Green Carpet Anemone

[Eric Noa Jr]

Hi Everyone,

I have a green carpet anemone in my reef tank and it looks like is dying or something it doesn't look like when I got it 3 weeks out. It has some white stuff coming out of its mouth! I was wondering if any of you has lost an anemone and have taken any pics of it so that I can compare then to how mine looks. I would post a picture but right now my camera isn't working and until I get a new one I won't be able to upload any pics. The anemone is pretty small 3inches in diameter. Thank You

 

[Toddrtrex]

[welcome]

Do you know what type of "carpet" ?

What size tank?
What lights?
What are your water parameters --- with numbers.
How long has the tank been set up?
What else is in the tank?

If it looks anything like the following 2 pictures I would be very concerned.

Now, if it looks like the following pic, I would take it out of the tank -- might have to use a net --- so it doesn't fall apart.

 

[Eric Noa Jr]

Its a Haddoni Carpet Anemone! I have a RBTA anemone in the tank also. The tank is 75gl but the anemones are really small. I have 2 14k MH and PC Actinics. The tank has been setup for over a year now and the water parameters are as follow:

- Temperature – 78° F
- Ammonia – 0.0 ppm
- Nitrite – 0.0 ppm
- Nitrate – 0.5 ppm
- pH – 8.0
- Gravity – 1.025

I have 2 Clownfish's, 1 Chromis, 1 Yellow Tang and a couple of corals

 

[Eric Noa Jr]

Where did you get that anemone?

 

[Toddrtrex]

Your numbers look okay, but what is the wattage of your MH bulbs?
Did you/are you acclimating that anemone to your lights?

That anemone came to be over a year ago, I want to say that I got it from the Diver's Den section of LA., it lasted about a week. S. Haddonis can be sensitive shippers.

 

[Eric Noa Jr]

Your numbers look okay, but what is the wattage of your MH bulbs?
Did you/are you acclimating that anemone to your lights?

That anemone came to be over a year ago, I want to say that I got it from the Diver's Den section of LA., it lasted about a week. S. Haddonis can be sensitive shippers.

I have two 150w MH and yes I have been acclimating

 

[Eric Noa Jr]

anoyone else?

 

[MartMul]

Personally, I think there is something not quite right. If this was my tank I would have bumped in a few extra powerheads to increase flow. something is irritating it and it may be too weak to move itself, so bring more of everything else to it.
When the mouth is 'in', does it feed at all? my last green carpet ate like a very hungry thing and grew at the same rate

 

[bues0022]

Haddoni's do not like a lot of flow. I would not suggest putting extra powerheads in. You need to match your tank specs (flow especially for haddoni's) with your nem. I'd listed to anything Todd has to say - he's the resident expert especially on haddoni's.

 

[beuchat]

Remove the anemone to an hospital tank with a powerhead pointing him (be carefull for him not to get caught by the pump).

Add 0.5 ml per 60 liter of water of erofloxacine (found in the vet) daily . The anemone will recover in two days but should be mantained until you see no necrosis or mouth everted. Perform water change every two days

This is a very powerfull antibiotic and it works for anemones

If him looks like the two first pictures you can saved him, if lookes like third it is two late

 

[bues0022]

I wonder if you could expand on your theory some more. I have never heard of someone doing this. What kinds of anemones have you tried this with? Can you show some pictures? I'm curious about the antibiotic, but quite hesitant about the powerhead pointing right at the haddoni - they are quite sensitive to flow and I'm not sure it would appreciate such direct flow.

 

[beuchat]

Hi Blues0022,

In "The reef aquarium vol. 2" book by Julian Sprung is explained how to treat anemones with antibiotics. He sugests to use cloramfenicol which works in my experience, but kills also the quarantine filter bacteria and you have amonia spike.

Cloramfenicol is an antibiotic from gram-negative bacteria like vibrio,which causes a lot of infection in reef fishes and invertebrates. About the eronfloxacine, I read an article in Sept 2006 issue in Coral Magazine and it is a modern wide-spectrum antibiotic wich can be used in small dosages because it is very powerfull. Cloramfenicol is bacteriostatic and eronflaxicine is bactariostatic and bactericide (does not allow the bacteria to synthesize some proteines inside) and also kill some gram positive bacteria.

I tried with heteractis magnífica which was deflated with the stomach everted for three weeks and starting with necrosis. Remove and added cloramfenicol and I reversed the condition in three days.

