2nd attempt at carpet, this time red!

So far, so good!

All day and night yesterday, the nem was fully inflated and looking good:)

He still is expelling little chunks of waste a few times a day so i'm not sure if i should try to feed him a little something or wait a few days until he stops expelling waste.

Any suggestions? Should i wait a few more days or try to feed him something?
 
Thanks everyone

He hasn't looked so hot the last few days:( Since yesterday, he has been deflated alot. He isn't "gaping" but his mouth seems all puffed up like he is about to eat???

Looking underneath the tank, his foot started to detach yesterday and is almost all the way detached now. Apparently, he is either moving or not doing well.


I don't understand the problem. He is eating and very sticky. He gets good flow and pretty good light. I have a ton of sps, lps, softies and 10 fish all doing great. All my parameters are perfect except my ph(8.0) and my kh/alk(8.0/2.86) are a little low. Nitrates-0, ammonia-0, phosphates-0, cal.-430, sal.-1.026, temp- 80-82.


Everything i have put in the tank is doing great. I can't figure out why i'm having problems with my carpets:confused: I REALLY don't want to go thru same thing as happened with the blue gigantea. Here's that thread(thought i had linked it in my 1st post but that is the wrong thread)http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1179675&perpage=25&pagenumber=1
 
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<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10863868#post10863868 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Toddrtrex
Is the flow direct or indirect? I know my two don't like it blowing right on them.

Definitely indirect. I have my Tunze's on opposite sides of the tank and it pretty much gets it's flow from the 2 streams hitting and bouncing off the front glass and rocks.
 
Well, my carpet certainly doesn't seem to be doing well:(

The last 5-6 days it has been SEVERELY deflating and gaping fairly bad. When it deflates, it's entire body is shrivelled and pathetic looking. This is exactly what i went through in August with the blue gigantea. I was actually pretty sure it was dead yesterday but it seems to be holding on. Last night, it let go and wasn't able to stay in one place so i put a piece of pvc around it to keepit from getting blown god knows where. This morning it actually looked decent for the 1st time in 3 days.

I don't understand why but it seems to have a hard time expelling waste just like the blue gigantea even though it is getting good flow. Almost every day it seems like a decent sized piece of waste is being expelled:confused:

I really dont understand what the problem is. All my parameters are good except for my kh/alk and ph being low which i am fixing. Could that have been the problem???

I have 10 acro frags, 3 monti caps, pocillopora, a crocea clam, tons of acans, blastos, lots of other lps, ricordeas and some dendros. I have 2 tangs, 5 lyretail anthis, 2 false percs and a mandarin goby. EVERYTHING in the tank is doing very well and growing fast except for the 2 carpets i have tried. Both seemed healthy when i got them but within 3 weeks were dead or well on their way.

Can anyone think of what could possibly be wrong with my water that it could do this to 2 carpets within 3 weeks of being in my tank but yet fish, sps, lps and softies all do great????:confused:
 
I have been reading a few of your threads because i just got a blue carpet. I noticed in one of your posts you mentioned you had a brittle worm. I am wondering if this could be the trouble. When they get large there not to reef safe and will munch on things like zoos so i have read. I hope things turn around for you and my post maybe helps you.
 
I dont remember which post you are referring to so i'm not sure if you meant bristle worms or my red brittle starfish?

Either way, i cant imagine that either would be a problem. My brittle star is still fairly small and doesn't really mess with the carpet. Every time he has been fed, the carpet has eaten fairly quickly and unmolested. The star has made a few attempts to steal food from the carpet but each time, he has immediately jerked away as soon as he touches the carpet.

I have sat and watched the carpet eat everytime it was fed to make sure he eats. Evrytime he has eaten quickly and kept the food down except for wednesday night. I fed him some shrimp but he took a much longer time to eat it and then about an hour later spit it out???


Again, every day it seems, he is expelling a pretty good sized piece of waste even though he hasn't been fed a ton of food. Not sure but this seeems like it may be some clue as to the problem:confused: Anyone have some idea if this is the case or why he seems to be expelling so much food?
 
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Also, anyone have an id for this anemone?
<a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g89/sufunk/browncarpet0001.jpg" border="0" alt="Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket"></a>
 
Looks like S. gigantea to me.

Not sure what to say about the red. Carpets are so touch and go for the first little bit. Gigantea's are the worst for not making it past a month or so in captivity but I've tried haddoni's in the past that did just as horrible. Collection and shipping must just do a terrible number on them. :(

Good luck.

PS. What have you been feeding him? For now, I would hold off on the feedings.
 
I've been feeding the red small pieces of fresh shrimp.

The annoying thing is that the brown carpet in the last picture has been in my 36g for almost 3 years. I've never told this for fear of the well deserved flaming for what that nem has gone through but here it is.

When we bought the tank for my daughters room(to get her sleeping in there,lol) i wanted nothing to do with it and a service took care of the tank and did a horrible job unknown to me. That anemone was bought in December 04. For 10 months, that nem lived under 18w stock fluorescent lights, was not fed even one single time and the nitrates were well over 100!

When i took over taking care of the tanks in October 05, it took literally 5 40% water changes in 3 weeks until the nitrates began registering under 200, LITERALLY! Even now, that tank has NEVER had nitrates under 40. It now has 2x65w pc lights and gets fed pretty often but the water quality is not too good.


