LTA and survivability with hole in foot

[Slickcg33]

Im writing this because my LTA that i thought was healthy has developed small hole in its foot and im looking for insight on possible causes, or theories.

A bit of back story.
This is my 3rd try with lta. My first lta never buried its foot but stayed in a rock crevice for about a month before showing signs of a tear in its foot. My 2nd lta was shipped and i noticed a small hole in its foot upon arrival. That one didnt last long (got store credit).

My current LTA(3rd attempt) i picked up at a LFS after having them hold it for me for 2 days. In the store it was attached to glass and showed no visible sign of tears in the foot. I brought it home and it quickly buried its foot in my substrate. It was eating well, had a closed mouth and extremely sticky tentacles.
The anemone stayed buried for about a month and then i reintroduced the clowns to the tank (The tank was currently fish less because i had all the fish in QT, i was doing a copper treatment.) . I have a pair of clarkiis and they were Incredibly ruff on this anemone. The anemone never looked as expanded as it did when the clowns were out of the tank. It began to SLOWLY move, maybe .25" a day. The female clown then began to sweep the sand out around the foot of the LTA. Within about a week the LTA unburied itself, and its mouth started to gape open. I looked at the base of the foot and there didnt appear to be any tears or holes in it. I took the clowns back OUT of the tank to try to get the lta to heal back up.

It has now been 5 days, ive turned one of the pumps off to prevent the LTA from blowing around the tank. It hasnt attached to anything and I just looked at the foot this evening and there is a small Pinhole sized hole in its foot were you can see a very small amount of intestine protruding.

Basically im thinking this anemone is done fore, thats not really why im writing this(in my experiences they never recover from this). Im writing for insight on this topic. How did it get a hole in its foot? Im assuming it didnt have it during the month it was buried in my substrate, or even when the clowns were in there. Do anemones protrude their intestines out small porrish holes in their foot when they get stressed? Can they keep everything inside when healthy and when sick they protrude intestines? Im really confused. Did my anemone have a hole in its foot the entire time and just now with the added stress of the clowns it began to have an effect? Any insight or theories are welcome, im extremely confused.

 

[Slickcg33]

Before you all ask about my params or lighting, they are fine, i dont believe that would cause a hole in a anemone foot lol(please correct me if im wrong though). However if anyone wants to know i can get hard numbers tomorrow.
Lighting is 250wt de mh 14k phoenix.
34gal solona, it has been up for a year and a half.

 

[Toddrtrex]

I have yet to have one recover from having a hole in its foot. Want to say that I have had 4 like that over the years. But, in my cases they all came like that, and didn't happen while in the tank.

"Fine" doesn't give enough info for parameters, going to need the numbers -- want to rule out everything we can.

There is a possibility that the Clarkiis caused the damage.

IMO, any anemone will never extrude anything out a hole in the foot if it was healthy. The any time my LTAs were stressed/ticked off, they would protrude the insides out of the mouth.

 

[Slickcg33]

Temp: 80
Salinity: 1.025
PH: 7.9
Nitrite:0
Nitrate: 0
Ammonia:0
KH: 11
Calcium:400
Phospate:.05
My mag test kit broke so i dont have mag readings.

Everyone likes pics, so here are some to go with the thread

 

[clowns101]

I had ordered a small LTA from Wet Thumb Frags and it had three holes in its foot.I was able to bring it back but he still hasnt attached to the glass but is starting to dig down into the sand.We will see what happens I guess.But I would say its possible.Mine is doing good now but hasnt attached but I will work on that!

 

[Slickcg33]

I had ordered a small LTA from Wet Thumb Frags and it had three holes in its foot.I was able to bring it back but he still hasnt attached to the glass but is starting to dig down into the sand.We will see what happens I guess.But I would say its possible.Mine is doing good now but hasnt attached but I will work on that!

I had these questions written in a paragraph, but it might be easier to answer in list form:

1)how long has it been since youve had it?

2)what do you mean by "able to bring it back" did the intestines go back inside?

3)Have you been doing any supplemental feeding? dosing iodine in some food or vitamins?

4)What do you mean by it is starting to dig down? Has the foot actually buried itself or is there just a divot where it was resting?

 

[clowns101]

1).Ive not had him to long but Ive had him 2 months.His doing really good now!Eating and every thing.

2).When I say bring it back I mean the anemone its self was able to bring in the intestines back within and was able to regenerate the skin with good water conditions and good feedings.

3).I just feed him mysis with a turkey baster.

4).The anemone is starting to bury its foot in the sand and he now has attached to the glass.

