LTA "poof" - dreaded silverside?

[MachPilot]

Just joined the community here,

Avid long time SW enthusiast and anemone lover. Multiple tanks.

Currently have one with 13 rose BTA's, red and blue carpet, sebae, and a purple LTA.

Multiple clown pairings in that tank as well (maroon, skunk, allardi, saddleback)

This tank has had its inhabitants growing and thriving for three years.

My LTA (purple) and stunning has never been a problem. Always fed him krill. Decided to feed him a small silverside the other day. Took the head and tail off. It wasn't a large piece - maybe an inch.

9 hours later it was shriveling up as a anemone can when its about to expel waste. Then it shrunk up with only a few tentacles visible from under the sand.

A few days later, no tentacles visible, Its been 4 1/2 days. Sick to my stomach that the simple silverside could have done that....but its looking that way.

Going to give it a week...but if it doesn't re-appear, its likely dead. What a terrible shame and loss. Am so irritated. Another reason not to feed anemones silversides. No conclusive evidence...but it sure seems that way.

And after keeping anemones for nearly 10 plus years now, my first silverside loss. Sickening.



Thoughts?

 

[Whiterabbitrage]

Very sorry for your loss.
Following

 

[MachPilot]

Anyone else lose a LTA to a silverside - with no other possible explanation?

 

[Reefahholic]

I just threw a whole package of silversides in the garbage.

Tagging along to hear this.

 

[moray23]

Sorry to hear about this. I feed my carpet and btas silversides with no issue. Why did you toss yours reefahholic?

 

[ca1ore]

The prevailing wisdom these days is to not feed silversides to your anemones due to potential contamination (bacterial, heavy metals, etc.?). Frankly, I don't target feed my mag at all, it just gets whatever fish food floats by or is provided by the clowns. If I were going to target feed, I'd use the larger frozen krill.

 

[MachPilot]

I completely agree. I will never feed my anemones a silverside again. Within 7 hours of feeding it shrank up. Disappeared under the sand.. with only a few tentacles visible...then gone - under the sand never to be heard or seen again.

Never again. Not even sure based on these horror stories you read why anyone uses them. Totally blame myself. Just sick over my stupidity and refusal to believe what I have read over the years.

 

[SwampyBill]

Sorry about your loss. Thankfully you didn't feed all your other nems from that same batch of silversides...After reading on here about contamination from silversides for years, I've never used them. I prefer feeding small pieces of uncooked shrimp, scallops or frozen krill.

 

[MachPilot]

Can frozen scallops work? Just pull a few out of the freezer bag and thaw in some selcon?

Dont want to use fresh scallops becaus eoyu cannot re-freeze them would presume.

 

[SwampyBill]

Sure, frozen is fine. You can get a bag of frozen mixed seafood at Publix for 1/10th the price at a LFS.

 

[OrionN]

I got frozen Medley seafood too. 2.55 for 1 lb. last a long time and the anemone got variety in their diet

 

[davocean]

Anyone else lose a LTA to a silverside - with no other possible explanation?

I lost 3 healthy LTA's after a feeding of silvers, no other changes, literally watched them shrivel, release, and begin to deteriorate.
I lost a Malu after feeding a special mix, only to discover silvers were in that mix that I was not aware of.

 

[MachPilot]

I thank you other anemone hobbyists in shedding light on this topic. I was a non believer on the silverside issue, until it happened.

My stupidity....but thanks to your wisdom, it will never happen again.

 

[MachPilot]

Bought frozen seafood medley and frozen scallops today at store.

Has calamari, mussels octopus and shrimp. No more silverside again. Also got 2 fresh scallops as a treat - soaking in selcon.

 

[taylor t]

I'm not sure where you are, but I'm quite some distance from the ocean, so "fresh" seafood is not a reality for me, as I would call it... I foolishly thought the kid on the corner isle in the grocery store had what the sign said, "fresh shrimp", only to ask the kid, I explained my intent, the cost of animals I'm feeding, and he fessed up... He says, "They defrost them, then put them on ice. If I'm looking to freeze them, buy the frozen, as it's not good to freeze twice." For me, the only way to be safe is to buy all my food frozen, and raw, meant for human consumption.

 

[SwampyBill]

I was living in Tampa Bay when I got into saltwater hobby; so fresh was just down the street. I agree, don't re-freeze what you get in supermarket. That frozen medley is great & has a good variety in it.

 

[davocean]

I thank you other anemone hobbyists in shedding light on this topic. I was a non believer on the silverside issue, until it happened.

My stupidity....but thanks to your wisdom, it will never happen again.

Same here brother, I scoffed at the claims myself since I had many nems for many years that I fed silvers to w/out any issues.
But like you and many others, it only takes one bad experience to school you hard enough to never risk it again.
It's just not worth it, too many other safer choices.

 

[biecacka]

So what else do you guys feed your nems?


Corey

 

[davocean]

Shrimp, scallops, mysis.

 

[Reefahholic]

I got frozen Medley seafood too. 2.55 for 1 lb. last a long time and the anemone got variety in their diet

Minh, where do you get yours at?

All my Nems got sick from PE Mysis from Petco.

I'm done...time to get table shrimp, scallops, etc..

My blue Gig is nearly dead from it. 3 of my 5 mags are doing better. One, is in treatment tank and the other is still questionable. I'll know in the morning if he needs to be treated or not. He seemed to be doing slightly better.

Gig isn't responding well to Cipro or Amox. Fixing to dose some (Sulfamethoxazole 800mg, Trimethoprim 160mg).