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Resuscitating an ailing rock flower anemone


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Back in May at a local expo I picked up two rock flower anemones... one small (quarter-sized) orange/white "standard" and the other a nice green/red "ultra" about the size a of 50-cent coin. Acclimated, set into rockwork, all was well. They wandered a couple inches and settled down.

 

Then this one starts walking:

post-70644-0-41877400-1410295608_thumb.jpg

 

Over a couple of weeks it moved all the way under the rockscape, and tucked itself into a hole deep in the shadows. No way to get it out without damaging it. Much cursing ensued. In the past months it has continued its epic trek to see how effectively it can starve itself. This is it late July/early August:

post-70644-0-60211400-1410295605_thumb.jpg

Yes, that's a palythoa in front of it...the anemone has shrunk to about the size of a dime. Shortly after this was taken it slunk back into the rockwork, never to be seen until last Saturday following a water change. Thing was about the size of a pencil eraser and has almost completely consumed its tentacles down to nubs. :(

 

I gently rubbed the foot with my thumb to get it to let go and placed it into an improvised hang-on refugium. Oriented it so that it's not being hit full-on by my lighting and began small twice-daily feedings. Three days later it started taking small-grain food (Nutramar/Cyclopeeze mix). Will update with more pics as things progress/decline..

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Back in May at a local expo I picked up two rock flower anemones... one small (quarter-sized) orange/white "standard" and the other a nice green/red "ultra" about the size a of 50-cent coin. Acclimated, set into rockwork, all was well. They wandered a couple inches and settled down.

 

Then this one starts walking:

attachicon.giforiginal-OK.jpg

 

Over a couple of weeks it moved all the way under the rockscape, and tucked itself into a hole deep in the shadows. No way to get it out without damaging it. Much cursing ensued. In the past months it has continued its epic trek to see how effectively it can starve itself. This is it late July/early August:

attachicon.gifwandering.jpg

Yes, that's a palythoa in front of it...the anemone has shrunk to about the size of a dime. Shortly after this was taken it slunk back into the rockwork, never to be seen until last Saturday following a water change. Thing was about the size of a pencil eraser and has almost completely consumed its tentacles down to nubs. :(

 

I gently rubbed the foot with my thumb to get it to let go and placed it into an improvised hang-on refugium. Oriented it so that it's not being hit full-on by my lighting and began small twice-daily feedings. Three days later it started taking small-grain food (Nutramar/Cyclopeeze mix). Will update with more pics as things progress/decline..

 

Wow quite a story indeed ...

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So here's the first promised update. When I finally was able to gain access to the starving rock flower anemone's foot without the strong likelihood of killing it, it looked like this:

post-70644-0-70943500-1410802141_thumb.jpg

 

Those of you who think feeding something picky like a mandarin is bad... this is worse. This anemone has completely consumed its own tentacles, has almost no remaining nematocysts and is unable to close around food on its own to direct it into its own mouth. So you have to carefully drop just enough food onto the center of the oral disk that it can open & have it fall in.

 

Too little and you're not doing it any good. Too much and it'll "shrug" off the food and not consume much if any of it. Good grief. :rolleyes:

 

One week later with daily feedings:

post-70644-0-74508200-1410802154_thumb.jpg

 

It actually looks MUCH improved in person. The body has bulked up considerably (was almost like a zoanthid when found) and color is becoming more pronounced - it's starting to be able to fold the edges of its face and the nubs where tentacles once were are noticeably larger. I suspect they will be functional within the next week or two. The disk now expands to about the size of a nickel.

 

The rehab will be a LOT easier when I can just drop a small bit of meat onto it with the pumps off and have the anemone do most of the work. At this point any more effort on my part and I'd be chewing up the frozen food and regurgitating it like a bird. :wacko:

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aww poor nemmie!

why was it so self destructive?

aiiiii

 

i'm wishing you all the luck! i just

bought two for my 8g tank and fed

them mysis shrimps for the first time on

saturday. definitely love them but nervous

and hope they do well.

 

please keep us updated, i've all fingers

and nemmie feet crossed!