From day 1, that nem has never had a problem. He may be a little bleached and stretches for maximum light but he has never deflated or looked horrible like these two have done often.


It is driving me crazy that a nem can live in my crappo tank, with crappo water and crappo lights with ZERO problems but for some reason i cant keep one healthy in my 180g with 2 tunze's, mh lights, nice big sump/fuge and near perfect water:mad: It's really making me so aggravated i cant put it in words. It has taken all the joy out of the tank watching these nems slowly die in my tanks:(
 
Try not to take it too personally. :( They just have a hard time making the transition from wild to captivity. I don't know the stats for sure but at one time it was said it was somewhere around 1 in 10 that make it. Once they begin that downward spiral, it seems it's more up to the anemone to have the will to live, than it is to us to do anything to affect the outcome. Naturally, we should still do what we can, but from the sounds of it I think you were already doing everything right. It's just a hard gamble with anemones.

Those that do make the transition into captivity, as you have seen, tend to be bulletproof. I have noticed that with my anemones as well. Nitrates don't seem to bother them, I can have a tank where the SPS are dropping like flies because of nitrates, but the anemones are plum happy. Go figure.

I really hope the red pulls through for you..
 
Thank you! I have my fingers crossed!

It isn't normal for them to be expelling waste this often is it??? Sometimes it expels waste 3-4 times in a day which is weird because it hasn't been fed a ton:confused:
 
Try feeding something w/ no bones, mysissoaked in vitichem, musscles, scallops, or even some blood worms all soaked in some type of vitimans. Hope this helps!
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10911122#post10911122 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sufunk
I've been feeding the red small pieces of fresh shrimp.

The annoying thing is that the brown carpet in the last picture has been in my 36g for almost 3 years. I've never told this for fear of the well deserved flaming for what that nem has gone through but here it is.

When we bought the tank for my daughters room(to get her sleeping in there,lol) i wanted nothing to do with it and a service took care of the tank and did a horrible job unknown to me. That anemone was bought in December 04. For 10 months, that nem lived under 18w stock fluorescent lights, was not fed even one single time and the nitrates were well over 100!

When i took over taking care of the tanks in October 05, it took literally 5 40% water changes in 3 weeks until the nitrates began registering under 200, LITERALLY! Even now, that tank has NEVER had nitrates under 40. It now has 2x65w pc lights and gets fed pretty often but the water quality is not too good.


From day 1, that nem has never had a problem. He may be a little bleached and stretches for maximum light but he has never deflated or looked horrible like these two have done often.


It is driving me crazy that a nem can live in my crappo tank, with crappo water and crappo lights with ZERO problems but for some reason i cant keep one healthy in my 180g with 2 tunze's, mh lights, nice big sump/fuge and near perfect water:mad: It's really making me so aggravated i cant put it in words. It has taken all the joy out of the tank watching these nems slowly die in my tanks:(

I have been going through the same thing lately with magnificas. It is really tough to find healthy anemones! Part of the problem is that we buy the anemones that we want in terms of coloration and even species, but disregard health. We need to stop buying difficult species that have a slight gape or are slightly bleached .... we should only buy anemones in PERFECT condition. I think that is the key....

I recently came across a local dealer that had around 10 gigantea in great health. Full coloration, tight mouth, eating, firmly attached, and etc...

Buy a gigantea from reefhotspot.com they have a ton of anemones in great shape .... $80 for purple or green and $150 for blue....
 
I was a little worried that the blue gigantea i got wasn't too healthy but this red haddoni definitely seemed very healthy. It's mouth was VERY tight, it was so sticky it literally held onto my glove for like 20 minutes when i first put him in the tank and it would eat immediately. I never saw its mouth gaping whatsoever until it had been in my tank for over a week.

The gigantea i'm not sure about but the red haddoni, i'm convinced WAS healthy when i got it and something about my tank or water is killing it:confused: Some have said that it may have been slightly bleached based on the color. That may be true but other than that, it was very healthy and looked incredible for at least a week in my tank before it went downhill. What is going on, i can't figure out for the life of me.

Over the night it did finally reattach to a rock but it is gaping pretty bad and doesnt look to good. I don't know what else i can do except watch and wait????
 
Is there any chance that trace copper could be leaching out of your rocks or silicone or something?
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10916186#post10916186 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sufunk
I was a little worried that the blue gigantea i got wasn't too healthy but this red haddoni definitely seemed very healthy. It's mouth was VERY tight, it was so sticky it literally held onto my glove for like 20 minutes when i first put him in the tank and it would eat immediately. I never saw its mouth gaping whatsoever until it had been in my tank for over a week.

The gigantea i'm not sure about but the red haddoni, i'm convinced WAS healthy when i got it and something about my tank or water is killing it:confused: Some have said that it may have been slightly bleached based on the color. That may be true but other than that, it was very healthy and looked incredible for at least a week in my tank before it went downhill. What is going on, i can't figure out for the life of me.

Over the night it did finally reattach to a rock but it is gaping pretty bad and doesnt look to good. I don't know what else i can do except watch and wait????

How long after you bought it was the first picture taken? In that picture it has a slight gape. I am not saying that it is impossible to overcome a slight gape, but I think it is much more difficult. I just recently got into the larger host anemones, but on the BTAs and other species that I have had, the only time that a healthy anemone has its mouth open is when it is eating or pooping!!
 
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