My H. crispa looks roughed up

[raoul]

I turned on the lights today about 12:30. I came home from dropping my daughter off at pre-k and took a look at the tanks to see how everyone was doing waking up (I'm always looking at my tanks ).

When I take a look at my crispa it looked pretty roughed up and I'm not sure why, although I have an idea and I wanted to run it by you guys.

I took some pics and tested my water to make sure, those will follow. The first pic is with no flash, the second with.





There's a bit of slimy/stringy looking stuff entwined in the tentacles, and some (many of them) look like someone has tied fishing wire around them. The mouth isn't gaping (thank goodness!), but it isn't closed tightly either. The outside and foot look fine. It was closed up in a ball before the lights came on like it always is. Last night it was fine too. I took these pics less than an hour after I turned on the lights.

Water parameters: (used Aquarium Pharmecuticals (?))
Phos. = 2.0 or less
calc. = 440
alk. = 14
ph = 8.2
nitrates = 0
sg = 1.0256

My alk is a little higher and my ph a little lower than last time I tested (1/25/07) but I think it might be because I'm at the begining of my light cycle and usually we test at the end of the day.

I agree my phospates are high, but I don't believe this to be the problem. We've been fighting high phos. the whole 2 years the nem has been in the tank. We made changes a couple months ago, and they're coming down slowly. (changes made were adding sump. chaeto, better skimmer, etc.)

Here's my thought. A few weeks ago we added two peppermint shrimp to help clean up uneaten food (trying to get those phosphates down). Is it possible that during the night one of those critters tried digging the food out of my nem? It ate some scallop on Saturday night.

Actions? I'll be asking my husband to do a water change tonight. Any other recommendations or thoughts?

I tried to make the pictures a reasonable size, but if they're too big I'll change them to a thumbnail link.

TIA!

 

[raoul]

I didn't like how much space the pics took up, so I posted thumbnail links, just click to see a bigger pic.

Also, some of the tentacles are stubby, but it always looks that way when it's waking up

I tried to get a pic of the mouth, but it wasn't easy. In the first pic the mouth is in the bottom right corner. In the second, it's still in that corner, but further in.

 

[raoul]

Some of the tents are looking a little better, but it looks like there's actually algae wrapped around some of them, I'm trying to picture how this could be.

I did notice something out of the ordinary this morning (a few hours before I turned on the lights). The nem is attached to a rock, and there were little bristleworms poking out of the rock, I counted about a donzen of them. They were only on the rock, not the nem, they weren't even facing in the direction of the nem.

That makes me think the stuff that was/is on the nem is a) scallop, b)nem tissue, or c)shrimp carcass/parts

If the pep did this I sure hope the crispa made a meal out of it

 

[anthworks]

I am new to the H. Crispa (I jst got one). Does it seem a little starved? the short tents? Have you changed the feeding? I may be way off.

 

[raoul]

No, it's not starved (although I need to replace my lights, waiting for tax refund).

The tents shrink when I turn out the lights, and it takes a little while for them to get to full length. The lights had been on for less than an hour when I took these pics.

We feed this guy about every three days or so. Some of the tents are growing back/filling in. There was one section a few months ago with a line from the outer tentacles to the mouth that had no tents and lighter coloring (possible injury since it was localized (?)), but with amped up feedings this area is coming back nicely. That area is very visible in these pics, those are probably the tents you're referring too. Some of the tents do look bad, and that's not normal for this guy, that's one of the first things that caught my eye this afternoon.

The amped up feedings have been steady for three months or so. I try to wait for it to "poop" before I give it more to digest - don't want to over feed

Thanks for the ideas though, sometimes it's easy to overlook the simple things.

 

[anthworks]

What do you normally feed? Do you have MH lighting?

 

[raoul]

Yep, MH lighting. This thing loves scallops and will take shrimp too. I don't do a lot of silversides though, I would if they were individually frozen but I totally play the girl card when it comes to breaking frozen fish apart.

I think the set up is fine, it's been growing and happy for 2 years, that's why I'm leaning towards something trying to steal food, it's been known to happen.

Pep. shrimp can be aggressive and have been known to dig into lps and nems to get food.

Last month we banished a bristleworm from the tank, it had crawled in the nem's mouth (assuming once again for food), but it tried to crawl out and the nem tried to hold on. (Someone else came on and said it had happened to his a time or two too). I would think the same thing happened this time too, but the nem doesn't look quite the same, but I guess it's possible we just stopped things before it got to this point last time.

The oral disk still looks a little rough, and there's still stuff around the tentacles. I'm going to try to get some more of it off, I've been trying to get a little at a time so I don't stress it too much. It doesn't seem to enjoy it.

 

[anthworks]

Does it seem to have changed color? Maybe a bleaching? Anemones do a body column water change and shrivel up and then regenerate. Apparently they can slime during this process.

 

[Amphiprion]

I observed that when my anemone was 'downcurrent' of a much stronger stinging cnidarian (Plerogyra, in my case). It looked like slime wrapped around the tentacles, and in some areas, they looked split open with a brown material inside. Do you have any strong stinging cnidarians other than the anemone?

 

[raoul]

Does it seem to have changed color? Maybe a bleaching? Anemones do a body column water change and shrivel up and then regenerate. Apparently they can slime during this process.

It does not appear to be bleaching, and the tentacle shape doesn't look right for when it does an internal water change.

I observed that when my anemone was 'downcurrent' of a much stronger stinging cnidarian (Plerogyra, in my case). It looked like slime wrapped around the tentacles, and in some areas, they looked split open with a brown material inside. Do you have any strong stinging cnidarians other than the anemone?

None of the tents have the split open look (thank goodness!). There is a euphyllia on the other side of the tank that's been splitting recently. It's been in the tank for over a year, but doesn't seem to be downcurrent from the nem. There's two lock line tubes bringing the water up from the sump. The one on the same side as the nem points away from it, the one on the other side of the tank points at the front glass.

I turned the lights on not too long ago, and I'm trying to get a good look at it, but I need to wait for it to open up some more and the clown to get out of the way! It does look like the mouth is open more than it was yesterday. The tents I can see do look better than yesterday, but I can't see them all yet.

I found both my peps last night, so if it was one of them, it got away.

My other thing to consider is my old light. It's over a year old (a little over 1 month over) and I've been waiting for money to get the new bulb. I'm waiting for payday.

I would like to get the clowns out of it for a bit to let it recoup, but there's not a stawberry basket big enough to cover it, and when it's open it's part way on the sand, rock, and glass. Hoping mouth gets tighter as it wakes up.

 

[Amphiprion]

Well, they wouldn't always 'split open' (even then it wasn't dire), but some would be shriveled at one end and they would look stuck together. Try carefully changing the current (don't upset the anemone) and see if that doesn't help. Also, when feeding some LPS, when they egest what is left, that can rough up the anemone too if it lands on it. I doubt it is your lighting, though, because I have waited much longer than what is recommended on several occasions.

 

[raoul]

Good to know about the lighting My husband filed our taxes today, and usually this early in the tax season there's a pretty quick turn around, that's where I'm getting fishtank money Hoping for the light as well as a couple black occells for my other tank.

Yeah, some of these looked stuck together, some of them looked like when you twist long balloons.

Now that it's had some time to wake up most of the tentacles look much better and the the mouth looks a little loose but definately closed. I'm hoping that within the next two days it won't look like it was ever stressed at all.

I also think I might change the feeding a little bit, just in case it was something going after food. I'm going to make the pieces a little smaller and feed earlier in the day. I'm hoping this gives it more time to digest before the night time critters come out to play