New Carpet Anemone Looks Very Unwell

[bobkin6]

Hi guys,

I bought a large carpet anemone from petco yesterday, drop acclimated it and transferred to my DT. At first it looked fine, same as in the shop, but after a few hours it appeared deflated with gaping mouth and white smoke like fluid coming from mouth.

Water parameters are all ok - my salinity was a little high at 1.25 (petco was at 1.23) so I lowered salinity to 1.24 via 1 gallon RODI water transfers. My tank is 6 months old, has been fallow for 4 weeks, is 75 gallon system, PH is ~8.2 but could be a little higher, phosphate and nitrate should be very low (did big water change couple days ago and have a skimmer running, 0 nitrate and ammonia, calcium at 440.

Occasionally the anemone closes its mouth to about 1 inch diameter but most of the time is 2 inch diameter, guts on display in all cases.

please advise what could be wrong. It seems like shock but weird that it took a few hours to happen. Will this likely resolve itself or is anemone likely to die?

Thanks

 

[bobkin6]

This was it ~40 mins after tank introduction yesterday and here it is pretty closed up right now (keeps oscillating open and closed

 

[bobkin6]

He went closed then back to open in space of 3 minutes

 

[atlantean]

Alkalinity? Water temp?

Gaping mouth definitely not good. Don’t feed it. Some anemones can make amazing recoveries. Though my first anemone essentially turned to mush after post-shipment acclimation. I assume “drop acclimate” is a typo and you mean drip. What was your drip procedure?

 

[bobkin6]

100 for alkalinity but hard to tell with my test strips and 78 F - I have seachem buffer but worried adding that will alter ph too much. Use instant reef salt so figure that should be getting alkalinity and ph about right.

For drip I added about 15ml at a time to gallon bowl about once every 5 mins for an hour.

Do you think the anemone might recover?

have also noticed my zoas aren’t fully opening recently either - does that help diagnose issue? (Originally thought due to too much lighting as tank water cleared up recently from water change / running UV for a bit so have currently got lights down a bit). Lighting was full when anemone first added

 

[MERKEY]

@Eagle_Steve @Fishy65

I do believe some treatment may be needed to save the nem but help should be here soon.

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

I think its just trying to acclimate. How long have you had in your tank? Usually when something spits its guts out...its trying to expell some zoanthexelle and adapt to light and flow conditions.
D

 

[bobkin6]

Alkalinity? Water temp?

Gaping mouth definitely not good. Don’t feed it. Some anemones can make amazing recoveries. Though my first anemone essentially turned to mush after post-shipment acclimation. I assume “drop acclimate” is a typo and you mean drip. What was your drip procedure?

I think its just trying to acclimate. How long have you had in your tank? Usually when something spits its guts out...its trying to expell some zoanthexelle and adapt to light and flow conditions.
D

Thanks for the responses - it’s been in there 36 hours now, mouth is no longer as crazy wide as before, it’s about an inch diameter now.

Need to look up zoanthexelle, thanks. Will keep conditions stable.

 

[Jekyl]

What kind of lights do you have? nitrate, phosphate? 6 months is right about the borderline for keeping anemone. Usually want to wait closer to a year to try keeping one. Carpets require very good parameters and a ton of light.

 

[Reefing_addiction]

Give it time to adjust a few days to a week maybe better

@OrionN might be able to help

 

[F i s h y]

This nem to me appears to be inflating and deflating to clean itself out and acclimate. I do not see any major cause for concern. I have found with my carpets a little bit of gape in the mouth is normal. If this continues another 36 to 48 hours or so I would think about treatment in a qt tank with cipro. It does look slightly bleached and they can go through some shock to bright light at first. Try lowering your intensity some and run some carbon. That will help with any nasties that may be affecting your zoas. If you don't already have a QT plan you should start thinking about it just in case. I keep cipro, mixed saltwater, and a spare tank on hand at all times.

 

[bobkin6]

This nem to me appears to be inflating and deflating to clean itself out and acclimate. I do not see any major cause for concern. I have found with my carpets a little bit of gape in the mouth is normal. If this continues another 36 to 48 hours or so I would think about treatment in a qt tank with cipro. It does look slightly bleached and they can go through some shock to bright light at first. Try lowering your intensity some and run some carbon. That will help with any nasties that may be affecting your zoas. If you don't already have a QT plan you should start thinking about it just in case. I keep cipro, mixed saltwater, and a spare tank on hand at all times.

This nem to me appears to be inflating and deflating to clean itself out and acclimate. I do not see any major cause for concern. I have found with my carpets a little bit of gape in the mouth is normal. If this continues another 36 to 48 hours or so I would think about treatment in a qt tank with cipro. It does look slightly bleached and they can go through some shock to bright light at first. Try lowering your intensity some and run some carbon. That will help with any nasties that may be affecting your zoas. If you don't already have a QT plan you should start thinking about it just in case. I keep cipro, mixed saltwater, and a spare tank on hand at all times.

