First carpet, day 3....

[velfamily]

The clowns are in LOVE.

Her (hadonni) mouth is still open fairly wide, although has not extruded any stomach.
She has also doubled in size (disc and foot) of what she was at LFS.


While I feel her size change is a good sign, I'm concerned because the mouth has not yet closed.



Advice?

 

[bues0022]

pictures? parameters? specs?

 

[Toddrtrex]

pictures? parameters? specs?

Yep, need to know that before going forward.


The picture would be very very helpful -- sometimes it is normal (( somewhat )) acclimation, and others it is the beginning of the end.

 

[velfamily]

Here she is at the store, these are also the clowns I purchased (it was an order I placed with my LFS- hadonni carpet, small and 2 blk saddle clowns, 1 small, 1 med)
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29056768@N00/5248963749/" title="at store by RebeccaVelasquez, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5241/5248963749_652c8989c1.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="at store" /></a>

At home, after a 4 hour acclimation, day 1:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29056768@N00/5249568390/" title="day 1 by RebeccaVelasquez, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5205/5249568390_ff611a6ea0.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="day 1" /></a>


Day 3, pic of mouth
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29056768@N00/5248963509/" title="day 3 by RebeccaVelasquez, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1406/5248963509_55b7c5513d.jpg" width="374" height="500" alt="day 3" /></a>

Tank Specs:
Cleaning Crew
1 strawberry crab
2 clowns
various small coral (colt, buttons, cabbage leather, star polyps)

14g, 2 yrs old

Params to come... must wait until kidlets are having lunch.
ALso, to be noted: I just fed the clowns, unsure if this will affect the #s

Salinity- 1.022
Nitrates- 5-10 ppm (right between the two).... higher from adding carpet & clowns?
Ph- 7.4
amonia- 0
Nitrites- .25.... again wondering if addition is cause?

going through my notebook, the last time any #s were high was when I added the rock from a different tank 4 months ago... ?

 

[Cheebs]

It's not looking too bad, but the tank is far too small. The anemone will outgrow it in a matter of weeks with the right conditions. You may want to consider and upgrade!

 

[velfamily]

we were quite surprised at the size! We do have another tank, a 55g.

The intention is for the carpet to eventually live here.
We will be moving this tank in a few months & thought it would be easier on the carpet to only go through a tank change, rather than a tank move.

We got this guy through store credit that we needed to act on by year's end... resulting in her early arrival

 

[Toddrtrex]

Your salinity should be at 1.026

Is your pH really 7.4?

Should have 0 nitrites, and feeding the fish shouldn't effect your numbers, if it does, things are off.

If possible, get the clowns out of that tank -- A. polymnus have a nasty habit of diving into the mouths of S. Haddoni -- a healthy one can handle that, but not a newly introduced one.

How long as the 55 been set up? What lights does it have? A 14 gallon is way too small for an S. Haddoni, even a small one.

 

[velfamily]

Thank you for the info on the clowns! I'm sad and frustrated. My LFS guy should have known this . It's an "order only" type place because his main job is tank care for businesses in all the cities around here. There are actually 3 other LFS and I chose to go to him because I felt he knows his stuff better than typical employees of the other stores. I will be calling him shortly.

And YES, they have been doing this! In all the reading I did, not once did I find this information. We chose the black clowns because they match the furniture in the living room (of all silly things!).

I do have a pair of maroons in our 55. Although they are large & have "loved" 2 anemones to death in the past year. I'm nervous to put the carpet in with them. And there is no catching these guys, too much rock work & they are quick!

The 55 tank is a little over a year old.

The parameters on the 55 are all exactly where should be... Ph on that one is at 8.1

The lights on the 55 are T5s. Do you feel this is enough for the hadonni?
If so, I'll go switch off all lights & get her moved over.

 

[kmu]

What T5 fixture do you have in the 55g? with a nice fixture you can keep that carpet...

 

[velfamily]

Fixture is a Current, model 1126

http://www.aquacave.com/current-usa-48-nova-br-extreme-t-5-fixture-br-2x54w-10k460nm-1126-2367.html


All plumbing & such is exterior, & it has a 20g sump w/ both culerpa & LR.

We are going to buy a new tank in a few months that is drilled and such. We are waiting until we have more than necessary saved up (Murphy's law!)

 

[velfamily]

Ran to LFS, picked up some Ph buffer.....

added it, will test again in a few...


Thank you all for your help/advice!

