What’s wrong with my Magnificent?

[ThePurple12]

Hi everyone,

I got a mag from someone here a few months ago. It was doing great and looking good, staying inflated and fully expanded, until maybe 2 weeks ago. Now, it’s always partially balled up and is never fully expanded. The weirdest thing is the poop-looking stuff that seems to be constantly coming out of it. If it is poop, why has it been pooping for several days in a row? The last feeding (chunk of shrimp) was a week ago, and I wasn’t feeding it frequently at all.

It doesn’t look bleached. There haven’t been any changes in the tank. The hammer coral and some of my bubble tips are also not looking good.

All the fish are healthy. SPS aren’t growing much, but I attribute this to a dinoflagellate plague. Parameters are:

5 ppm nitrate
.15 ppm phosphate
low alkalinity at around 6, but it‘s been this low since before I got the nem
400 ppm calcium
35 ppt salinity

Any ideas? I have a hunch it’s from the rusting hose clamp I removed a few weeks ago. I’m going to try a large water change.

On second thought, could the metals from the hose clamp be causing the dinoflagellates?

 

[revhtree]

Not too sure but from what I have read people tend to overfeed these anemones or feed them pieces that are too big and they can't digest them. Let's see if someone could help more on this one!

 

[D-Nak]

So if I'm understanding this correctly, the nem has been healthy for a few months, and this is just recent occurrence? If so, I don't attribute it to an infection which would require treatment.

Balling up could mean that it's trying to expel something, and as @revhtree mentioned, it could be food related. Can you provide a photo of what it's expelling? Is it stringy and brown?

The only other thing I can think of is an environmental change. Have you changed your lighting recently? New lights possibly? Have you changed the setting on them? It could be expelling zooxanthellae as it get used to the new lights or setting.

Also, indirectly related, but if you've recently started using carbon, if could possibly have cleared your water to a point where the light intensity hitting the anemone has increased.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Balling up is an indication of digesting food or other matter. The wierd stuff you mention, if it’s brown and stringy looking- normal after feeding as they literally poop also

 

[ThePurple12]

Yes, it was completely healthy, and even now its tentacles are staying inflated. What doesn’t make sense is the fact that the last feeding was a while ago, yet it’s been doing this every day.

Here‘s a picture of the brown stuff (it’s not dinos, but it’s covered in them now)

 

[ThePurple12]

 

[ThePurple12]

Also, just to reassure that it isn’t dinos, the brown stuff is coming from the mag‘s mouth.

 

[ThePurple12]

No change in lighting and no carbon btw

 

[ThePurple12]

Oh yeah, I should also say it’s been constantly moving around in the past 2 or 3 weeks. It hasn’t moved since the day before yesterday, so I guess that’s a good sign.

 

[D-Nak]

Are you missing any fish? Also, maybe double-check your nitrates again. When mine go up, my mag wanders.

Sounds like it's doing better now though. Could've just been indigestion. Maybe don't feed it for a while (they don't really need to be fed anyway).

 

[ThePurple12]

No missing fish, but that could have explained it.

Thanks, I'll keep you updated!

 

[Colby Johnson]

Hey ThePurple12,

Sorry to hear about your troubles. From the info you have provided, it seems to me you likely have a problem with the microbiome being out of whack some what. The H. magnifica sounds to be suffering from a bacterial infection.

Whenever I see a tank with a dino bloom, it indicates an imbalance. Please note, I am NOT saying or implying you are doing a poor job with your aquarium or anything like that. We have all suffered the dino plague at one point or another.

The action of the anemone being "balled up" as you describe, is the process of expelling its zooxanthellae. Often times when cnidarians are suffering from a bacterial infection, their only recourse is to try and expel the infected tissue, which also results in bleaching. The fact that the anemone has been on the move is also an indicator that it is unhappy.

I would suggest the following for now:

-Water changes (using good RO/DI source water of course).

-Drop salinity to 32ppt. 35ppt is a tad to high in my opinion, and may well be leading to the bleaching event. In fact, I would not be surprised if a large water change and reducing the salinity to 32ppt rectifies this issue. (Assuming there is no bacterial infection).

- Run high quality carbon to help reduce organic load in the water, and alleviate any possible heavy metal poisoning.

- Stop feeding large chunks of food, instead feed smaller food items such as mysid shrimp. Yes, it is true that you can feed these anemone large food items, it is riskier. All else being equal, weekly meals of mysid shrimp will be a much better option for this anemone. However, for now, do not feed it at all. If there is an infection, the last thing you want to do is add any more fuel to the fire.

