Help Carpet Anemone

[Goxy]

Hey,

Our carpet anemone isn't really happy. He keeps moving, doesn't hold his shape well, is really sticky anymore. We aren't sure why, the water seems to be good SG 1.023, pH 8.0, Calcium 500, no nitrates, phosphates or nitrites or ammonia. I am using API test kits which aren't the most sensitive but the numbers can't be high if they aren't detected. Other tank inhabitants, my chalice coral, Orange bubble tip, the fish and zoa's seem fine. I have been feeding him directly every three days or so and he still seems to catch from other feedings. He is under two radions which are set to high growth mode. If any of you can think something I am missing let me know.

[Delphinus]

How long have you had it and what species? I'm not familiar with the Radion programming but how long has it been on this particular "high growth" mode (it sounds like an extra bright setting?)

The only things that catch my attention about your parameters is that your calcium is a *little* high and that you don't mention alkalinity or magnesium, if you don't have those test kits yet, consider getting some soon. Here's why..

1) Calcium and alkalinity have a direct relationship with each other and I would say it's probably more important to track alkalinity than Calcium since it tends be more variable at first. I like to think of it this way - calcium is the bricks, but alkalinity is the mortar that binds the bricks together. Without mortar, you don't build anything substantial even if you have a really big pile of bricks (ie., high calcium). They need to be in balance with one another and a common sign of stress in corals can be that your Ca and Alk are out of balance. I target my tanks to be around 450 for Ca and 7-8 dKH for Alk.

2) Magnesium is one of those things that might not be immediately obvious as important to track, but it is useful to know where your Mag is at times for two reasons:
a) It helps keep your Ca in solution (with a low Mag level you can get Ca precipitating out easily which can coat your pump impellers magnets and so on).
b) I have no idea why this is, but I've noticed that anemones just tend to do better when Magnesium is at ocean levels. I used to be able to tell when my Magnesium was getting low when I saw my anemones not inflating as often as normal. There's definitely some kind of relationship here.

I target my Magnesium around 1450 or so. I just add enough Magnesium to my waterchange water and don't bother dosing.

You can think of Ca, Alk and Mg as "the big 3". When in balance, Ca and Alk will deplete at a rate proportional to one another and will need to be dosed at the same rates. Magnesium also depletes proportionally to these two but at something like 1/7th the rate.

[Goxy]

Thanks

I will pick that up tomorrow. It is a white carpet anemone. It is the most powerful setting on the radion, I had it on a lower one and it seemed like the anemone liked it less.

[Pan]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

How long have you had it and what species? I'm not familiar with the Radion programming but how long has it been on this particular "high growth" mode (it sounds like an extra bright setting?)

The only things that catch my attention about your parameters is that your calcium is a *little* high and that you don't mention alkalinity or magnesium, if you don't have those test kits yet, consider getting some soon. Here's why..

1) Calcium and alkalinity have a direct relationship with each other and I would say it's probably more important to track alkalinity than Calcium since it tends be more variable at first. I like to think of it this way - calcium is the bricks, but alkalinity is the mortar that binds the bricks together. Without mortar, you don't build anything substantial even if you have a really big pile of bricks (ie., high calcium). They need to be in balance with one another and a common sign of stress in corals can be that your Ca and Alk are out of balance. I target my tanks to be around 450 for Ca and 7-8 dKH for Alk.

2) Magnesium is one of those things that might not be immediately obvious as important to track, but it is useful to know where your Mag is at times for two reasons:
a) It helps keep your Ca in solution (with a low Mag level you can get Ca precipitating out easily which can coat your pump impellers magnets and so on).
b) I have no idea why this is, but I've noticed that anemones just tend to do better when Magnesium is at ocean levels. I used to be able to tell when my Magnesium was getting low when I saw my anemones not inflating as often as normal. There's definitely some kind of relationship here.

I target my Magnesium around 1450 or so. I just add enough Magnesium to my waterchange water and don't bother dosing.

You can think of Ca, Alk and Mg as "the big 3". When in balance, Ca and Alk will deplete at a rate proportional to one another and will need to be dosed at the same rates. Magnesium also depletes proportionally to these two but at something like 1/7th the rate.

For Carpets I've Always tried to keep a dKH at 8.0 to 12.0, magnesium between 1,250 and 1,350 ppm, temp 76-79, ph 8.1-8.3, and a higher salinity - around 1.024-26.

Drastic swings in temp?

Lighting Changes do 'shock' them. So putting it down and then up could have affected it - most likely it did.

Carpets Do like pristine water conditions....slight changes affect them greatly.
I'd get some new tests and verify.

Also, is the anemone expelling anything? Nothing stringy? Not holding its shape is a concern...

How big is the tank BTW?