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That last picture doesn't show the progress well, so here's another. After all, threads are better with more pictures, right? ;)

 

post-70644-0-84489200-1410877981_thumb.jpg

 

As a side musing - I wonder if the anemone's coloration will shift to a different pattern/palette on recovery? I really liked the highligher green/red contrast, but time will tell. Hopefully this thread will help establish for others exactly how much time that typically might be.

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Tiny bit of a mix of nutramar/cyclopeze has been the most reliable rehab diet so far. It spits out new-life spectrum pellets and isn't quite far enough along to take minced meat foods like Larry's or Rods, which is what I'd prefer to feed. That nutamar's my mandarin's lifeline!

 

Frankly, nothing in my tank other than the hermit crabs seems to like the newer formula NLS, i.e. their "finicky fish formula". I find that ironic and saddening at the very same time.

 

Watchword on this sort of effort is - don't put it off if you know it needs to be done (which I guess applies to just about everything). There's been one or two times in the previous months where I MIGHT have been able to capture it and start recovery efforts before it got so far gone, but had my hands full or was too tired to do so. Then again, I have a pretty firm "no hands in the tank late at night" policy... once I get tired I get clumsy and am likely to do more harm than good.

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2 weeks in, the recovery continues slooooowly but surely. it's about the size of a quarter when puffed up. It still can't "grab" its own food, and even a 1mm pellet represents a bit too big a mouthful for it as of yet.

post-70644-0-06541400-1411414664_thumb.jpg

 

From a coldly-logical cost/benefit point of view I could have written off the pencil eraser-sized and popped for a nice replacement from VIPreefs or the like. But seeing as nothing prevents another from getting wanderlust and doing the same thing in the future I suppose this is time well spent. :)

 

Best guess is that it could be another 2-4 weeks before this thing is completely viable without the special-needs care.

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Aaaand here we are in week #3... still can't actively "grab" food, but overall better color and the nubs around its fringe are starting to look like actual tentacles once more.

 

post-70644-0-58184200-1412010053_thumb.jpg

 

Discovered under the oral disc that a band of hair algae& anemone mucous had woven itself into what can only be described as a tourniquet - CAREFULLY cut it away, base is now 1/4 thicker. Yeesh... this has got to be the most disaster-prone of the "easy" creatures in my care. :rolleyes:

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Looking better.

 

I had a suicidal flower nem myself... hid in the dark was kind of pathetic and wouldn't eat. It finally found another flower nem "friend" and now stays out in the light.

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I'll admit that my choice of holding/convalescence containers has an ulterior motive... I'm trying to get it "used" to brighter lighting. Half the problem was that it hunkered down deeper and deeper into shadows. For something that derives at least a portion of its energy needs from photosynthesis this does not seem like a great survival strategy.

 

Thanks for the anecdotal advice as well... when it comes time to return it to the tank at large I'll try placing it within tentacle-touching range of the other orange&white rock flower anemone. Maybe that'll curb its wandering tendencies. Bonus in that the orange&white's exactly where I want my rock flower garden.

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Week 4... the anemone is now able to "move" food around on its oral disk and take finely minced LRS Reef Frenzy Nano blend food. It is also starting to fold said disk into the more characteristic "flower" shape. Still nowhere near as active in its motions as the larger orange & white one, but looking back over the timeline the progress is steady.

 

post-70644-0-29323500-1412616718_thumb.jpg

 

This is a slow, slow process, however. I'll be on vacation next week, so I'm probably going to have to bump up the feedings back to 2x a day for the rest of this one to give it some reserves. The tank sitter's on a strict "toss the pellets in the top, fill the top-off to the line" regimen... easier on her nerves and at least a better than average chance of everything still being OK when I return. ;)

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Week 4... the anemone is now able to "move" food around on its oral disk and take finely minced LRS Reef Frenzy Nano blend food. It is also starting to fold said disk into the more characteristic "flower" shape. Still nowhere near as active in its motions as the larger orange & white one, but looking back over the timeline the progress is steady.

 

attachicon.gifrecovery5.jpg

 

This is a slow, slow process, however. I'll be on vacation next week, so I'm probably going to have to bump up the feedings back to 2x a day for the rest of this one to give it some reserves. The tank sitter's on a strict "toss the pellets in the top, fill the top-off to the line" regimen... easier on her nerves and at least a better than average chance of everything still being OK when I return. ;)

 

she's looking much improved! hoorah! :happy:

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  • 3 weeks later...

