Protocol for using antibiotics to treat infected anemones ~Added to 7/30/14

After 24 hours before lights off.
How is he doing?

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I wanted to thank you for posting this. My gig that I just purchased last week had signs of being sick one day after putting him in my tank. I started treatment with cipro 2 days ago and he's looking 80% better already. This is a great thread that saved my anemone, I'm not out of the woods yet but the anemone is responding great to the treatment. Thank you!
 
I'm having a pretty bad luck recently with anemones. Today, one walked into the powerhead. I put it in a quarantine box....He is pretty scratched up, should I treated with antibiotics too?
 
You may want to treat it for a few days to make sure it doesn't get infected. What kind of anemone? BTA?
 
Im still treating, and I am on day 10. I will try and post a picture tonight. Mouth is still wide open.
 
I am not exactly sure what specimen this is. It's neon green bubble with purple dot on the tip.

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It's a BTA. They are usually hardy, and often survide getting torn up by PH often. It would not hurt to treat him until he start to heal up some.
 
Day 10 of treatment
 

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Day 13 still looks the same. Should I move the anemone out of the qt and back into the display?
Any suggestions?

Thanks
 
If he does not deflates I would move him back to DT. Open mouth often does not mean that the anemone is sick. Open mouth in sick anemone is different than your's. sick anemone does not have fleshy thick lip like your anemone's mouth.
 
Day 13 still looks the same. Should I move the anemone out of the qt and back into the display?
Any suggestions?

Thanks
Having open mouth does not always mean poor health. This is my Multicolor Gigantea that I got for almost 1.5 years at this time. He grew from 6 inches to 18 inches. Here is his mouth tonight. Often, it is even larger than this.

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Hey Minh, long time no talk.

Been off the forums for almost 9 months after loosing well over 100 6month Black Photon clowns that were ready to go due to a skimmer pump melt down, but on to my problem.

So I have been keeping a Magnifica in my tank for about a year, healthy never had problems with it, never moved. I have many pictures of it posted somewhere on my other old posts but maybe you remember those Minh. Anyways about a week ago it decided to walk, managed to push aside the screen on my MP40 and got destroyed, took out two 2.5 Year old tangs with it (I believe from stings caused by the destroyed tentacles). Almost lost a couple other fish as well but was able to save them.

This last weekend I was in San Francisco and what would you know I see a good Purple based mag at some hole in the wall down town. The store was pretty gross and the nem was fairly large (12" column). While I know the success rate of larger mags is atrocious I couldn't pass up the chance to at least try, knowing that I had some ability and knowledge regarding treatment with antibiotics (I know I helped you a bit when you first started treatments with half life information caused by light and water, I see you have that information in this article which is awesome). Anyways I made the purchase and brought the beauty home.

Day 1-

No deflations, wasn't holding it self up as well as it should but looked fairly well in the Tank and wasn't moving.

Day 2-

No deflations for most of the day, about 9pm the tentacles began to look less full, I made sure I had everything I would need to begin treatment if needed.

Day 3-

Came home from work today with approx. 15% of the tentacles beginning to look stringy, the mouth was slightly open approx. .75 inches, I made the decision to begin setting up a treatment tank and move the magnifica into it tonight.

So here is the interesting part. I set the tank up which is a 10g with a sump return pump for flow. The tank is sitting in my broken 55g (kids broke it a little over a month ago) which still has its 4bulb t5 fixture so I placed the 10g down inside the tank for the purpose of using it for lighting. I placed a basket in the 10g that just so happens to fit perfectly added the heater and water matched salinity etc.

Well By the time I went to pull the nem out of my display tank one half of the nem had deflated tentacles but the other half looked mostly normal (only slightly less full). As I began removing the nem from the rock work, which it was still stuck to fairly well I noticed something weird as heck......My finger went right through the center bottom of the nem and out the mouth :O.

At this point I have realized one of two possibilities, either one the nem was starting to look bad because it has begun the splitting process which I know can and will make magnificas look pretty dismal for quite a few days, or it is deteriorating (but there is no bad smell so I feel its splitting not deteriorating). Either way it is still one of the weirdest things I have experienced with nems, especially magnificas which I have no kept successfully for over a year.

I decided to move it into the treatment tank regardless because even if it is splitting I would rather ensure that it is healthy and has a easy infection free split, and if it is sick than I would like to remove the bacterial infection and allow it to heal its hole in the middle.

As of now it is not expelling any zooxanthelle or "guts". I did take a number of pictures but I will load them up tomorrow morning for you to see Minh. This should be a fun one to follow.

Tyler
 
Tyler,

So sorry about your clown babies.
However I am looking forward to see the picture of your new anemones. I think for sure your anemone is splitting. My experiences was the same. Several times when my Magnifica split, it start to look bad, then the mouth dilated an a hole form on the foot, I can see the rock through the dilated mouth. I got pictures posted here on RC years ago but one of the server upgrade chewed it up. I am too lazy to look for it from my massive old photocolection.

Hope everything is well and you will end up with two beautiful Magnifica.
 
Yah indeed I hope for the same thing. I know the babies is just part of the hobby, I am just glad I had them in a separate system then the parents who I still keep in my reef tank.

If the Magnifica is splitting then I may keep it in the Treatment tank for a couple weeks while it starts the healing process. Perhaps that will help in the recovery of the nem as well.

When I lost my original Magnifica my breeding pair of clowns were very displaced. Despite the fact I have 9 or so BTA's in the tank they were unsure of where to go. They did eventually move to the BTA's with the snowflake occe that is also in the tank but continued to go back to the rock looking for their real home. The moment I added the new Magnifica they were right back into it (in fact before it was even out of my hand and placed). I have high hopes everything will be good with this nem and hope I do end up with two beautiful Magnificas.

Tyler
 
No good, nem melted about day 5. I am suprised it went so fast after looking fairly good from the day I got it. The next one I will start treatment on it on day 1.
 
Can this be used to prevent infection, not just treat it? I propagate btas and would be curious to know if a quick dip would do them some good?
 
OrionN do you think Fish Flox is an acceptable form of Ciprofloxacin, or would it be better to obtain a prescription for Cipro from a local doctor/dentist?
 
I think FishFlox is OK. Get it from reputable dealer. Heat and moisture will degrade most medicine. Keep them in cool dry place is very important.
 
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