New Mag Anemone not doing great

[hea7her]

Hi everyone,

I am new to the forum and just received a new magnificent anemone yesterday and he isn’t doing too great. I’ll try and attach pictures.

Please let me know if there is anything special I should be doing that I am not. Specifically, I am wondering about water flow. I know they like really high water flow, but it seemed to be TOO strong and right on him so I moved it to just above him before I left about an hour ago. Where should the flow be pointed for him? I got a new Ice 2k gyre pump today that I am going to set up for him tomorrow as the pump I have on that side seemed too strong. Please let me know what you think.
Thank you! He looked much better this morning but still a little deflated, then this afternoon his stomach was coming out again.

When I got him, he was deflated and his stomach was coming out. Acclimating in bucket yesterday morning

After acclimating for 2 hours I put him in the tank and he bunched up some but his stomach was still out. This was yesterday afternoon.

This morning he looked much better! His stomach was in and he was puffed up more but still a little droopy on one side.

I adjusted the flow to be more on him but he didn’t like it so I fiddled with it throughout the day and nothing seemed to make it better so I finally adjusted the flow to go right above him and it seemed to help a little bit we will see in the morning. I will set up the new variable wave maker tomorrow too. Any advise on the best placement would be much appreciated. This is a photo of what he looked like at the end of the day. Sadder then this morning.

the tank is established about 9 months. Stable and everything seems happy. He is small, about 4-5 inches across. I will move him to a larger tank eventually. This is a 30 gallon, under stocked deep sand bed tank, only about 12 inches deep, I don’t remember the brand of light, but good light. Lots of live rock and a couple of zoos and soft corals.
Please help! I really want him to be happy.

 

[Eagle_Steve]

@Eagle_Steve ,still around,??

It could be trying to split, but not well enough to do so. Hard to say. The mag does appear to need treatment. See the link below and follow it to a T. Cipro can be had from Chewy and is usually delivered within 2 days in the US. Sometimes one day of you are near a distro.

Even if no cipro now and it has to wait, a sterile tank with daily 100% water changes is better than nothing.

Protocol for using antibiotics to treat infected anemones

This is a re-post of what I wrote in ReefCentral on 3/09/2013 Many anemone keepers know, the collection and shipping process from ocean to local fish store (LFS) is a stressful event. Most host anemones do not survive this process without help, especially H. magnifica and S. gigantea. Other...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[ca1ore]

Doesn’t look like splitting to me. Typically the inflate/deflate cycles occur in such a way that the animal looks good in the morning and then like hell in the afternoon. Classic symptom of infection. 100% needs treatment. Waiting it out is not good advice. Also don’t get distracted by checking water quality, that’s not the problem. Cipro can also be found as Fish Flox.

 

[GoReefin]

What lights do you have him under?
What is your water parameters?
He looks like he isn't too bad a few pics had his mouth closed. I would stop playing with the flow and let him adjust to your tank the way it is.

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

Ya dont blast him with flow. Creat a gyre or churn in your tank.
D

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

Create*

 

[F i s h y]

I agree it needs to just settle in. I have mine in pretty high flow and it prefers to be as close to the lights as possible. Mine is under 4xT5 and a 250w halide. Stuck to the back of the tank on the surface of the water.

 

[ca1ore]

Please let me know if there is anything special I should be doing that I am not.

Mags are very tricky animals to acclimate (I recognize that new to R2R does not always mean new to reefing) and best left to experienced hands. They are extremely susceptible to shipping related bacterial infections and you need to be prepared to treat it with an antibiotic like cipro in a dedicated hospital tank. Typically, mags will go though cycles of deflation/inflation, with each successive cycle getting slightly worse until the animal dies (turns into a pile of goo). Once you observe the inflation/deflation cycles, treatment should be undertaken sooner rather than later. Perhaps you will be lucky and the anemone is just reacting to a new tank, but the odds of that are quite small. If you cannot treat it, I'd suggest either finding a local reefer who can or consider returning it (if bought from a LFS).

There are a couple of sticky threads on this topic at the top of this page..

 

[D-Nak]

If it deflates again, I would follow ca1ore's advice.

 

[hea7her]

Hi, thank you all for all of your advise and answers. The light is a aqua illumination prime 16hd reef. The picture where his mouth was closed was yesterday morning. After looking awful upon arrival, he perked right up over night and in the morning his mouth was closed and one side was slightly deflated, but all in all pretty good. I adjusted the flow to be more on him which might have been a mistake because it seemed to make it worse and then kept tweaking with the flow to try and make it better but couldn’t. By the afternoon his mouth was open again.
this morning he seemed better, but mouth was open still. When the lights came on he perked up, but then seemed to try and get away from them.? Looking for less light. He fell over onto his mouth and I I waited a few hours to see if he would right himself and when he didn’t turned him back over. A piece of one side seemed to be stuck underneath him. You can see it in the pictures below. These are all from this afternoon. If he doesn’t look better in the morning I am going to get the hospital tank going and treat with the c antibiotic recommended by many here and in the sticky note. Or, if that doesn’t work or you think he needs more and there is someone who thinks they can rehabilitate him )or needs rehabilitation) if you are near irvine please let me know. I’d really like him to make it. He is beautiful. I have read that you can get the c antibiotic from Walmart under a different name? Can anyone confirm that? Thank you all again for your advise. I am hoping he looks better in the morning, but if not I will start treatment or let someone here rehab him if they are so inclined and close. I’d like to try though. I am going to check the parameters in the morning. I couldn’t today. He is in a tank at my office (I own a small company). I have about a year experience with salt water tanks and some corals, and about 3 years experience with planted tanks, and 18 years with non-planted freshwater tanks. Currently I have 11 tanks between home and work so I am not a newbie, but I do not have experience with a magnifica Anenome.