Been a couple weeks...so what we're on week #5/6? The beach in Panacea FL was nice, came home to a tank mostly as I left it albeit with a slightly less svelt mandarin and one seriously funky film formed on the surface of the water. Downside of cleaning that off is that it made some of my palythoa spawn... half the zoas in the tank are irritated by the tiny grains of chopped up egg clusters blowing around the tank.

 

The patient anemone has continued to improve - it's now "walking" around its holding enclosure more and can finally fit a whole 1mm sinking pellet down its mouth and do so fairly fast. Not in itself exciting, but it means that I can now do the "more tiny meals" part of its rehab effort in a minute or two rather than 10-15. It's a little bigger than a quarter now and visibly moves in response to food being offered.

 

Still no active "grabbing" when something edible touches its fringe of tentacles... they still are mainly for show, but at least have fully formed into points instead of nubs. Color has also greatly improved; to answer a musing earlier in the thread it looks like its going to regain its old coloration & pattern, not adopt a new one.

 

post-70644-0-88339000-1414078576_thumb.jpg

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Thanks!

 

There's a fair bit of info about recognizing a starving anemone and some on recovery techniques (admittedly mostly regarding bubble-tips but so far it's proven valid for rock flowers as well), but very little on the timeline for such a recovery - just "long" in the few guides that went beyond "do not buy!" advice. Given how popular rock flower anemones are becoming, I thought it would be helpful to show what a normal(esque) person could expect to have to deal with. Plus even without the whole "pledge to care for creatures in my keeping to the best of my ability" ethical aspect that's a fair amount of reefing $'s to have up and waste away.

 

In hindsight I suspect this anemone was much further gone than anyone rationally would have bothered with (there's a very fine line between the virtue of patience & the trait of stubbornness!). But it's been amazing to see just how tough these creatures are and what it's been able to come back from. I'm guessing at this point maybe another 2-4 weeks & then it's back into the main section of the tank for it.

 

I kind of wish I hadn't made a rockscape with so many deep crevices, shaded hollow spots and ledges, now. :rolleyes:

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I kind of wish I hadn't made a rockscape with so many deep crevices, shaded hollow spots and ledges, now. :rolleyes:

 

:lol:

 

and yay for stubborness!

 

it's true, i kept fretting about my flower nem's "gaping mouth"

and had to get reassurance from 1st time reefer things were okay,

because her color was good.

 

hard to find a lot of info on these beautiful and fascinating nems.

i know this thread will help a lot of owners googling for info in future.

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Houston, we have Fish! (consumption, that is)! The little guy/gal still doesn't move the tentacles around its perimeter to haul in food, but now reacts & consumes chunks of LRS about the size of a split pea if they're set anywhere on its oral disk. Over the prior weeks I've had to place food exactly in the center over its mouth more often than not to get it to take it.

 

This was taken just after the anemone fed, so it's a little puffed up in the middle at the moment.

 

post-70644-0-28336200-1414528432_thumb.jpg

 

Color's better, getting much more iridescent. It's also eating much faster when food is offered, so I'm basically just waiting until it can grab food without any assist before returning it to the tank.

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Hokay... I'm calling the experiment to an end with qualified success.

 

I'll try to post one more shot of it now so that there's a clear before - during - after progression of this over the past 8 weeks. Yes, it can take two months of feeding and pampering to get one of these critters back from the edge. Keep in mind it took the anemone 3-4 months to waste away due to starvation... if you have one do this, intervene as soon as possible/plausible. I suspect if I'd been a bit more nervy I could have gotten it back in the early August picture at the cost of maybe 1 palythoa, rather than early September.

 

The rock flower anemone is now eating minced chunks of Larry's Reef Frenzy (nano) and no longer needing assistance to get it into its mouth. With the richer food has come a sudden increase in growth - it's gotten back to about 1/3 the size it was on purchase back in May and is significantly more "fluffy" in between meals. Tentacles now move randomly and have some "stick" to them once food touches... still not quite 100% but I'm really getting tired of this Tupperware hanging on the upper lip of my tank.

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