Carpet questions (Carpet Moving Pic) Is he healthy looking?

[o2zen]

I let my LFS talk me into a nice small green carpet when I was picking up my paired clowns. This was the 3rd LFS to tell me my stock system was good enough to keep a carpet in and 2 of them had a BC29 setup with mems. I take responsibility and since picking him up have done a ton of reading but still it seems like I am finding no real details other than they need lots of light and an established system and are very hard to keep.

I want to do the right thing which is give him back, give him to a friend with a 150, or upgrade and pray I can handle it which I would like to since I love how he looks and really want my clowns to host with an Anemone.

So what are my real options here?

BC29 tank â€"œ MJ1200 â€"œ Hydor Flow â€"œ 100w Heater â€"œ 40lbs LR, 40lbs LSand, 10lbs LR Rubble in the middle filter.

Upgrade my lighting to a 70w HQI 10k or 20k with one 36w Actinic
Upgrade my lighting to a 144w 4x 36w PC setup with 2x 10k, 1 Actinic, 1 50/50
Upgrade to some other type of lighting and don’t use my factory display top.

Give back or away the lovely green carpet until I get my 150g going down the road.

I can do what I need to in order to keep him alive and happy in my tank if I can get some good advise on how to do that or I can let him go. He is eating for me, and seems healthy, his color is very good or so it seems to me but I am not the expert here you guys are.

Here is a picture of him moving today. I rearranged my LR two days ago and he has been in this spot since then but decided to move today. I have not seen him move and do not know how it is supposed to look so I am posting a picture to make sure he looks healthy. My water is good as I test it every other day since I am still new to this.

If he does not look healthy tell me why and what you suggest I do asap. I do not want him to die because I was not prepared for this and let a LFS talk me into something I wanted in the first place but had doubts about since I am new to this.

Please don't yell at me. I need good advise and already feel bad that I took him home after all of the reading I have done since then.

 

[Slakker]

I've heard of carpets just detaching and kinda floating around in the water column for a while before finding a new spot...maybe yours is doing the same.

 

[o2zen]

I was worried by how wrinkled he looked. Is this mormal when they are moving or deflated?

 

[Slakker]

I'm not sure...I've only seen a few carpet anemones through my own eyes and they've all been horribly bleached and probably lacked the energy to move.

 

[COreefer]

How does the mouth look?

 

[hansonfam]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9053761#post9053761 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by COreefer
How does the mouth look?

That will definetly help as will all you parms from your tank. It is a very pretty green. The colour from what i can see looks good. But that mouth is a great question. Is it open?

I am not carpet expert by any means and hopefully someone who is more experienced will chime in.

Lisa

 

[o2zen]

I will post parms tonight when I get home. I did a 20% water change out last night but prior to that I was perfect in my water levels. When I had my water tested at two LFS a few days ago they both told me my water was better than perfect but I did not write it down. I test my own but drop into local LFS to have them test as well once a week to see whats new and see if my tests match theirs.

 

[delphinus]

When an anemone moves, it's sort of like how a snail moves. The pedal disk actually extends in a direction, the rest follows.

They don't usually detach (well .. depending on species some might, but typically any of the Indo-Pacific hosting species won't).

It could be stress, or it could be an injury to the pedal disk that is to explain why it's rolling like that.

Sometimes it happens but for the most part it's not a "normal" behaviour. I'm sorry.

I'm afraid the prognosis is not good. Unfortunately moving it to another tank at this point will likely stress it further.

Carpets have a poor survival record following collection. Those that make it to 8 weeks are pretty solid in captivity, but many won't make it to that point.

As for the overall health, can't really tell from this angle. As mentioned, if the mouth is open or not is a good indicator. What you want to see is it it's tightly closed. If not, it's sort of like "gasping for breath". You want water that's vigorously agitated to aid in good gas exchange. For example, an overly calm tank with no currents to blow off detritus is a bad place for an anemone to be.

Best of luck..

 

[o2zen]

Mouth - closed/shut when plumped out. Opens and almost looks like he is turning inside out when he is pooping and my larger clowns come in and helps clean the inside of his mouth. The little clown I think is afraid he would be eaten since he is so small

Eats silverfish for me whole with no problems once a week and I feed Cyclops-eze and Mysis to my tank as well.

 

[o2zen]

How can you tell if it is a tightly closed mouth or just a barely closed mouth. Can you touch the mouth to find out without hurting the Carpet. Also he is very sticky which I have read is a good sign and when he is plumped up his move with the current or on their own as shrimp and others come around him.

 

[COreefer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9054049#post9054049 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by o2zen
How can you tell if it is a tightly closed mouth or just a barely closed mouth. Can you touch the mouth to find out without hurting the Carpet. Also he is very sticky which I have read is a good sign and when he is plumped up his move with the current or on their own as shrimp and others come around him.

Can you see the internals of the carpet or do you see the protective outside of the mouth? The last post didn't sound to promising, but I am a novice with the carpets like you.

 

[o2zen]

I will take a picture or video the next time he is deflated and the Clown is helping clean his mouth. Its neat to watch as long as he is healthy.

It does not appear to be any internals when he deflates and the clown helps clean him out. He only does this a day or so after eatting a big silverfish as well so I assumed it was pooping behavior.

Do water changes stress out your tank? Whats the best way to do them? How many days apart of you need to do a big one and want to break it up? Etc.

 

[o2zen]

Dup Post Etc.

