Haddoni mouth out

[Cliving1]

I have had my green haddoni for about a year and a half. Never had any issues, but the last few days its mouth has been out, like its eating. So I fed it, stopped for a few hours. Its a little too consistent for my liking. Any thoughts?

 

[Cliving1]

Would a picture help? Anyone have similar experience or thoughts?

 

[OrionN]

Pictures would be helpful.

 

[Cliving1]

How do I do that now photobucket has changed their policy?

 

[OrionN]

You can upload picture to RC. Go advance below

 

[Cliving1]

Lets see if this works

 

[OrionN]

I had similar proble. Get back on my water change schedule and it resolves. Maybe due to poor water conditions

 

[Cliving1]

Ok will do water change tonight. Thanks for the advice.

 

[Cliving1]

Still doing water changes. Two so far at 5g. Tank is 40g. Mouth still not in good shape. Hopefully it starts to return to normal.

 

[lilyost4290]

what are your parameters?

 

[Mad Marine]

Analyse water - check phosphates.

 

[Cliving1]

Yeah so nitrates are sky high. Not sure I do regular water changes, I have a decent skimmer. Just did 50% change. Going to see where I am at and do it again in a day or two. Curious how it got so high

 

[Steve Atkins]

Too much feeding or something died

 

[Cliving1]

Half a cube of mysis every other day. Going to stop feed flakes for now. Not a single thing has died, fish or coral. Anemone is still in the same shape. After just doing 50%, how long should I wait to do another and how much?

 

[Cliving1]

In total, a 5 gallon and 2-15 gallons. Schedule to do another change tomorrow. Anemone has reduced size to about half and mouth is still out. Its been almost 2 months...anyone think it can make it?

 

[Cliving1]

Now Im going to ask a stupid question. It has not changed since the mouth opened up, still eating. Should I try to push the mouth back in? Gently obviously. I mean its not looking worse, just not sure if some freak reason happened like a frag dropped on it and it can't spit it out or something. Racking my brain on this issue over here.

 

[kozmic]

Now Im going to ask a stupid question. It has not changed since the mouth opened up, still eating. Should I try to push the mouth back in? Gently obviously. I mean its not looking worse, just not sure if some freak reason happened like a frag dropped on it and it can't spit it out or something. Racking my brain on this issue over here.

What exactly were your "sky high nitrates"?

For example, lets say that NO3 was 60ppm, a 5gal (12.5% of 40gal) water change would have only brought NO3 down to ~52.5ppm, then the subsequent first 15gal change would have brought to ~32.8ppm, then the second 15gal change would have brought to ~20.5ppm.

The above assumes that no new nitrates were being added to the water column during the time period of the water changes, but that is probably not the case... so the net net is actually probably(?) a bit higher than ~20.5ppm even after the water changes.

5gal of 40gal - 12.5% of 60.0ppm NO3 = ~7.5ppm NO3 removed
15gal of 40gal - 37.5% of 52.5ppm NO3 = ~19.7ppm NO3 removed
15gal of 40gal - 37.5% of 32.8ppm NO3 = ~12.3ppm NO3 removed


Obviously don't know what your starting NO3 is/was, but I say keep with the water changes... just realize that your same 15gal change (37.5% of your 40gal) removes less and less total NO3 with each subsequent change as the total NO3 number comes down... so it takes quite a few partial changes to lower total nutrients in the water column.

Since it sounds like you've gotten a build up of NO3 over time, you probably have a nitrate factory somewhere in the system (excess detritus, decaying food, etc)... I used to use the round "bio balls" in a trickle filter in my sumps and determined that they were a NO3 factory... removed. Other areas are sand bed, live rock crevices, etc.

Hope your Haddy recovers!


eta: Oh, and although I am no nem expert by any standard (have a couple BTAs and one Haddy myself), I personally would not try to push the mouth back in on any nem... I would think you're more likely to increase the stress level than anything else by doing so.

 

[Cliving1]

Nitrates were 50, never had them that high before.

 

[OrionN]

All you can do is to change your maintenance/skimming and feeding schedule to bring the water condition to good and hope for the best.
IME, a good sand bed will eliminate nitrate problem. Then you need to worry about Phosphate.
LR these days are not very good. The man made LR, and the mine terrestrial rock that get seeded in the Ocean (like Tampa Bay) have good Macro Organism but not at all porous like "real" live rock we got from old days. They may look fine but does not function at all like the old dead coral skeletons from the reef.

 

[Cliving1]

Ok I wont touch the mouth at all. Its currently sitting in the middle of the tank is 2" or a bit more of sand with its base along some rock. Always seems to back itself in. Medium flow. I will stay on top of water changes, my skimmer just stopped working this weekend actually. Debating whether to get another one or wait until I upgrade the tank.

What do you think about something odd happening like something falling in and it cannot get it out?