Hope that helps!

 

[Slickcg33]

1).Ive not had him to long but Ive had him 2 months.His doing really good now!Eating and every thing.

2).When I say bring it back I mean the anemone its self was able to bring in the intestines back within and was able to regenerate the skin with good water conditions and good feedings.

3).I just feed him mysis with a turkey baster.

4).The anemone is starting to bury its foot in the sand and he now has attached to the glass.

Hope that helps!

very impressive, ive never even heard of an LTA rebounding from that issue, but it sure sounds like yours is.
Do you have the nem in a tank by itself? how did you keep the nem from floating around the tank when it didnt plant itself? How often did you feed it

 

[Toddrtrex]

..........

I hope yours recovers, but that looks similar to one of mine that didn't make it --- again they came this way, so that might have something to do with it.

Blurry pic, but should give an idea.

Here it is in the tank (( the right one )) it held on for about a month, the hole was a lot bigger when it finally died.

Two others that didn't make it -- the second one was a lot worse.

 

[Slickcg33]

i had one other lta that i forgot to mention, it didnt appear to have a hole in it when purchased, but after a week in the tank, 3 holes appeared. That one held on for about a month before dieing. And like you said the holes got bigger and more intestines protruded untill it started to decay.

On the topic of why i posted, anyone have theories as to why this anemone appeared healthy and buried for a month and all of a sudden developed a hole in the foot? Did it have it all along and just got progressively worse? Is this something that ltas can do when stressed?

 

[clowns101]

very impressive, ive never even heard of an LTA rebounding from that issue, but it sure sounds like yours is.
Do you have the nem in a tank by itself? how did you keep the nem from floating around the tank when it didnt plant itself? How often did you feed it

The anemone is bacsicly in a tank by itself.All I have in there with him is a Maroon clown which dosent host the anemone yet.

The anemone is in a tank with the flow directed towards the glass.So the water go across the tank instead of a terbulant flow.I like a very clean and forward flow.

I new anemones about once a week.I will do it more depending on how "worried" I am about the anemone.With this one I feed him only small mysis shripm every week till he started to eat.Now that he eats I feed him once every 2 weeks.Hes a bit bleached to so he gets a little more food than normal just to help the process all in all.

HTH!

Thanks,
Austin/clowns101

 

[SNAKEMANVET]

It is wierd that all those pics of the foot that the hole is in the middle of foot.It doesn't seem to be a tear.Like slickcg33 mentioned,maybe stress related.Just my .02.

 

[Slickcg33]

It is wierd that all those pics of the foot that the hole is in the middle of foot.It doesn't seem to be a tear.Like slickcg33 mentioned,maybe stress related.Just my .02.

thanks for the input, still looking for more theories or anyone else with experience on this subject.

 

[Slickcg33]

WEEK UPDATE:
well its been 6 days and it seemed to be doing exactly the same, until closer exception when i was doing a WC. The nem is much stickier, the mouth is slightly less gaping(could be just my imagination), and the Intestines protruding out of its food, have gone back inside. Even though i cant see a hole in the foot, i do not believe that it is closed up yet. Its base still isn't sticky and it wont anchor. Time will tell, but this LTA is showing small promising signs.

Pics:

6 Days Ago

TODAY:

Mouth:

 

[clowns101]

I think it looks great! Keep us updated as time goes on!

 

[Slickcg33]

2 and a half week update:
I had to place the Clowns back in the tank, i couldnt keep up with maintaining the qt system.

The anemones mouth has officially closed up. I got a silver side and soaked it in some selcone and iodine and tried feeding the anemone. Its response was great. Grabbed the food quickly and ingested it quicker then ive ever seen it done before. The anemone still isnt attached, and the clowns are still very rough but i placed it in a place in the tank where flow is blocked so it wont go on a trip. Things are looking good, but still a very uphill battle.

 

[Slickcg33]

Day after feeding, mouth is slightly open, but expanded and looking great. I havnt seen the anemone as expanded and healthy looking since it was happily buried about a month ago.

 

[Slickcg33]

5 week update if anyone is still interested lol...

The anemone has officially buried its foot back into the sand!!!! I found out today because the clowns were pisin it off so it closed up just enough so i could see , or rather NOT see the foot It still is quite small and hasnt been as big as i last posted, but it is accepting food regularly.

I would still say im not out of the woods yet with this anemone, because if you remember from my first post, it was originally buried in the sand for a month before dismounting and displaying a hole in its foot. However it has recovered nicely so far, well beyond my expectations.

Here is a crappy pic: