Carpet anemone not doing well

[syncro]

Despite my best efforts, this green carpet anemone is not doing well. It is not fully expanding and patches of tentacles are not opening. Mouth is occasionally gaping but is not expelling its insides. It is occasionally spewing slimey balls like it has eaten though I have not fed it in a week. After purchase (from a fellow canreefer) it did great. It was eating, sticky and fully expanded a few days after introduction. Three weeks in, a failure kept the MH lights off for 2 days and the salinity dropped to 29ppt. I corrected the both but since it has been declining.

 

Three weeks ago:

 

Now:

 

 

Tank: 40G, 8 months old

Lighting: 250W MH on 8hrs/day, 4 x T5s on 10hrs/day

Temp: 24.3 - 24.6*C

Salinity: 32ppt w/ ATO

Ammonia: 0, nitrite: 0, nitrate: 0, pH: 8.4

Filtration: Skimmer, 3.5" DSB, live rock, carbon

Livestock: carpet, RBTA, GSP, occelaris clownfish (everything else moved to the sump)

Livestock in the sump: porcelain and hermit craps, sexy shrimp, cheato

Maintenance: Weekly 12% water changes with RO/DI water mixed for at least 24 hours

Feeding: mix of frozen shrimp, scallop, squid and krill chopped fine

 

I've ruled out (to the best of my knowledge)

- stability - controller keeps temp and salinity rock solid

- lighting - carpet closes up when light is reduced or partially shaded

- irritation - I've moved the crabs and shrimp to the sump, nothing is touching the carpet

- stray current - tested and found none

 

Possibilities

- chemical warefare with RBTA - I am running about twice the recommended dosage of carbon in high flow area. RBTA is showing signs of stress.

- disease - animal was sick or got infected in my tank and took several weeks to show it

- water quality - I experimented with heavier feedings (few grams every other day) so perhaps tank is having a hard time keeping up though the ammonia/nitrite/nitrate tests all show 0. Possibly the carpet is dumping mucous/slime/chemicals in the the water which is causing more stress and turning into a vicious cycle. If so more frequent/larger water changes?

 

Any suggestions? I don't want to see this animal die. I am considering giving it up if it doesn't turn around very soon.

[DaJMasta]

How sticky is it and does it react to the lights going off at night? How long has it been happening?

 

While I agree it doesn't look at its best, they seem to just have little fits sometimes where they do something strange... just a couple of nights ago mine retracted fully into the sand (so only a tiny portion was visible, much farther retracted than I had ever seen in the 5 months I've had it) and now it looks just the same as ever. There also probably isn't a big problem with the feedings being too infrequent - I had some algae issues and cut back to feeding around once every other week and mine actually inflated more fully after not eating for a while in some cases.

 

I would ease up on the feeding and look for signs of damage or disease (especially if it sticks some of the foot above the sand at night or when it curls in so you can see the underside) and let it continue a bit.

 

Also, are the tentacles sticky? That's always a telltale sign of health, but when I first got mine and it was stressed from transit, patches of the tentacles did not stick at all, while other areas were extremely sticky.

 

Oh, I guess one more thing: how is the flow? Mine likes flow, but does not like to be blown around much by it - so if you can see it blowing in the current try raising up the powerhead a bit.

[hooligan_78]

Looks like a haddoni. Which, not to rub salt in the wound, are pretty hardy and easy to care for. I would look at 3 possibilities. Allelopathy with the RBTA, too much flow, or light shock. Haddonis aren't fans of too much flow, just the edge of the nem should lift slightly every once in awhile. I don't think crabs could be bothering it, as mine ate ANYthing that touched it including 2 snails and an entire urchin, spines and all.

 

What type of lighting was it under in the old tank? Did you acclimate it to your lights? Could be stressed from too much lighting too fast.

[syncro]

Your replies are appreciated. Thanks. Yes, haddoni - no spots/stripes on its underside.

 

Timeline - first 3 weeks in my tank it looked great and was very sticky, last 3 weeks it has been on a steady decline and no longer sticky, open mouth, tonight it is completely closed up

Allelopathy - I will move the RBTA into a quarantine tank

Flow - flow sounds about right, here is a video

Light shock -

previous lighting: T5+LED on 8-9 hour photoperiod

current lighting: T5+250w MH on 10 hour photoperiod

- I acclimated over 9 days starting at 4 hrs photoperiod

The anemone was doing good with over a week at this full intensity before starting to decline. It shrinks away when I've partially shaded it for a few hours. Is it possible it needs more light? The MH bulb is an inexpensive AquaTrader bulb with 8 months on it.

[Psychosis]

It could be a spectral shift with your bulb, most people replace high quality bulbs in 6 months. How ever, I'd expect to see something along the lines of discoloration/stretching, not recession.

[jedimasterben]

It could be a spectral shift with your bulb, most people replace high quality bulbs in 6 months. How ever, I'd expect to see something along the lines of discoloration/stretching, not recession.

This. I have also never personally acclimated an anemone to my lighting and have never seen one decline because of it (other factors, however...). I know carpets in general require high lighting and pretty much use as much as you throw at it (it will move on its own if it thinks it is too much).

[DaJMasta]

I can't say I know what's wrong, but I don't think it's your lights - if you think that it's intensity related, try to get the lights close to the water for a few days and see if it gets better. Doesn't sound like flow either.

 

 

I'm not sure I have any good ideas for you... I don't think anemones respond well to any sort of dip (and it would probably be somewhat traumatic to move it) and I don't think any sort of tank treatment, changing of parameters, or anything like that will make a positive difference. If none of the tentacles stick and it hasn't eaten in a bit, I would try feeding some very small bits of food (like mysis size) directly to the mouth with the circulation off and see if it can ingest it.

 

Good luck.

[syncro]

Thanks again!

 

I've moved the RBTA to another tank and fed the carpet 2 grams (about a small grape) of diced shrimp.

 

I'll give a few days and reevaluate unless there are any other suggestions.

[DaJMasta]

How's it doing?

[syncro]

How's it doing?

 

Thanks for asking. He's showing the first signs of improving. He is stretching out more and has the characteristic vertical folds / ruffles (rather than lying flat). However he is very slow to react to food (though is eating) and more tentacles are retracted. He still retracts randomly which makes it difficult to determine if he is feeling better.

 

Changes last week:

- removed RBTA

- running extra carbon

- 36% water change spread over the week

- increased flow

- feeding small bits daily (1 gram)

- reduced photoperiod (6hrs MH, 10hrs T5)

 

Always open to ideas. Thanks again.

[16bio]

Still doing ok? Might I ask where you got it as I am having a lot of trouble finding on here in Canada...

[syncro]

Still doing ok? Might I ask where you got it as I am having a lot of trouble finding on here in Canada...

 

I got him from a canreef.com member in Edmonton. When I was up there I saw a few other anemones at one of the fish stores but this was close to 2 months ago now. There is a reef store in Saskatchewan that ships anemones. Though I think it would be safer bet to ask a local fish store to bring one in and hold it for a few weeks for you.

 

 

 

The carpet anemone is doing better. Staying expanded during the day. Fast feeding response and is keeping the food down. I am feeding once per week about 2 grams. Still not very sticky and many of the tentacles are retracted. I think he is slowly recovering.