UPDATE: It looks no worse today but doesn’t look better either. Watched it for a couple hours last night and was inflating / deflating at regular intervals so I think you are correct - just hope it manages to pull through. Attached are some close ups today - is all the gunk in the middle just excrement or is there something else as well (looks like tiny little clumps of cells)? Could this anemone have been mid spawn when I bought it? There are couple of these cell-bundle clumps on parts of its body (I thought maybe it had been cut at petco - they handled it pretty roughly) and I have seen cloudy fluid being release from these areas too.

Thanks everyone for the help - really appreciate it.

 

[bobkin6]

UPDATE: It looks no worse today but doesn’t look better either. Watched it for a couple hours last night and was inflating / deflating at regular intervals so I think you are correct - just hope it manages to pull through. Attached are some close ups today - is all the gunk in the middle just excrement or is there something else as well (looks like tiny little clumps of cells)? Could this anemone have been mid spawn when I bought it? There are couple of these cell-bundle clumps on parts of its body (I thought maybe it had been cut at petco - they handled it pretty roughly) and I have seen cloudy fluid being release from these areas too.

Thanks everyone for the help - really appreciate it.

Better picture of inside here

 

[Jekyl]

I'm no expert but that doesn't look good.

 

[dvgyfresh]

Messentrial filaments of the anemone are coming out, this is not a good sign , I don’t have experience in that type of anemone but BTAs like nitrate in water to use as food source maybe try increasing nitrate so it can get energy

 

[Sosuke]

This species of anemone rarely does well without treatment, especially from Petco. It looks like a gigantea anemone btw. You need to set up a 10 gallon tank with fresh saltwater and treat with 250mg of Cipro, and 50-100% water changes a day to keep the anemone from dying.

 

[terraincognita]

Better picture of inside here

1. Definitely don't feed it.

2. Posting your parameters will help us help you.

3. You may need to start up a QT and starting giving it meds.

Carpet nems will inflate and deflate until they adjust, but agreed that yours is now shedding mesenterial filaments which is not good at all.

I went through a similar thing. You can find my post about it somewhere, and what I did to treat it.

It's an arduous process, but can save them.

Need 100% Daily WC's not 50% with Cipro.

5G QT Tank with Powerhead, heater, and a HOB filter for anything it expels will work just fine.

It's a certain MG of Cipro per Gallon. I think 250 for 10G. May have to do 125 in a 5G. 5G's is just a heck of a lot easier to change than 10G daily since you have to do 100%.

 

[Sosuke]

1. Definitely don't feed it.

2. Posting your parameters will help us help you.

3. You may need to start up a QT and starting giving it meds.

Carpet nems will inflate and deflate until they adjust, but agreed that yours is now shedding mesenterial filaments which is not good at all.

I went through a similar thing. You can find my post about it somewhere, and what I did to treat it.

It's an arduous process, but can save them.

Need 100% Daily WC's not 50% with Cipro.

5G QT Tank with Powerhead, heater, and a HOB filter for anything it expels will work just fine.

It's a certain MG of Cipro per Gallon. I think 250 for 10G. May have to do 125 in a 5G. 5G's is just a heck of a lot easier to change than 10G daily since you have to do 100%.

+1 to this. My mistake 100% water changes daily.

 

[terraincognita]

Sick Gig Carpet Nem - Updated CURED!

You on city water? That’d be my guess right there. Get an icp on your tap water too. Prime is only good for neutralizing chlorine and chloramine from tap water there’s lots else in tap water. L.A. city water..... Let me TDS it.... Ive seen worse but who knows what’s in there you’re right...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[CriminalOrpheus]

Hi guys,

I bought a large carpet anemone from petco yesterday, drop acclimated it and transferred to my DT. At first it looked fine, same as in the shop, but after a few hours it appeared deflated with gaping mouth and white smoke like fluid coming from mouth.

Water parameters are all ok - my salinity was a little high at 1.25 (petco was at 1.23) so I lowered salinity to 1.24 via 1 gallon RODI water transfers. My tank is 6 months old, has been fallow for 4 weeks, is 75 gallon system, PH is ~8.2 but could be a little higher, phosphate and nitrate should be very low (did big water change couple days ago and have a skimmer running, 0 nitrate and ammonia, calcium at 440.

Occasionally the anemone closes its mouth to about 1 inch diameter but most of the time is 2 inch diameter, guts on display in all cases.

please advise what could be wrong. It seems like shock but weird that it took a few hours to happen. Will this likely resolve itself or is anemone likely to die?

Thanks

Get it out. I just had one take **** on me. Smells like death bad. Going to nuke your tank. Check you phosphates for sure.