It's definitely a much lighter shade than the typical purple. I've never seen this lavender shade before... I'll post photos later. It is however very sensitive and has been in quarantine almost a month. Every time I think it's ready to move to DT, the mouth gapes and deflates. It's not responding like all the others have to cipro. Fingers crossed.
I completely agree with you -- both of the ones I picked up acted unlike others I had in the past. The purple one attacked me while I was poking it in the shop, which indicated to me that it was healthy, though bleached. I drip acclimated it -- and against my normal protocol -- placed it directly in the DT. That was a big mistake.
The blue one had its mesenterial filaments hanging out when I removed it from the bag when I got home, so it went directly into QT. It perked up and its mouth closed tightly, but I kept it in QT and began dosing Cipro just in case.
Meanwhile, after a week in the DT, the purple began to decline so I removed it to another QT tank. It didn't respond to Cipro so I used Septra, and it quickly perked up. The next morning it began declining again. Attempts with both Cipro and Septra showed no positive results and it died a couple of days later.
The blue one responded well to Cipro for a week so I stopped treatment but kept it in QT without meds. I felt confident to place it in the DT, but a day later it became floppy, not deflated, but unable to hold itself upright though it was attached to the rock. It was if it was sliding down the side of the rock. In hindsight, I think it was already dead.
What was unique about both gigs was that they both started declining in size, and began bleaching badly despite being under Kessil A350s. They were also eating themselves -- they began pooping partially digested tentacles.
I'm not sure what type of ailment we're experiencing, but those I've spoken to about this agree that it's a different pathogen that's causing a different infection, that's obviously not rectified with our standard Cipro treatment.
Best of luck with yours. Hopefully with continued treatment and careful observation that it sounds like it's getting, it'll pull through nicely.