 

[WILDTHING]

This is a pic of my carpet, I've had it for over 2yrs now.

a closer pic

I can't tell you what most carpets do or like but I can share some of my experiences with you.

My guy doesn't move about at all, the only time he started wondering was when I went BB and tried to trick him by putting a pile of sand in the corner hoping he would settle in it, I thought I could remove the sand once he was attached. He hated life for about 1 week and rolled around stinging corals so I *planted* him in a tupperware container and he lived like that for about 1yr happily. The other 2 times he moved was when I first got him and when I set up this tank. I decided where he was going and I scooped out some sand to make a hollow area for him to dig his foot into. One thing I noticed is that even tho he wants his foot in the sand he still attaches to a rock buried in the sand. Even when I planted mine in tupperware I put a rock in the bottom for him.

If he was mine I would find a spot that had a big rock buried in the sand, scoop out a hollow next to it for him, put him in the hollow then put some rock around him to help him stay in that place without getting blown away by the current before he settles. Once he is attached you can remove the surrounding rock so he sits level in the sand.

I have kept my guy under 175MH but Dr Ron when he was still here wrote an article that said that they could survive on light alone but it was like surviving on candy for us. He also said that it really wasn't as important to have bright light for them as it was to feed them well and often. I've taken that to heart and I feed mine 2-3x a week. I used to feed him more (just cause I like to watch him eat)but he was getting so large I had to cut back on his food or today I'd have a tank with him alone in it because he was so big. If you are keeping him under lower lighting I would feed every other day.

To help keep tank parameters in check remove his poop sack he dispels some hrs after feeding. I tend to feed in the evening so in the am I look for his sack and remove it.

Your guy looks like mine did for that week when he would not settle, his foot from what I can see looks healthy which is a very good thing.

Dr Ron also mentioned that it was very important to get SW Silversides, there are FW ones too but they don't have the nutritional make up for SW animals.. If I remember correctly the SW ones are much bigger. My guy used to like Silversides but now won't take them,he's on a Squid kick these days.

Good luck with it, even tho mine has snagged an occasional fish I never regretted getting it.

Try to get a pic of his mouth, its a really important indicator of health.

 

[o2zen]

Thank for the great info. Until I pulled the LR out to treat for the Isopods he was sunk into the sand but was attached to the big rock he was next too. When I moved the LR out to the QT I put him on a piece of LR rubble branch so he would have something to hold onto then stuck that in the corner of the tank until I put the LR back in. He was happy there and even with the rubble he was holding onto he grabbed the glass as well.

In the picture the rock he is on top of if the peice he was holding onto and as you can see I did not dig it down ito the sand because I did not think it needed it but now that you mention it thats where he went himself right off the bat when I got him.

I will take some better shots tonight when I get home. To me his mouth looks healthy but I am not an expert on this guy. I love him though and want him happy and well tended so I will do what I need to for him. I am sad that I lost my Hermits already from the LR that was treated I do not want to lose anything else and while a fish being snagged would make my family sad I see it as life inside this little world in my living room.

How many hours a day do you use your light? Whats your patterns for light?

 

[WILDTHING]

I keep my lights on 12hrs a day. Then the moonlights come on.

One thing I should mention, sometimes mine when not fed when he thinks he should be gets floppy and his mouth gets puffy and sags a bit, he looks really pathetic and the first time I saw it I was sure he was dieing but the next day he was open and back to normal. Since then I have seen this happen many times and I now think it may be him expelling and changing water. But I wanted to let you know so that if you see it don't immediately think he's dieing.

Also,I can't stress enough the importance of good quality food for him. Get some squid, shrimp (tho my guy never liked shrimp I've heard of others taking it) fish you can cut into strips etc. When I feed mine I put the food on him and wiggle it a bit, he immediately will fold up over the food and shove it into his mouth. This keeps shrimp and crabs which I do not trust from trying to dig it out of his mouth. My skunk cleaner used to try to do that and it worried me because I was afraid the stupid thing would one day become a snack and also those pointy feet digging in the carpets mouth just freaked me out. I don't have any clowns hosting in mine tho yours might protect him from this kind of thing.

 

[o2zen]

My cleaner seem to be hosting my carpet They will grab Mysis and go stand on him and eat so either thay are dropping bits for him or they are teasing him horribly

He does deflat as I call it and his mouth gaps open which is when the clown comes and cleans his mouth. Then the next day he is back to his normal size. My tank seems to keep his poop cleaned up either by the clowns or the cleaners eat it which is odd.

 

[WILDTHING]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9055451#post9055451 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by o2zen
My cleaner seem to be hosting my carpet They will grab Mysis and go stand on him and eat so either thay are dropping bits for him or they are teasing him horribly

:rollface: :rollface: :rollface:

 

[55semireef]

WILDTHING, do you ever feed your green Haddoni? Seems pretty small to have had it for two years. But still a very beautiful green Haddoni at that. Funny avatar too. African Greys are SO smart.


o2zen, I would say your carpet is stressed out. Usually, carpets don't detatch when they move.

 

[WILDTHING]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9056070#post9056070 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by 55semireef
WILDTHING, do you ever feed your green Haddoni? Seems pretty small to have had it for two years. But still a very beautiful green Haddoni at that. Funny avatar too. African Greys are SO smart.

Yes I do feed it, I used to feed it almost daily but had to cut back because it was getting so big.


Thank you, LaLa AKA Bat Bird is a Umbrella Cockatoo, very sweet loving and cuddely but alas not as talkative as African Grays.