Then back in the tank , but should have treat for more time so him was ill again. After 3 weeks removed again and used enrofloxacine and now is in qurantine aquarium looking very healthy. I recommend to treat for 10 days with the antibiotic, even when the symthons have dissapear, and wait until necrosis is reversed to reintroduce the animal. Perform 1/2 whater change every two days when using eronfloxacine or cloramfenicol.

Please, note that when the animal evert the mouth is because want to get reed of small organics wastes which are decomposing in their stomach, but they can not do this unless you use the antibiotic (because thay are deflated). After one or two days of treatment they will inflate and start spelling the waste, the mouth will slowly strat to close and then is time to reintroduce in the main tank. Moderate to strong current helps the animal to expell the waste



Here you can find the pictures of the recovery with cloramfenicol in plastic bucket:

Three days after, back in the display tank:

But had to removed again because the treatment was too short

Today, after 4 days in eronfloxacine, in QTtank:

hope it helps

 

[bues0022]

Thank you for the added information! I wonder if it seems to be so effective why I haven't heard of this type of treatment before. Thanks for the citations and pictures.

 

[beuchat]

Maybe because Croramfenicol is not aproved in USA because it causes damages in humans. I got the eronfloxacine from the vet in a commercial form called Baytril from Bayer.

Check Julian´s book and Coral Magazine September 2006 issue. I was also surprised that in RC nobody is using these modern antibiotics for anemones when they are so efective

BR

 

[OrionN]

Maybe because Croramfenicol is not aproved in USA because it causes damages in humans. I got the eronfloxacine from the vet in a commercial form called Baytril from Bayer.

Check Julian´s book and Coral Magazine September 2006 issue. I was also surprised that in RC nobody is using these modern antibiotics for anemones when they are so efective

BR

Would you tell us the dose of the medication, and if you redose after so many day? Water change?

 

[garygb]

Regarding the antibiotic treatments, how is the water adequately treated before disposal? The thought of adding more antibiotics to the environment, with an already burgeoning problem of overuse of antibiotics, is unsettling. I believe I've read something on here about the use of bleach to destroy the antibiotic. I don't recall the procedure for that. Perhaps anytime antibiotics are suggested, appropriate disposal should be included.

 

[bradleym]

Perhaps anytime antibiotics are suggested, appropriate disposal should be included.

+1

Since this seems to be so effective, it is likely to catch on as it gets refined to a streamlined process. Best to start good habits early rather than retrain society after the fact. If you know of a proper disposal method please post!

 

[LisaE]

Remove the anemone to an hospital tank with a powerhead pointing him (be carefull for him not to get caught by the pump).

Add 0.5 ml per 60 liter of water of erofloxacine (found in the vet) daily . The anemone will recover in two days but should be mantained until you see no necrosis or mouth everted. Perform water change every two days

This is a very powerfull antibiotic and it works for anemones

If him looks like the two first pictures you can saved him, if lookes like third it is two late

Hi Beuchat and all,

I have a s. gigantea that I believe has a bacterial infection. I've had it for a few of weeks, and for the first few weeks it did very well, but a few days ago it began shrinking up daily, then would not fully inflate. It also had been eating well, then a couple of nights ago it spit the food out a few minutes after eating. I'm posting a before and after photo. The before is from a week ago, and the after is today in the hospital tank.

I've moved the anemone to a hospital tank and am currently treating with Maracyn (erythromycin), but I don't think that's strong enough. I've found 10% liquid Baytril (enroflaxicine) that I should get in 2 or 3 days and I would like to treat with that. I see you dosed 0.5 ml per 60 liters of water, but do you remember the concentration of the enroflaxicine that you used?

Also, did you have full light on the anemone during the treatment?

Thanks for your help!

 

[D-Nak]

@Lisa... please keep us updated. This information is exactly what's needed for S. gigantea since the rate of survival is so poor. In the second photo, the nem's tentacles are extremely short which means that it's definitely not happy (they look shorter than normal in the first photo as well). Has it been inflating and deflating?

 

[LisaE]

Hi D-Nak,

At first it's behaviour seemed normal, and it was eating well. I had put it under an LED light that was giving it about 300 par and it seemed to like that well and had become larger than it was at the LFS. I was hopeful since it was doing so well. I first thought something was wrong when it deflated again Monday morning after just doing that on Sunday morning. When I tried to feed it Monday night it ingested the food and pooped it out just a short time later, and it had never done that before. It's deflating once a day now, which definitely isn't normal.

I've ordered some Baytril online (I haven't been successful in getting any from a local vet) and I should have it in a couple of days. In the meantime I started it on some Maracyn, which will hopefully start working on the infection.