Red Hadoni deteriorating !?

[Don Capalchey]

Hello all ! This Is my first post, sadly..

I got a beautiful red Hadoni carpet last Friday from my LFS.
Was at their shop for 4 months.. The day It came to my house It seemed fine, like It was adjusting.
The next day however, It looked like It was shielding itself from the light (It was about 1ft away from a Hydra which at the time was set to 50% power)..I know not to make quick changes so I let It go another day, now things where even worse, the red was becoming PINK! Small strings of zooanthelle where coming off aswell. I thought for-sure overexposure..I reduced the hydra lighting significantly, the specimen was open the whole day sadly the mouth was to. The pink skunk clown pair had also hosted the carpet..I thought all was well that day, until a few hours later..

The carpet just looked totally grey with spots of pink! I freaked finally contacted my LFS an sent pics. They insisted I increase lighting. I did the carpet completely folded and closed until lights off, which was only a couple hours away at that point. This morning I expected the worst..

I woke up today to the carpet still attached but barley In the sand, looking like moving was on Its mind, I gently moved him to the bottom of my tank and opened up the sandhole for him to be In, before I left work,he seemed to start to dig into the sand a bit more..

My lfs told me their LEDs where up at full, so mine are now at 80%.

Please help I dont want to loose him..Even If that means taking him back to the LFS for them to save It.....I just dont get It,everything else Is so happy! I been In the hobby for little less the 4 years.

The specimen was perfect when I bought It. I am happy to send a picture of how It looked or anything else, thanks!

150G Reef ..

 

[Reeferdood]

I am thinking it has something to do with your water parameters, What are they???

 

[Don Capalchey]

Im not sure at this moment, two weeks earlier Nitrates where at 20,
cal, Mag, and Alk where all good..I have a few sps and a tube anemone..
not including my other lps softies an fish. I would be shocked If the water was to dirty for him an not others ?

You thinking I should try a water change ?

If so what percent ?

Only thing really out of the ordinary about my system Is I run no skimmer, I have a fuge full of marine pure and Cheato/Ulva.

I added a huge bag of BRS carbon to the sump the day I added him, along with a bottle of bacteria for good measure.

Salnity 1.024 stable 78F.

 

[Reeferdood]

Not suggesting a water change, but what are your parameters. Good does not give anyone a baseline to go by when it comes to offering advise.
FWIW, I like to test the water from where I would get animals from to see if they are somewhat close to the system the animal will go in to minimize acclimation shock...

 

[Don Capalchey]

Yes, sorry!

The LFS tested my water 2 weeks ago, said the calcium and mag where slightly elevated..
I cant give a good number for you right now. I remember him telling me Alklinity was 7.8

Would a Anemone use up calcium anyways ? Like I said the sps are not bleached.

I would also like to mention,a mini-maxi carpet anemone moved behind the rocks a day or so, after getting the Haddoni carpet...Another reason light was my original concern.

Hey, I really appreciate you helping me. I contacted Than from Tidal gardens about it to since he has one of these..
My LFS aswell was In contact last night...

Everyone just telling me Its looking bad, but not dead yet..Not sure If im supposed to be reassured, mostly depressed at this point.

I dont want to give up. The cost I paid Is one reason, but more importantly I just dont want such a rare beautiful creature gone...
We are supposed to be the saviors of the Reef's, and for the first time I feel like Im hurting them.

 

[Reeferdood]

Well,
I am glad you feel that way about the animals you plan to keep. Sad truth is that we all end up with something that is sick or gets sick and eventually dies. One way you can tell if the Nem is pretty bad off is that if you touch it and it does not stick to you then it is not looking good ( Mainly Carpets..). The picture shows cloudy water, is it?
Alkalinity is more important for anemones than calcium but they both need to be balanced.

 

[Don Capalchey]

The cloudy appearance Is due to to the Micro-bubbles from my return pump, In the 2nd picture..
The first pic was just a bit blury iPhone 7 picture.

The Red Nem was ultra sticky even two days ago, at this point the stickiness has gone down considerably !

I guess the hard truth, Is ther nothing I can do but wait It out ?

I fed him Zooplankton that I feed use to feed my NPS: Tube & Orange-Ball shroom..
He seemed to have eaten It, cant really be sure since his mouth just stays open.

...Im scared to go home to see what I will find..

 

[Reeferdood]

Gaping mouth is not a good sign of a Nem, they like meatier foods too. If it does look like it is getting worse you might just have to remove it before it completely becomes a real problem..
Keep an eye on it and just be ready to remove it if you need to.
Sorry I have not been giving you the news you want to hear...
Good luck.

 

[Don Capalchey]

I would rather have truth, then to be let down even harder..

I will post an update here In a couple days, hope Is still In me.
He was moved down to a new spot today, whilst seeming to wanna attach.

For the sake of my 1200$ & much more importantly,
The life of a beautiful life-form. If anyone else has information or help,
please post. I will be actively seeking helpful information from here!!

 

[Reeferdood]

Please tell me you did not pay 1200 bucks for that Nem??!!

 

[Don Capalchey]

;Facepalm

 

[Ash321]

1200 dollars for a nem what the heck you spent all that money and dont appear to test your water yourself u need to worry about water quality over buying stuff

 

[Don Capalchey]

Tests where done two-weeks ago..

Did you read ?

 

[AcroNem]

Too many changes at once. Between change of systems and tweaking lighting too quickly it's bleached and way too stressed. Light acclimation should have happened slower, and it's always a good thing to be testing your own water with your own kits. An LFS can just as easily tell you everything is "good" to get you to spend double retail on an anemone. I'd get actual water parameters asap, but that nem is in bad shape already.

 

[Ash321]

Tests

Tests where done two-weeks ago..

Did you read ?

Lol ur joking right i test my levels every couple of days and dose as need be! And yes i read all about your tank

Why dont you test your water yourself? You seem to care about your corals but to do that succesfully you need to monitor your levels especially if your corals/nem looks bad

 

[AcroNem]

Tests where done two-weeks ago..

Did you read ?

A lot of us test some parameters daily, they change constantly. Testing every two weeks tells you very little about trends in your system.

 

[Ash321]

Lol ur joking right i test my levels every couple of days and dose as need be! And yes i read all about your tank

Why dont you test your water yourself? You seem to care about your corals but to do that succesfully you need to monitor your levels especially if your corals/nem looks bad

 

[Rispa]

Did you acclimate it to the tank water slowly? I believe that's where I went wrong. Do you have a hospital track you can move it into in case it deteriorates further?

 

[Reeferdood]

1200 dollars for a nem what the heck you spent all that money and dont appear to test your water yourself u need to worry about water quality over buying stuff

There is a better way to get this point across without sounding like this...
It is obvious this is bothering him and I am sure he will learn from it.
Forums are not here to bash people but to try to offer advice.

 

[AcroNem]

I agree. We shouldn't be bashing but encouraging.

If you can, please pick up a range of test kits and try to get us water parameters so we can better help with what else it could be. But for now I'm standing by too quickly of an acclimation/ light shock. Could now be infected with something. Let us know how it's looking later.