Cipro treatment failing?

[ThRoewer]

Well, your advice still helped a bit as it does on the outside better than on the inside.

The anemone deflated again today and started to move. It also spit out more white stuff. But by now it started to inflate again.

I feel the treatment has done as much as possible for a fully bleached anemone.

So I consider giving it a Zooxanthellae injection.
Which may be the best Zooxanthellae donor - besides another crispa obviously?
I have several zoa colonies and a few LPS of which the Duncanopsammia axifuga seems to be the best choice.

I also still have live Zooxanthellae left in a bottle on my window. When I checked them today I found that they had multiplied quite a bit and that there are lots of motile stages in the solution. This would likely be the best. Though the density is a far cry from green water and I don't have a centrifuge to concentrate them enough for a meaningful injection.

 

[ThRoewer]

This morning, instead injection, I simply poured a quarter of my Zooxanthellae culture into the HT. I turned the filter and skimmer off and only left the power head on.

Now, about 12 hours later there are still plenty of free and motile Zooxanthellae stages present. So I will give them another day and hope at least some will pair up with the anemone.

The anemone seems to be a bit more stable - no deflating or gaping mouth today.

 

[ThRoewer]

Well, it deflated again yesterday, including gaping mouth.
Today it inflated again after I put it inside a flowerpot laying on the side.

Since it won't go anywhere without reacquiring some Zooxanthellae I decided to give it an injection. I took a syringe with a needle and sucked up a couple of tentacles of my Duncan coral and injected those into the mouth disk of the anemone.
After half a day I can so far see no ill effects.
Let's see if this takes.
I will continue this until the anemone takes on Zooxanthellae or has to be flushed...

 

[ThRoewer]

It seems to go downhill quickly now.
It's no longer able to attach itself enough to hold up against the flow.
This morning it looked like it was already done but over the day it improved slightly.
Though I don't think there is still hope the anemone will recover from this state.

Lesson learned: don't buy a completely bleached anemone.

 

[ThRoewer]

I flushed it last night. Since my last post it never inflated again.

 

[addictedreefer]

Bummer. IME, if you do not see significant improvement (with no regression) within 3 days, your chances of bringing the nem back are essentially nil. Realizing this could save us a lot of salt, RO filters, electricity costs and innumerable grey hairs.

 

[D-Nak]

I flushed it last night. Since my last post it never inflated again.

With prolonged exposure to the antibiotic, IME they anemone dies but decays at a slower rate, so it appears that the nem is still alive when it's been dead for a few days.

 

[D-Nak]

Bummer. IME, if you do not see significant improvement (with no regression) within 3 days, your chances of bringing the nem back are essentially nil. Realizing this could save us a lot of salt, RO filters, electricity costs and innumerable grey hairs.

+1. I pushed and pushed and ended up wasting a lot of salt water. It's pretty simple actually -- if the nem is too weak and doesn't inflate, it can't take in the medication. 3 days sounds about right.

 

[ThRoewer]

I stopped dosing cipro after 8 days.
I think the primary issue wasn't a disease but rather the fact that it was completely bleached and wouldn't take on new Zooxanthellae, likely because the right species were not available in the tank. Due to that it was just living of its substance and slowly consuming itself. I tried to feed it but don't think it ever took anything.

I'm more and more wondering how these are collected and if that's the reason that crispas so often arrive completely bleached.

Well, I got a medium gig from LA today and this time I'm not taking any risks and put it straight into QT.

 

[rt67ghy]

Sad to hear your H. crispa didn't make it.

 

[ThRoewer]

The lesson I learned from this is to stay clear of completely bleached anemones. It is just too much of a gamble if they will take on Zooxanthellae from other species.
If you have another, healthy and fully colored anemone of the same species (or at least genus) chances may increase dramatically.
In the past I had luck with a neighboring anthelia colony reseeding a bleached crispa, likely because it had a compatible Symbiodinium strain.
This time it seems none of my other corals had the right strain.