Anemone quarantine procedures

[ezhoops]

So, I have Been attempting to find some quality anemone quarantine procedures. Here is what Dr. Ron recommends.

Hi Eric,
About 13-15 years ago I suggested QT method to one dealer.* It worked so well (for him, at least) that he published an article in a pet trade publication about it.

As you surmised it used water changes.* I don't think using antibiotics for this sort of thing is a good thing, about all that would do is breed*stronger microbes, and possibly kill the animal's zooxanthellae.* So... avoid antibiotics.

Anyway, my suggestions*were to have on hand some excess salty water, several times the amount necessary for a single water change in the QT tank.* It needs to either be natural sea water or be artificial sea water*mixed to full oceanic salinity.* NEVER allow the anemone to touch any sea water that is not at full oceanic salinity (36-36 PSU).

The procedure varies a bit depending on how the animal arrives in care.*

If it is shipped to you:

1) Prior to arrival*have some clean, or freshly prepared, full-salinity*sea water (36 PSU)*cooled down to about 65 deg F.* This temperature is prophylactic and the exposure to it only will last for a short period, and it will not harm the anemone.* The cool water slows the anemone's metabolism during the rinsing, cleaning procedure and helps prevent excess damage.**You will need probably two or three volumes of your arrival/rinsing*tank.

2) Have on hand and ready for use: 1)*a container for arrival processing/rising, and 2) the QT tank/container.

The arrival container should be small enough so that you can easily*manipulate the animal in it*- a*white plastic bucket works well, or even a large bowl (cleaned of course, and never having had soap or such in it) will do.

The QT container should be a tank large enough to allow the animal to fully inflate.* This should*probably be*about a 30 gallon tank in most cases.* This tank needs to be set up to receive and maintain the animal*in good health for the*isolation period.* It should*have some sort of filtering system active and in place. *It MUST have adequate lighting.* It*MUST have*some clean*substrate that is acceptable to the animal in it.* The substrate will vary, depending on the anemone; in other words, one subtrate isn't acceptable for all species of host anemones.* The proper substrate is necessary to prevent the animal's normal reflex to move in an unacceptable habitat from starting.* If the substrate is not a proper one, the moving reflex will often cause the animal to continually move, and not feed, and then die.* The*QT container*needs to be*kept at reef normal temperatures,*say about 82-84 deg F.* Any lower than that will*stress the animal. **

3).* Upon arrival...* You should be wearing gloves.* You may need to manipulate the animal gently and doing this by hand offers the best chance of not damaging the anemone - consequently you need to have the gloves to prevent your bare skin from damaging the*anemone, and to prevent the anemone from stinging you and potentially causing you great harm (the possibility of anaphylactic shock from an anemone sting is a real one).**

Upon arrival...

Remove the animal from its shipping bag using the following procedure (pray that the shipper only put one animal per bag - two, or more, anemones per bag is really bad news).* Typically, freshly shipped anemones are mostly retracted.* Open the bag and gently pour off any excess water leaving just enough to cover the animal.**Gently pour*the animal and the remaining shipping water*into*a small bowl; a finger bowl often works well, but a small soup*bowl*may be better for larger animals.* Again this bowl*should never have*had soap or any cleaning agent in it.*Try not to touch the animal, but if it is necessary to do so, use gentle force and minimize your contact with it.

Your arrival/rinsing vessel should have enough cool water in it to cover the animal in its bowl.**Place the animal (in its bowl)*into the cool water.**Submerge the animal and pour it out of the bowl.* Move the animal gently around in this water to remove any excess mucus or oxygenation chemicals or whatever else has been put into the shipment.* Then carefully scoop the animal up in its bowl and place that*on a safe*surface and discard all of the water in the*arrival/rinsing container.* Refill the container to the appropriate level.**And then repeat the rinsing*procedure (everything in black above).**Repeat this procedure two or three times (more times if the animal seems to be producing excessive mucus).

At the completion of the rinsing procedure, fill the rising container with just enough cool sea water to cover the animal, and place the animal in this water.* Then slowly (not terribly slowly - maybe a gallon a minute) siphon in normal reef temperature sea water to bring the animal up to its normal temperature.* Anemones need to be carefully acclimated to salinity changes, but temperature acclimation is largely unnecessary, they don't have any organs or organ-systems that can be damaged by rapid temperature changes.* Consequently, the animal can be rapidly brought up to normal reef temperature (82 -84 F).

Once the animal has been brought up to normal reef temperature, scoop it up with the bowl and move it to the QT tank (which should at the same temperature and salinity as the new arrival's post-rinsing*water).* Treat the animal as normally as possible in the QT tank: that is, once it has extended feed it, daily or twice daily, at least; give it the appropriate illumination and currents.

Most anemones will recover from shipping stress within a few hours.* The length of the QT period is up to you.* Probably two weeks to a month is sufficient to ensure the animal is*not diseased or likely to die from stress factors.

If the animal is not shipped to you, but collected from the local LFS, rinse the animal one or two times in normal reef temperature sea water and put it into the QT tank.

