New carpet Anemone dying? Help! Gaping mouth

[DVeit]

I was at petco earlier and I have NEVER bought any fish/corals from petco. Well they had a green haddon carpet nem that looked as though it was being neglected (surprise) and it already had an open mouth but wasn't severe (he was $39). Well I got it home, drip acclimated for about 2 hrs and stuck him in the tank. Sometime from traveling home till when I started the acclimation the open mouth got severe. Now he had a huge bubble with his guts out. I was hoping to save this guy but now it's looking like I didn't do it any favors. I have turned my power heads to very low and only moonlights are on. I have him on the sand up against a rock and he did grab ahold of the rock quickly. Any suggestions?

 

[ca1ore]

Almost looks like its upside down in the picture? Plenty of threads here on HT with antibiotics.

 

[DVeit]

Well in the matter of a couple mins it went from looking like the pic above to this.. Hoping for the best!

 

[Kaman8]

Give it a few more hours and see if the mouth will shut. It could be stressed. If it still gaping tomorrow I will take it out and treat it in qt

 

[DVeit]

Here it is this afternoon. You can see by the colors why I took the chance at petco for $39 to save this beauty..

 

[Daniel62]

From the last pic, I would say that it is probably sick. I would treat.

 

[SwampyBill]

What are your water parameters, lighting & how long has your tank been running? Judging from your sig, your tank is a few months old. It's recommended to let a new tank mature for at least 6 months before adding an anemone, even longer for a carpet. It's clearly stressed; keep up w/ water changes to keep parameters as close to 0 as possible. I'd put it in QT & start treatment w/ cipro ASAP.

 

[DVeit]

My nitrates/nitrites/ammonia are always 0, I run phosban in a reactor and phos stays 0 usually. I've stabilized my ca and mg pretty well at 450 and 1460, I've gotten my dkh to stay between 9-9.5. And ph at 7.9-8.0. How he looks in the last pic is better than he looked at petco. My lighting is two 18" Acan Prism LEDs, and running a wp-25 ph. My tank has been up for about 6 months. I've looked into cipro my only issue is I don't have another set of lights for my hospital tank. I have a 20L qt for my fish with no light and a 15g hospital tank with no light as well. Any suggestions?

 

[taylor t]

FTS may help. If you want to use the same light, it would have to be a manual swap twice a day. Light your DT in day, light your QT by night. This may be a total pain though.

 

[DVeit]

Fts?

 

[ca1ore]

My nitrates/nitrites/ammonia are always 0, I run phosban in a reactor and phos stays 0 usually. I've stabilized my ca and mg pretty well at 450 and 1460, I've gotten my dkh to stay between 9-9.5. And ph at 7.9-8.0. How he looks in the last pic is better than he looked at petco. My lighting is two 18" Acan Prism LEDs, and running a wp-25 ph. My tank has been up for about 6 months. I've looked into cipro my only issue is I don't have another set of lights for my hospital tank. I have a 20L qt for my fish with no light and a 15g hospital tank with no light as well. Any suggestions?

I would give the nem a bit more time in the display - doesn't look that bad in the last picture. Inflate/deflate cycles are what you want to keep an eye out for. If you do end up needing to use a HT, lighting can be really basic. I use one of those cheap
aluminum reflectors from HD with a CFL bulb. $12 total.

 

[DVeit]

Ok. He did deflate yesterday for a couple hours then reflated and was inflated all night. I do have one of those light that I use as my sump light for my chaeto. What is fts?

 

[OrionN]

FTS=full tank shot so we can asses the whole tank condition, the environment the anemone is under.

 

[DVeit]

Ok. I can do that. Lights still in sunrise in this pic..

 

[OrionN]

I would take him out and treat him with another course of antibiotic

 

[taylor t]

Nice aquascape, I like your rockwork. Looks nice.

I also think you should remove it and QT. Doesn't sound like you medicated already, and if you don't have meds, at least pull it and get a QT started with fresh made saltwater (aged, aerated 24 hours works best). Just looking at how white those rocks and sand are, and it's just my opinion (a guess), that anemone may struggle to adapt to that tank in the condition it's in. NOT that it's bad, but still may be a little on the "too clean"/new side... QT may help it acclimate to your tank/water better. At least start by getting it an internal "water change", then try using your tank water in QT, after it improves, to see how it reacts. Getting an anemone that's in "poor" shape to acclimate to a tank that's in "moderate" condition (not that your tank water is bad, but time helps establish ) may be a struggle. Getting an anemone in "good" condition will be easier to get acclimated to a "moderate" condition tank, if this makes sense. Your tank looks like it should be ready to support an anemone, but you need to start with a healthy one. This anemone is not healthy right now.

I would still order meds, but by the time they come, you may find it doesn't need meds if it starts looking better, it may just need to "change it's diapers".... But keep in mind, the stage yours looks to be in, some don't make it from this point (some do), so sooner action is better. Best of luck to you.

 

[DVeit]

Thanks Taylor!

 

[DVeit]

Oh something I meant to ask is. Should I try feeding it, or just leave it be?

 

[OrionN]

I would not feed anemone when they are sick. This do more harm than good.

 

[swhobbie1]

I had to save a nem from petco too. It was at the highest point on a piece of drift wood :-( they put in its tank. I figured it had a will to live so bought it and hoped for the best. it did ok but took awhile to look decent. Here's some pic. Day 1 - it was white. 4 months later it had some color and split into two. 4 months after that it had even better color. The think likes to eat! Had it for 15 months now. Good luck with it.