[Pan]

Silly Silly me...



Is not Stichodactyla mertensii the only carpet that has a naturally occurring white color morph? If it is such a carpet that would be awfully rare would it not? Also since they come from deeper water than Stichodactyla gigantea and Stichodactyla haddoni it should prefer less light....if it is indeed a Stichodactyla mertensii.

As far As I know if it is not Stichodactyla mertensii and it is white it' is bleached.....so that means ...



Bleaching is a general term given to the loss of an anemone’s zooxanthellae; so named due to the washing out of colour with the most severe cases the anemone appearing white. The term bleaching is accepted as the mass expulsion of zooxanthellae. This can happen for a number of reasons - mainly due to some sort of environmental stress. This covers excessive temperature changes, insufficient lighting, excessive lighting, excessive salinity change, etc. Physical stress can also cause bleaching.



A supply of energy/nutrition for an anemone comes from the sugars made in the process of photosynthesis by the zooxanthellae. It doesn't take much to work out that if there are no zooxanthellae, there is a reduction in food. Where there are no other nutrition/energy routes, the anemone slowly starves to death, but in an attempt to survive they absorb their own mass, and hence the animal shrinks. One of the most striking example of this is the consumption of an anemones own tentacles. In bleached animals, you often find unusually short tentacles when compared to healthy specimens.

Bleaching can be reversed, but it takes a long time and commitment by the aquarist. In the first instance, excellent water quality should be provided. Lighting should be of the optimal strength, although initially, it would be best to acclimate the animal to stronger light over a period of time. Feeding should be regular, say every other day, and should only be in small quantities (10mm cube for an animal of less than 300mm say). Flow should be restricted slightly in case the animal has trouble attaching/feeding.

Over time, if one is lucky, a gradual change in colour should occur. This is the recovery of the zooxanthellae and is a very good sign. The colour change may be uniform, or it may be sporadic across the animal, but eventually, if all conditions are right, the entire animal will become "as new".

SICKNESS AND DEATH

For a variety of reasons, anemones sometimes just don't cut it in the aquarium. So how do you know if you anemone is poorly or dying?

A bleaching anemone is fairly straightforward in identifying, however, in some species instead of zooxanthellae being reduced and expelled first, the will instead consume their tentacles first. This is a particular problem in Entacmaea Quaricolor and Heteractis Crispa.

A sick anemone will more often then not hold a gapping mouth, and also their gut will spill out. These look like tiny curly strings of cotton. Anemones can still recover at this point, with the proepr care and conditions.

Finally, in death, anemones will start to sloth and melt. Tissue will decompose and sloth from the animal and it will look like slime. You MUST remove the anemone at this point as it will decompose to nothing leaving a huge mess and a resulting ammonia spike for you to deal with. Make no mistake, this final stage can take place over a few hours, so it is important for the sake of the rest of your aquarium inhabitants that you act quickly.

[reefwars]

how deep is your tank?

turn your radion down to 70% for 2 weeks i bet it makes a come back

[howdy20012002]

In my experience, Carpets are always hit and miss for surviving.
if it is starting to lose shape and look like a deflated balloon, not a good sign.
I just threw one out 2 days ago that looked the same way.
like others haved said, keep a good eye on it because it would not take long to deteriorate quickly
good luck
Neal

[ponokareefer]

While carpets love light, they sometimes need to be slowly acclimated to it. It is possible you have blasted it with too much. Turn it down for a while to see if it helps. Carpets will just die for no apparent reason though.

[Delphinus]

Can you post a picture? The reason I ask is that it's still not really clear what species it is. The 3 big carpet species (excluding minimaxi types), Stichodactyla haddoni, S. gigantea, and S. mertensii have differing survivabilities post-collection. Generally speaking after a month or so they are all pretty hardy, but that first month can be really dicey. Haddoni is usually not too bad in this first month period. Gigantea is usually terrible. The problem is handling techniques in the chain of custody from collection to retail. Mertensii, I'm pretty sure you don't have mertensii, they are VERY rare to show up in the hobby, and that is possibly a good thing because they get beyond enormous (think 30" diameter).

White generally means reduced or a complete lack of zooxanthellae. Currently the amemone is not really reaping any direct benefit from the light anyhow, so I would agree with reefwars to turn down the light a little in the short term.

Good luck!

[Goxy]

Hey guys,

I got found my chromis dead in the overflow and when I used a new test kit for nitrate it was 20 ppm. I have done a 30% water change and it is holding it's shape a little better. The anemone was white with a slight green tinge when I bought it. I have been feeding it every three days with amphipods, brine shrimp directly and I add cyclops-eez for the other filter feeders I assume he gets some of that too. The dkh was 9. I will post a picture. His foot is green.

Thanks for all the advice.