I hope this helps


Cheers, Ron

"The difference in mind between man and the higher animals, great as it is, certainly is one of degree and not of kind. The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man." Charles Darwin (1809-1882)

 

[deangelr]

Very interesting write up.. I wonder what you would use for the active filtration in the QT... Live rock, HOB filter, skimmer? Would you want to have the QT running for a bit or just keep it a more sterile environment.?

 

[ezhoops]

I would think something like a hang on the back or better. Don't think a sponge filter will cut it. I will pose the question.

 

[BonsaiNut]

I LOVE this idea. However I question some assumptions:

(1) That the use of antibiotics is bad.
(2) That the proper use of antibiotics would create stronger microbes.
(3) That antibiotics would kill zooxanthellae.
(4) That the short-term use of cold water wash is prophylactic.
(5) That the short-term use of cold water will not harm the anemone.

I do not know the scientific basis for any of these statements. It certainly may exist, I just may not have read it I would normally refute these statements, but I am hoping that you (or Dr. Ron) have some information that I am not aware of. Dr. Ron probably has a couple tricks up his sleeve

Additionally your statement of "the possibility of anaphylactic shock from an anemone sting is a real one" could use a little clarity. There has never been a proven case (that I am aware of) of human anaphylaxis involving sea anemones. That said, sea anemone toxin can cause burns and rashes including localized swelling. You would not want sea anemone toxin coming into contact with an open wound. Injection of sea anemone toxin HAS been shown to kill dogs, so I wouldn't recommend it.

 

[cnote2991]

It*MUST have*some clean*substrate that is acceptable to the animal in it.* The substrate will vary, depending on the anemone; in other words, one subtrate isn't acceptable for all species of host anemones.* The proper substrate is necessary to prevent the animal's normal reflex to move in an unacceptable habitat from starting.* If the substrate is not a proper one, the moving reflex will often cause the animal to continually move, and not feed, and then die.*

Is this referring to sand vs rock substrate, or stating that some anemones require different kinds of sand?

 

[dpeoples]

Good article

 

[BonsaiNut]

Very interesting write up.. I wonder what you would use for the active filtration in the QT... Live rock, HOB filter, skimmer? Would you want to have the QT running for a bit or just keep it a more sterile environment.?

I would use the QT as a QT - i.e. small sterile tank that is drained when not in use and has one-way water flow - from reef system to QT to drain. I would not use freshly mixed saltwater, since, after all, you are trying to acclimate your anemone to your tank water. If your tank water is not capable of sustaining a healthy anemone nothing you do in a QT will help.

Into the QT you want to place the appropriate substrate for the anemone (i.e. sand or rock) but you don't need to decorate the tank. Sand anemones will be fine in a bowl of sand, and rock anemones will be fine with a terracotta pot. You want to make sure that the environment is safe - particularly when it comes to intake for the protein skimmer and overflow from the QT to the drain.

I would not have any biological filtration, but would instead rely on water changes - either periodic or constant (slow drip to an overflow that runs to drain). If you plan on using antibiotics, you can't use a biological filter anyway. The only mechanical filter I would use would consist of a protein skimmer, to be used for the dual benefits of removing proteinous waste, as well as playing the role of an oxygen reactor. You want the dissolved oxygen level in the QT to be as high as possible.

Any antibiotic treatment must be combined with responsible disposal of treated water. If you have a small (say 5 or 10 gallon QT) it is easy enough to drain and capture the water and treat it to destroy residual antibiotics before flushing it.

 

[jeff@zina.com]

1) A quarantine tank does not need filtration, just water changes.

2) Antibiotics can be used as a prophylactic, but there's no reason to. There aren't any known diseases or parasites for anemones (actually, not a lot is known about anemone health) that are cured/prevented by a prophylactic antibiotic treatment. It's not even proven that antibiotics help an injured anemone.

3) Substrates depend on the anemone. Some need sand, some don't. Not sure I'd use rock, any that requires rock would happily use the glass walls and it's easier to remove them from the glass. Unless you plan on just moving the rock to the display.

Bottom line though, I don't see any real reason to quarantine something that won't bring in any pathogens or pests anyway.

Jeff

 

[Reef1589]

Bottom line though, I don't see any real reason to quarantine something that won't bring in any pathogens or pests anyway.

Jeff

ive heard of anemone's transfering infections from 1 anemone to another, so.. if you got an anemone you've had for awhile, wouldnt you wanna QT the new one to make sure it doesnt have an infection? (im currently dealing with this as i got a S. Haddoni ive had for 5 months been 100% fine, added a new S. gig... that had some sort of infection and died off within days, now my haddoni has been cycling like crazy... and i 100% strongly beleive it was from the S. Gig.. it would be a freak occurance if it just so happened to be something else that happened to the S. Haddoni the same time i added the S. Gig, so thats why i beleive it was the S. Gig that transfered whatever it had, now i face possibly loosing my S. Haddoni ... )

from this incident i will now be QTing everything.

 

[ezhoops]

1)
Bottom line though, I don't see any real reason to quarantine something that won't bring in any pathogens or pests anyway.
Jeff

I don't know if I agree completely with this statement. I'm sure anemones can bring in some type of pathogen, if even in the water that they contain.