Please take these steps and keep us in the loop. IF these actions don't set you on the right course, antibiotic treatment may be in order. Please provide full tank shots, and also, what temp are you running the tank?

Best of luck, and hope we can help you get this sorted.

Colby

 

[Hot2na]

32ppt = ? for us dummies ..1. ?

 

[ThePurple12]

32ppt = ? for us dummies ..1. ?

Oops, not sure why I said ppt. 35 ppt equals 1.026, so it's the natural level of a coral reef.

Hey ThePurple12,

Sorry to hear about your troubles. From the info you have provided, it seems to me you likely have a problem with the microbiome being out of whack some what. The H. magnifica sounds to be suffering from a bacterial infection.

Whenever I see a tank with a dino bloom, it indicates an imbalance. Please note, I am NOT saying or implying you are doing a poor job with your aquarium or anything like that. We have all suffered the dino plague at one point or another.

The action of the anemone being "balled up" as you describe, is the process of expelling its zooxanthellae. Often times when cnidarians are suffering from a bacterial infection, their only recourse is to try and expel the infected tissue, which also results in bleaching. The fact that the anemone has been on the move is also an indicator that it is unhappy.

I would suggest the following for now:

-Water changes (using good RO/DI source water of course).

-Drop salinity to 32ppt. 35ppt is a tad to high in my opinion, and may well be leading to the bleaching event. In fact, I would not be surprised if a large water change and reducing the salinity to 32ppt rectifies this issue. (Assuming there is no bacterial infection).

- Run high quality carbon to help reduce organic load in the water, and alleviate any possible heavy metal poisoning.

- Stop feeding large chunks of food, instead feed smaller food items such as mysid shrimp. Yes, it is true that you can feed these anemone large food items, it is riskier. All else being equal, weekly meals of mysid shrimp will be a much better option for this anemone. However, for now, do not feed it at all. If there is an infection, the last thing you want to do is add any more fuel to the fire.

Please take these steps and keep us in the loop. IF these actions don't set you on the right course, antibiotic treatment may be in order. Please provide full tank shots, and also, what temp are you running the tank?

Best of luck, and hope we can help you get this sorted.

Colby

Thanks for the detailed response. It doesn't look bleached yet, but do you know how long it would take to become bleached if it is expelling zooxanthellae?

I will add some carbon. I was running Seachem Purigen, but I found out that Purigen doesn't remove heavy metals that were probably added to the water from the hose clamp.

The tank is at 80F.

I'm filling some 5 gallon buckets now for a water change!

Here's the FTS after blowing some dinos off of my corals, see the mag below the anthias:

Thanks again, I'll keep you updated.

 

[ThePurple12]

It's pooping/expelling zooxanthellae again

 

[chizerbunoi]

I would suggest following D-naks advice. But also some other recommendations.

Increase water flow to blow directly above the mag so that it clears whatever it is expelling. Right now with your dino outbreak you could use some help with your other corals I guess.

Is it under Metal Halide now and was under some other lighting that wasn't as intense?

Bring your alkalinity up and keep it stable. You mentioned in the first post that it is at 6. Is that on purpose?

Do more frequent water changes and use your siphon to clean up the dino. When you blow the dino off, use a power head (avoid the sand) and have it go into you overflow into a fresh sock.

Change the sock and carbon frequently. Run your skimmer on wet.

Target feed your fish so there isn't as much waste. I know you have anthias that need frequent food. This waste contributes to poor water quality.

As for when you are ready to feed the anemone, you can feed shrimp. But pulverize it first by cutting it into small pieces like for a baby. Then mash it up with a blunt object like a mortar and pestle. This will make it easier for the anemone to digest. Food should be the size of their mouths. Although larger specimens can eat full shrimp, this makes it easier to digest. With full shrimps, most of the time they spit it out at night.

 

[ThePurple12]

Thanks, I'll try everything you suggested. Alkalinity is not low on purpose, and I'm dosing baking soda to bring it up.

The anemone has always been under the metal halide.

 

[chizerbunoi]

Also not sure if you knew, but don't use hydrogen peroxide to fight your battle with dinos. Anemones can't tolerate it.

 

[ThePurple12]

Also not sure if you knew, but don't use hydrogen peroxide to fight your battle with dinos. Anemones can't tolerate it.

I wasn't planning on it, but good to know.

 

[ThePurple12]

Sorry I forgot to update this thread, but I ended up doing a large water change and added some carbon and the anemone is doing great. So the moral of the story- when in doubt, do a water change!