Urgent- Possible palytoxin poisoning (corals, not me)

[jservedio]

14 minutes ago, Tired said:

It was open in the bucket, yes. Not fully, but close enough. 

 

I think maybe it was continuing to hold on because it was just slightly touching the water. Maybe it didn't "think" there was any benefit in letting go. 

 

The rock is now on top of a measuring cup, with water in the cup. The anemone is roughly halfway submerged, with its foot out of the water. I squirted some water on the anemone in case it was getting dried out. I'll leave it like that for a couple hours. If it hasn't moved into the cup by the time I have to go to sleep, I'll put the rock back in the bucket. Maybe if I put the anemone at a wonky angle, it'll wander out and I'll get lucky and see it moving. 

 

At least everything else on the rock is removed or dead, so I don't have to worry about the rock dying off. At this point, the main thing I want the rock for is because it's a nice shape and I want its bacterial holding capacity. 

That sounds good. I've never left an anemone foot out of the water for that long, but I've also never killed one before going crazy trying to peel them off - they are tough critters.

 

Since it was actually open, personally I'd just keep the whole rock in the bucket propped off the bottom with the nem facing the bottom over night and hope for the best when the light comes on. With the light off, it's definitely harder to do. Keeping it at a weird angle is a solid plan since it should need to move when the light comes on. Though, it may be a few days if it hunkers down after hours of manipulation...they can be frustrating sometimes.

[Tired]

I wish I could communicate to it that I'm trying to help it. I can't imagine it likes being in a bucket with toxins and rotting clams. Even if the clams do all appear to have liquified already. 

 

It's now open, as much as it can be while dangling. Just kinda stretched into the cup, seeming perfectly fine with this. 

 

I thought about trying to get something under the edge of the foot and peel it off, but I'd hate to damage it. Maybe that's a backup plan.

 

I'd rather get it out relatively soon, since I don't know if it's in a situation where its health is slowly declining from bad conditions, without it outwardly showing the decline yet. 

[Tired]

Well, we got progress both forward and backward. One edge of the foot had lifted up... but the rest of the foot was now crammed into a crevice I couldn't get my finger into. I think it might have come off, given more time, but I didn't want to risk leaving it there overnight. The rock's back in the bucket, with the anemone on the bottom, and I'm leaving the light on. Hopefully tomorrow it'll be in a more manageable spot, or maybe I'll even catch it moving. 

 

I think this trick is going to do the job. It wasn't working earlier because the anemone was too high up, is my guess. It seems to move downward only when part of it is in water, not just touching water. Silly thing was opened up as much as it could, too, all casual. At least it doesn't have enough intelligence that I have to worry about scaring it too much. 

[jservedio]

18 hours ago, Tired said:

Well, we got progress both forward and backward. One edge of the foot had lifted up... but the rest of the foot was now crammed into a crevice I couldn't get my finger into. I think it might have come off, given more time, but I didn't want to risk leaving it there overnight. The rock's back in the bucket, with the anemone on the bottom, and I'm leaving the light on. Hopefully tomorrow it'll be in a more manageable spot, or maybe I'll even catch it moving. 

 

I think this trick is going to do the job. It wasn't working earlier because the anemone was too high up, is my guess. It seems to move downward only when part of it is in water, not just touching water. Silly thing was opened up as much as it could, too, all casual. At least it doesn't have enough intelligence that I have to worry about scaring it too much. 

How goes the good fight?

[Tired]

Little blighter peeked itself around the edge of the rock and seems content to stay there. I haven't gotten much sleep lately (for no other reason than because I messed up my sleep cycle reading for too long at night), and was absent-minded enough today that I worried I'd completely forget about it if I left it suspended over something. 

 

Tomorrow, assuming I have all my marbles at least semi-assembled, I'll do the thing with the measuring cup again. If I leave the anemone half-hanging in water, it's gotta crawl into the water eventually. I'll just give it all day. Can't imagine it would stay out of water long enough to harm itself, if given access to water it knows is there. 

 

As for everything else, all my soft corals are opened up again. The montis are definitely goners if the algae on the skeleton is anything to go by, and the micromussa is, sadly, also growing algae on its skeleton, so I think that one's gorked too. I'm not taking any of the skeletons out of the tank, though, just in case. My blasto has a bit of meat left on it, which I'm surprised by, as it wasn't in great shape before this. Both my starlet corals are pretty receded, but I bet they'll be okay- starlets are tough. 

And, some good news- I think I've saved the favia. I did not expect this to happen, what with the slime that I'm now pretty sure was BJD. I genuinely think the cold water from being in a banishment cup might have slowed the disease down enough to help get rid of it. We'll have to see if it just withers away, but it seems okay for now. Its more intact polyps are inflating and showing feeding tentacles, and its outer edges fluoresce under blue lights. I hope I can get it back, it was a nice little thing before this. Starting to get some good growth. 

 

 

Here's a before and after, so I can sulk a little more. Boy, that big white thing on the back wall does not help with the light color. This was going to be a before and after of removing the palys and doing some rearranging, but noo. 

(Well, technically I did those things, but not in the way I wanted.)

[Tired]

I got the little bugger off! Here's an extremely unflattering photo under a reading lamp. 

 

I propped the rock up over this measuring cup, and I left it like that. All day. Went to check just now, and it was still attached! Stalk stretched as much as I've ever seen a RFA stretch, but open and seeming content in the bit of water it could reach, and still looking plenty moist all up its length. I think it was actually okay with the situation. 

But because it was stretched out so far, I could clearly see its foot. It might have been starting to detach? Or might have just not attached fully into a groove in the rock. Either way, there was a narrow little groove running under its foot. So I put the tip of a pipette in the groove and peeled it out. Which is why it's now, finally, loose. 

I've put it in my actual tank with a small rock to wedge itself under. Hopefully the palytoxin and ammonia didn't do any lasting damage. 

 

And now I don't have to worry about the rock, because the only life on it is algae and bacteria. Which are both hardy, and acceptable losses. Gonna do occasional water changes (probably with the water I take out of the main tank) for awhile, but I'm just gonna give it a month or so to sit. Probably dump some carbon in there. Hopefully I can get it back in the tank in time for Black Friday sales. 

 

[Tired]

I'm getting that lovely red/brown mix of "your tank has a lot of nutrients" algae. Either stuff in the rocks and sand is rotting, or I need to replace my RODI carbon cartridge again. At least those monti skeletons on the back wall are no longer blindingly white and reflecting the light into my eyes when I go to look in the tank. My coraline is still growing, and no corals look bothered, it's just ugly. 

 

I had a birthday this month, and got some cash earmarked for a replacement for my Holy Grail. I did not pick up a Holy Grail today, but Cali Kids is having a sale, and they had a Fruit Loops micromussa available. It's like a Holy Grail, but the outer rim is blue. I've never seen pictures of that, and it looked neat, so I had to snag it. Tank's ugly, but nothing minds, so it should be safe to add a sale opportunity. I'm selling some zoas in October (when I can safely ship- temps should only be in the mid-low 80s), and hope to get enough cash to snag an actual Holy Grail on sale or from a hobbyist with reasonable prices. 

 

The favia continues to look recovered!