specimens made it well through the 10 day daily water changes and became victims to infection a month or so after being moved into a display tank. The parameters were then in the display as in the separation 10 gallon QT tanks. We took samples from all the infected anemones and found it was a type of vibrio bacteria, we haven't found a specific strain but we need better equipment to do so. we used cipro to battle the bacteria. it proved affective so since then I've treated over a dozen Magnificas and around 10 gigs all with success all of which are still thriving today. I kept a few of the ones I liked and donated a few to my old high school and the marine science lab at my collage.

I'm really glad you stumbled upon my thread then! Also, what do you think of the cipro and bubbles? Im not entirely sure my orange nem is a bubble as its foot is a purple/blue color.

 

[Taylor t]

Haha sorry I type fast once classes started I don't have much time do anything anymore including using grammar [emoji23] well me and a microbiologist at my collage conducted a few experiments with infections in sea anemones. she initially found out about my determination on keeping gigs and mags alive in captivity successfully with the use of antibiotics, as this is something she takes an interest in because it's what she practiced for a long time but with fish not anemones. I'm assuming she herd about my solo experiments from my marine science professor as it's a topic we talk about a lot and she thought it would be cool to get samples from the sick anemones and see what exactly was infecting them. Now before I was able to get my hands on cipro I ran a lot of tests with just water changes on 6 mags and 4 gigs all of which where kept in same temp, ph, salinity, alk, mag, and calcium. All of these specimens made it well through the 10 day daily water changes and became victims to infection a month or so after being moved into a display tank. The parameters were then in the display as in the separation 10 gallon QT tanks. We took samples from all the infected anemones and found it was a type of vibrio bacteria, we haven't found a specific strain but we need better equipment to do so. we used cipro to battle the bacteria. it proved affective so since then I've treated over a dozen Magnificas and around 10 gigs all with success all of which are still thriving today. I kept a few of the ones I liked and donated a few to my old high school and the marine science lab at my collage.

That's awesome. Great to see. I tend to skim things fast looking primarily for some pics, eye candy if you know what I mean.

So the fresh water purges help inflate them, but apparently they continue to have a deadly bacteria live in them, or the DT continues to have this deadly bacteria unless cipro is used. Interesting. Looking back to my early cipro days, I had trouble stabilizing my first 3 gigs. I treated them several times over a few months because they kept deflating. The last time I did, wondered if water changes only would have been enough because I had rotting algae in the DT. Until I posted a picture and had someone point out how much was growing it didn't dawn on me, the obvious in front of my eyes. Looking back I suspected the rotting algae played a role in their downhill progression. I removed it the best I could and stopped having trouble. But I still treated all my gigs with cipro upon arrival regardless, and would again if I got anymore. Seems to be the only drug that works so well.