Is this Zooxanthellae being expelled?

Tango451

New member
If it is, what does this mean and what does this mean in regards to his health? There is a lot right now and it is brownish and stringy. I added extra flow in the tank today to see if that would help and moved a rock that was kind of under him away from to give him more room to spread out/ get ready in case I have to qt him (he is still attached to a very large rock so this might not be possible)
 

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I stopped the power head... still so much coming out. Do I need to qt him, do I need to leave him alone? I have cipro (checking to make sure in a second). I am trying to act as fast as possible now... any advice would be greatly appreciated
 
Found cipro, it expired 10 years ago... can it still be used? They are 500 mg tablets. Should I dose double?

I don't want to loose this carpet, I have had him for so long and he is my favorite animal - he is the reason I built the new tank. I have never had experience in treating and I have read all of Minh's post about it, but I still don't have experience with this
 
anyone? Don't mean to be in a rush/ pushy, but just wondering if I need to qt him and treat with cipro because if so, I want to start it tonight and not put it off
 
I don't see anything, expect part of a haddoni with an inverted mouth. It's really hard to help when I can't see what you're talking about.

Did it eat a big meal? If so, it could be poop. I'm typically worried when nems expel what looks like hard brown poop, stringy is not a big concern.

10 years is a REALLY long time to keep medication -- in that timeframe so much could've happened to it to make it ineffective, aside from it simply getting old and losing potency.

If it deflates I would consider treating it. How big it is? How long have you had it?
 
That haddoni is obviously stressed about something. Did you recently change anything in your tank in terms of lighting and flow? It would be helpful to see a wider angle picture, or perhaps an FT shot. How long has it been exhibiting the gaping mouth?
Since you've had it for a long time, something you did recently or perhaps some water parameter did upset it. Maybe it ate something that caused it to invert the mouth and expel zooxanthellae.

If you do, what do you feed it with?

Once carpets are established they are quite hardy, so most likely something out of whack in your tank affected it.
 
I do not think it was poop. (I hope it was) if you look really closely - it is hard to see- you can see a little light brownish string and there were tons and tons and tons) And I did add in a power head for a few hours and I know he was getting heavier flow than he ever has had and that was probably the large stress provider . I have had him for 5+ years and he has been in this tank for almost a year. Ever since he has had that inverted mouth bubble. (He is either 8 or 9 years old and I have had him since he was around 4 inches)

He deflated not too much but he did and also became a little limp as it was spilling out of him. I then cut off the power head, and added oxygen via a bubbler (for some reason he always perks up when I have to use them). I was in a panic last night concerning him (really thought I would wake up and he would be dead) I did feed him to pieces of shrimp (figured if he is weak, protein would help) and he took them and looks 90% of what he normally looks like.
 
I wouldn't hit the panic button yet. Haddoni's don't like strong flow. A good indicator is when parts of their oral disc begin lifting from the sand surface, it means you have too much flow and they generally don't like it. Looking at the FT shot, it seems like it's doing well.
One word of caution, don't feed it if it is stressed, cause the energy needed to digest the food might be used more efficiently to 'de-stress'.
 
That is true, I will stop feeding it for now - but hypothetically speaking, let's say his inverted "bubble" is just the way he is given he has been like that for about a year- like he grew that way and got used to it (I know this might not be very probable), would you recommend laying off feeding for a few weeks (2-3) or all the way until his "bubble" goes away (if it ever can)
 
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