 

[Toddrtrex]

Ran to LFS, picked up some Ph buffer.....

added it, will test again in a few...


Thank you all for your help/advice!

I personally would skip the pH buffer for now, and figure out why your pH is soo low -- could even be a testing error.

What are your Cal, Alk, and Mag levels? (( those 3 will have a very big effect on pH )). Also, once you have your salinity at the proper level, the pH might be higher.

 

[velfamily]

My husband has taken a sample of the water to the LFS to have these 3 params checked ... will post when he returns

 

[Toddrtrex]

Good deal -- that pH buffer ends up causing more issues then it fixes, and it is only temporary anyways.

 

[velfamily]

After teh results of the chemistry test from the LFS, we ended up doing a large water change on the nano, after removing the carpet (the kidlets have named her shirley)

The water params on the 55 were all perfect.

We moved the carpet to the larger tank. The maroons are still investigating. The male (ozzy) seems much more interested than our female (harriette).

Hoping this was a good move.

Cross your fingers for everything to work out.

Again, thank you for all help with this!

 

[SkullV]

After teh results of the chemistry test from the LFS, we ended up doing a large water change on the nano, after removing the carpet (the kidlets have named her shirley)

The water params on the 55 were all perfect.

We moved the carpet to the larger tank. The maroons are still investigating. The male (ozzy) seems much more interested than our female (harriette).

Hoping this was a good move.

Cross your fingers for everything to work out.

Again, thank you for all help with this!

Just a heads up, but if the light that you posted is the exact one you have on your 55 then it is not nearly enough light for the nem. From what I have learned on here carpet nems need the most light of almost any nem and 108W over a 55 won't cut it.

 

[Toddrtrex]

What is "perfect" for the water parameters?

If the clowns try to be hosted by the Haddoni, I would put a basket around the anemone to keep them out of it -- the anemone is too stressed right now, and that will only add to it.

 

[velfamily]

update

update

Wanted to drop in and give an update, as you all have been so helpful. I truly appreciate it!

The haddoni was moved to the 55. I addressed the lighting issue by adding a small light fixture over the area where she is. It is an extra that was on the 12g tank in my husbands office that cracked over the summer. It's not pretty, but until we can get the new tank purchased & have it running for a while... this is the solution.

The clowns seemed to know the carpet needed some time. They were interested & would 'test rub' but never agressive-as goldbars can so often be.

This morning, we woke to see the clowns happily snoozing in the carpet.
She is standing straight up, mouth tightly closed and swaying with the current.

I will be sweeping sand around her foot when the kids break (we homeschool) and go outside.

Is there anything else you feel I am missing?
As today is the first day her mouth has been tightly closed, should I offer krill bits? or wait another day?


Also, the 2 black saddles we bought for the hadonni died within hours of taking it out of the small tank. We tried everything to save them. It was awful
We have also lost 2 green chromis and our diamond goby, all 3 from the 55. I am going to assume they must have touched her. The foxface lost color for about an hour, but has since recovered.
We are opting to leave the 14 gal in the living room a coral only tank for now... I want to eventually add another pair of black clowns-with a bta, this time. But first, we are wanting to spend a few months monitoring the water. After reading many articles on Ph drops, at this time, we are leaning towards aeration as the cause. It is a completely enclosed system, so we have added an airstone (per an article in reefkeeping) to the first chamber of the filtration system---now wondering if I'll ever get used to the slight bubbling noise!

Again, thank you all!

 

[bues0022]

A tightly closed mouth is a good sign. Monitor it though as I've read others have seen a nem oscillate between tight and open mouth prior to eventual demise. I'm hoping it's a recover and not this though.

You mentioned it was swaying in the current....Haddoni's actually do not like much flow. If the oral disk is being moved from the water flow it can become unhappy and may walk. They tend to be one of the more sensitive species of anemones for flow requirements.

Good luck!

 

[bradleym]

Just a heads up on the 14g nano, even a BTA will completely overwhelm that tank in a few months max if it does well. Having a clown/anemone combo usually requires a minimum of 20 gallons.

Congrats on the progress! I am sorry to hear about your fish losses, but it is possible that the clowns were sick, and causing both the elevated nitrate levels and the open mouth symptom. As for the other fish, you may be right. A sting from a carpet is no funny business.

IMO I would wait another day to feed. I don't have a lot of experience with carpets but I have been reading a lot and have seen several stories where feeding too soon stressed the anemone greatly.