DD Purple Annenome

Hi all,
So last Monday I purchsed a beauty off DD. Its my third attempt from them, and I'm not bashing as I still believe its the best place to get stuff from online. My first Malu Seabae didn't make it, still not sure why on that one. Second one arrived at 68 degrees after not arriving till 5pm the next day (i'm in WI only 4 hrs from them) Tank is a 180 gallon up for about 5 yrs. Mixed reef w/ LED lighting. All annenomes acclimated per instructions. Both that died were replaced under warranty, less shipping ($35)

So, I decided to try something a little easier, a purple LTA. Very excited for it as you can see from the pic.

However, much research told me to inspect the foot right away. You can see from the 1st pic in the bag two white spots where I knew I might be in trouble. The foot was damaged. So, acclimated it slowly and put into the tank. The next pic you can see a little black stuff coming out of its mouth. Either waste or something else. It still looked good so didn't think too much of it. That next night it stopped setting its foot. And then pretty quickly over the next 4 days the white spots on its foot grew larger and very fast. 99.999% sure its dead from the last pic I snapped this AM.

Guess I'm more bummed than anything. Im sure LA will honor the warranty as it was only 7 days, but my gripe is this guy was doomed from the start from all i've read about torn foots on LTAs. It probably should never have been shipped with a damaged foot. I think it should be treated as a dead on arrival because I'm a little tired of having to make up the shipping costs on issues that were of no fault of mine. So, just sad another one lost, it was a beauty :(

Andrew
 

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That's a shame. There are no LFS that you can go to even if you drive a couple of hours? maybe you can get a store to order a nem from their wholesaler and then you won't have to worry about how it does during shipping.
Ken
 
Good to hear, it really doesn't matter how good a store is, they are at the mercy of the shipping co. I think alot of us who have ordered super rare things in the winter have had the same results. I try my best to only order shipped items in the moderate temp months. It does suck when you get your hopes all up for some cool new thing that just shows up dead or near death..

glad they worked it out with ya~
 
I don't blame you, the shipper, or the store on this one. LTA's have very delicate tissue, and are easily damaged. Unfortunately, once they're damaged, they're pretty much gone. Their powers of regeneration are about nonexistent. I've never seen one live long enough to heal after being damaged. They can be very hardy critters for host anemones, if you can get them in one piece.
 
I've seen some get torn up tentacles pretty bad and survive(I think Toddrtrex had the most gruesome pics of this) but unfortunately a torn foot I have not heard of them recovering from.
They are more sensitive it does seem, but I would not let that stop me from trying again, nor the malu for that matter(what I presently have).
 
I've seen some get torn up tentacles pretty bad and survive(I think Toddrtrex had the most gruesome pics of this) but unfortunately a torn foot I have not heard of them recovering from.
They are more sensitive it does seem, but I would not let that stop me from trying again, nor the malu for that matter(what I presently have).

Do you know how long Tod's LTA survived after that?
 
Do you know how long Tod's LTA survived after that?

I'm not sure, but I do recall him posting pics to others for encouragement.
I do recall he had a bad experience w/ silversides like I did, and I think it was an LTA/doreensis he lost, maybe it was the same one, can't recall.
 
I've had very course substrate w/ a couple, no issues had from me, but mine didn't have a torn foot, that is the issue here.
 
Yeah, the substrate really isn't all that course, its similar to the DD sand as I can tell from the pics. It just looks a little out of scale because the anenome is only about 3/4 inch in the pics since it shrunk so much.
 
I kept LTA's even back in the day when crushed coral was what we used, and it was never an issue,(nitrates another story) and I'm sure that is much more coarse than what OP has.
 
My purple LTA decided to walk around my tank not once but twice and both times got caught in my closed loop intake, on the other end is a reeflo barracuda, both times I had to unscrew the closed loop intake and take pliers and cut the plastic for the screen to free the anenome, both times it recovered, I though I had some good pics of it in the screen, I cant find them, but it recovered fairly well, one of the times the foot had some gashes in it, but it recovered and is doing great today, all though I moved it to my cube tank that doesnt have a closed loop.
 
Just saw this thread.

I ordered a Purple LTA from Divers den myself. It came in flawless condition. I drip acclimated and set him on the sand bed and as able to see him put his foot down in the sand. It was awesome. It's only been a month and a half, but he seems to be doing well. Just my experience. Sounds like you've just had some bad luck. Don't give up! They are awesome!
 
Rush, yours is looking great! I'll post some pics of my new one I recieved from them under warranty. I started a new thread but it got moved to the vendor section so it probably wont get seen much over there. New one is pretty sweet looking :)
 
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