I don’t know how to insert a picture in this thread but I will try and figure it out.
Thanks again.

 

[hea7her]

Pics from this afternoon, all around 5pm. Just different sides. Do you think that is a tear? I really hope not. If it is, can he recover?

 

[fishguy242]

@Eagle_Steve ,still around,??

 

[D-Nak]

Agreed--based on the latest photos, it's time to treat it.

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

O man. All those guts sticking out. Id give it some lower-med flow and wait it out. How longs it been like that?
Whats your salinity and temp? Sorry if already said. Ill go back and read
-d

 

[hea7her]

It could be trying to split, but not well enough to do so. Hard to say. The mag does appear to need treatment. See the link below and follow it to a T. Cipro can be had from Chewy and is usually delivered within 2 days in the US. Sometimes one day of you are near a distro.

Even if no cipro now and it has to wait, a sterile tank with daily 100% water changes is better than nothing.

Protocol for using antibiotics to treat infected anemones

This is a re-post of what I wrote in ReefCentral on 3/09/2013 Many anemone keepers know, the collection and shipping process from ocean to local fish store (LFS) is a stressful event. Most host anemones do not survive this process without help, especially H. magnifica and S. gigantea. Other...

www.reef2reef.com

Thank you. I will follow that and order the

O man. All those guts sticking out. Id give it some lower-med flow and wait it out. How longs it been like that?
Whats your salinity and temp? Sorry if already said. Ill go back and read
-d

O man. All those guts sticking out. Id give it some lower-med flow and wait it out. How longs it been like that?
Whats your salinity and temp? Sorry if already said. Ill go back and read
-d

I know it looks so bad. It only looked like that this afternoon. Yesterday morning he looked good. I am going to start treating him tomorrow morning. Well, at least I am going to quarantine him and order c antibiotic tonight. (Auto correct will NOT let me type the name of that antibiotic). I am going to check the parameters in the morning. I didn’t have time today. He is at work and I was working. But thank you for the good wishes. I hope he makes it.

 

[hea7her]

It could be trying to split, but not well enough to do so. Hard to say. The mag does appear to need treatment. See the link below and follow it to a T. Cipro can be had from Chewy and is usually delivered within 2 days in the US. Sometimes one day of you are near a distro.

Even if no cipro now and it has to wait, a sterile tank with daily 100% water changes is better than nothing.

Protocol for using antibiotics to treat infected anemones

This is a re-post of what I wrote in ReefCentral on 3/09/2013 Many anemone keepers know, the collection and shipping process from ocean to local fish store (LFS) is a stressful event. Most host anemones do not survive this process without help, especially H. magnifica and S. gigantea. Other...

www.reef2reef.com

Thanks. I hope he is not trying to split. I will order the c antibiotic tonight and quarantine in the morning. I’ll post more pics in the morning. Going to read your link now.

 

[hea7her]

Agreed--based on the latest photos, it's time to treat it.

Thanks for looking. I am going to first thing in the morning.

 

[hea7her]

Doesn’t look like splitting to me. Typically the inflate/deflate cycles occur in such a way that the animal looks good in the morning and then like hell in the afternoon. Classic symptom of infection. 100% needs treatment. Waiting it out is not good advice. Also don’t get distracted by checking water quality, that’s not the problem. Cipro can also be found as Fish Flox.

Thanks. I will. I was going to check water parameters first but will just get him into a hospital tank now. I just got here and he was flat on his face and totally deflated. He looks like he did when I received him, but insides coming out worse. He was shipped from LA which isn’t far from me. I turned him over and put him on the rock. I am setting up the hospital tank now. I am worried he is gone for. This happened over the course of 2 days so I think he was healthy when he got to me. I got him Wednesday and by Thursday morning he looked good, then started deteriorating. I think I did this. If there is someone here who is close who can care for him properly I will give him to them. In the meantime starting hospital tank and going to check Walmart for fish flox as I read somewhere it can be gotten there. Chewy’s c antibiotic won’t be here for a couple days.

 

[hea7her]

Doesn’t look like splitting to me. Typically the inflate/deflate cycles occur in such a way that the animal looks good in the morning and then like hell in the afternoon. Classic symptom of infection. 100% needs treatment. Waiting it out is not good advice. Also don’t get distracted by checking water quality, that’s not the problem. Cipro can also be found as Fish Flox.

Is there anyone here local that has some cipro they will sell me? I can’t get it today and I am worried by the time what I ordered gets here it will be too late. I feel so guilty. If I can rehabilitate him I think I will rehome him to someone with more experience. I don’t want to risk hurting him through a mistake again. I think I did it with too much flow.

 

[ca1ore]

Wish I was closer to help. You could check the local club pages here to see. Perhaps you could find some kind of antibiotic at petco even if it’s not cipro. @OrionN is the real expert.