Postal
New member
For the last two years I have kept an emerald green haddoni in my system. It spent a few months in one tank, and then has spent the remainder of that time in a different tank on the same system. The anemone has grown and thrived over that time period, growing from about 6" to over 12".
Then, in early August 2013, I acquired a blue gigantea from another reefer. I got the gig from a newbie reefer that had bought it from someone the month before that had it for more than a year. The gig was not in great shape when I got it due to poor water quality and poor lighting in the newbie's tank. I have a thread on here showing it when I got it and subsequent pics as it improved.
Now the issue. Soon after adding the gig to another tank on the same system, the haddoni went on walk about. It moved throughout the tank and ended up on the glass at the top of the tank near the return. There is nothing in the tank but sand, rock, and a pair of GSM's. The last change to the tank had been adding LED's 6 months or more prior. As the gig improved, the haddoni went downhill. It shrank into itself and stayed closed and stuck at the top of the tank. It was a slow downhill process for about a month. Then as the gig really started improving, the haddoni took another step for the worse. The anemone lost/withdrew all of its tentacles and basically turned white over the course of a few days with its mouth gaping open and stomach protruding. During the course of this issue, I had posted in passing about the situation but was told it probably wasn't allelopathy since plenty of people keep the two species together. I didn't really have a great option to move the haddoni so I let it go on like this for too long.
Eventually, I shifted some tanks around and moved the haddoni and GSM's to a Solana to separate the two anemones. The haddoni still looked like crap for a couple days. It attached, but was still white, curled up, and mouth gaping (probably 1.5-2"). The only green to be seen on the anemone were 10-15 tiny tentacles near the rim in one section. After a few days, however, the haddoni started to expand and the mouth slowly closed (almost completely). Now in the last week, the green has started to come back at an incredible rate, probably a 10% increase daily in tentacles showing. The small tentacles are still extremely sticky, and the nem has quickly taken small pieces of fresh shrimp this week.
Here are some pics to show the before and after. Unfortunately, I did not take pics of it at the lowest point, but trust me, it was not good.
I wish I had more specific before, during, and after pics, but this is the best I have.
So given the circumstances, I really only see allelopathy as an option. Nothing else changed in the system. The only option I could think of was that the gig passed on a pathogen of some sort to the haddoni. But if that were the case, I wouldn't expect to see improvement just from a move to a separate system. BTW, there is a malu and crucifer in the same system and they seem unaffected other than the malu maybe not expanding quite as much, but not obviously so.
So, what do you think? Do my anemones hate each other, or is there something else going on.
Then, in early August 2013, I acquired a blue gigantea from another reefer. I got the gig from a newbie reefer that had bought it from someone the month before that had it for more than a year. The gig was not in great shape when I got it due to poor water quality and poor lighting in the newbie's tank. I have a thread on here showing it when I got it and subsequent pics as it improved.
Now the issue. Soon after adding the gig to another tank on the same system, the haddoni went on walk about. It moved throughout the tank and ended up on the glass at the top of the tank near the return. There is nothing in the tank but sand, rock, and a pair of GSM's. The last change to the tank had been adding LED's 6 months or more prior. As the gig improved, the haddoni went downhill. It shrank into itself and stayed closed and stuck at the top of the tank. It was a slow downhill process for about a month. Then as the gig really started improving, the haddoni took another step for the worse. The anemone lost/withdrew all of its tentacles and basically turned white over the course of a few days with its mouth gaping open and stomach protruding. During the course of this issue, I had posted in passing about the situation but was told it probably wasn't allelopathy since plenty of people keep the two species together. I didn't really have a great option to move the haddoni so I let it go on like this for too long.
Eventually, I shifted some tanks around and moved the haddoni and GSM's to a Solana to separate the two anemones. The haddoni still looked like crap for a couple days. It attached, but was still white, curled up, and mouth gaping (probably 1.5-2"). The only green to be seen on the anemone were 10-15 tiny tentacles near the rim in one section. After a few days, however, the haddoni started to expand and the mouth slowly closed (almost completely). Now in the last week, the green has started to come back at an incredible rate, probably a 10% increase daily in tentacles showing. The small tentacles are still extremely sticky, and the nem has quickly taken small pieces of fresh shrimp this week.
Here are some pics to show the before and after. Unfortunately, I did not take pics of it at the lowest point, but trust me, it was not good.
I wish I had more specific before, during, and after pics, but this is the best I have.
So given the circumstances, I really only see allelopathy as an option. Nothing else changed in the system. The only option I could think of was that the gig passed on a pathogen of some sort to the haddoni. But if that were the case, I wouldn't expect to see improvement just from a move to a separate system. BTW, there is a malu and crucifer in the same system and they seem unaffected other than the malu maybe not expanding quite as much, but not obviously so.
So, what do you think? Do my anemones hate each other, or is there something else going on.