But I believe the purpose of anemone qt is to make sure the anemone will survive in the conditions you intend to keep it and to ensure the your anemone will not waste away in your tank. Thus, it is vital to match lighting and conditions as close as possible.

 

[garygb]

1) A quarantine tank does not need filtration, just water changes.

2) Antibiotics can be used as a prophylactic, but there's no reason to. There aren't any known diseases or parasites for anemones (actually, not a lot is known about anemone health) that are cured/prevented by a prophylactic antibiotic treatment. It's not even proven that antibiotics help an injured anemone.

3) Substrates depend on the anemone. Some need sand, some don't. Not sure I'd use rock, any that requires rock would happily use the glass walls and it's easier to remove them from the glass. Unless you plan on just moving the rock to the display.

Bottom line though, I don't see any real reason to quarantine something that won't bring in any pathogens or pests anyway.

Jeff

I don't agree with this either. Too many people have observed what appears to be infections introduced when new anemones are added to tanks with otherwise healthy anemones. I haven't always followed any QT protocol, but just as with fish, I think it would be wise to when introducing anemones.

 

[jeff@zina.com]

Bacterial infections don't transfer among uninjured anemones. If you're buying an injured anemone, then you've already compromised your system. Lots of reports on reef forums of "infections" but nobody seems to have hard facts to back them up. I have yet to see any directed studies of anemone health, but I seriously doubt anti-biotics work any better on them than they do on corals.

Jeff

 

[BonsaiNut]

I have yet to see any directed studies of anemone health, but I seriously doubt anti-biotics work any better on them than they do on corals.

Check it out (particularly the footnoted articles).

There are a ton of articles about the rise in marine diseases - and many that focus on coral diseases and infections. It is a relatively new area of scientific focus. I am not aware of any articles specific to sea anemones.

I think the jury is still out on your 2nd point about the utility of antibiotics.

 

[Reef1589]

Bacterial infections don't transfer among uninjured anemones. If you're buying an injured anemone, then you've already compromised your system. Lots of reports on reef forums of "infections" but nobody seems to have hard facts to back them up. I have yet to see any directed studies of anemone health, but I seriously doubt anti-biotics work any better on them than they do on corals.

Jeff

so your telling me my S. Haddoni got sick for another reason? and had nothing to do with the S. Gig it was just ironic that it happened couple hours of introducing the S. gig? ( just trying to figure out a cause to why my S. Haddoni is acting up ) cause i dont see any other reason for my haddoni to act up the way it is.

 

[Indymann99]

I prefer to QT nems in a fully cycled QT. I pull a piece of LR from the DT and place the nem on this LR (makes it easy to xfer the nem to the DT after QT and keeps it from "wandering" in the QT. Also I think having a LR base helps the nem during QT.
If I have fish with the nem and they get sick then they go to a "hospital" tank. The nem stays in QT with NO MEDS...

Just my 0.02

Nem clowns QT vid

 

[OrionN]

Bacterial infections don't transfer among uninjured anemones. If you're buying an injured anemone, then you've already compromised your system. Lots of reports on reef forums of "infections" but nobody seems to have hard facts to back them up. I have yet to see any directed studies of anemone health, but I seriously doubt anti-biotics work any better on them than they do on corals.

Jeff

Saying this is like saying that since I never seen anyone fell down a ten floor building and died, and there is no control study as to what happen to people jump down a ten floor building, so it is a myth that people died when they fall down a 10 floor building. All the news story that people died fallen down a 10 story building are just hearsay and should not be use as base to conclude that people died when they fell down a 10 story building.

It is a well know fact[b/] that many reefkepers, myself included, have had healthy anemones for years. New anemone introduced into the tank, it turn out to be sick and died soon there after. The previously healthy anemone took a turn for the worst and died with died with identical symptoms shortly there after.

It is a well know fact that many anemone died shortly after capture without any apparent visible injury. They deflated frequently then died. It is a well know fact that clams died of infection (like White spot disease, and Pinched mantel disease) treatment of these infections same the clam. Elegance coral died of infection acquired during capture and transport. They usually died of this infection,and they will transmit this infection to other Elegance coral. Examples of this type are endless. Just because reefkeepers lack the resources to ID and do anything about these infections does not mean that it does not happen. Just because we did not identify the disease, does not mean that it does not happen.

Just like people in the dark age in Europe died of the Plague, and people in the tropic died of Malaria (bad air) way before we can ID the organisms involved. I am sure if we put a price of 5 mil dollars on finding the organism that cause PMD, we can ID it in the mater of weeks.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

The problem with suggesting a qt for certain anemones (like giganteas) is that few of us have a qt tank with the required bright lighting etc. that is needed. It is essentially a duplicate system to the one the anemone will live in. That doesn't mean it wouldn't be a good idea if you already had a prize anemone, just that it may be very expensive to carry out for a one time operation.

 

[davocean]

IMO the risk of transferring anything harmful into an aquarium from a sea anemone is so slight compared to the risk of losing the actual sea anemone by putting it through the QT process I personally would bypass QT.
I agree, not many of us can provide a QT that is stable or established enough.