QT setup for H.Magnifica

WEll when I first got as I said it was not moving and was completly deflated. It looked like it had a purple boot and the tips of the tentacles looked pink. Everything was squared off. I aclimated it to the water in my tank via drip method over about 4-5hours. I then grabbed a net and placed it in the tank in a net prison. Upon lifting it and placing it in the tank, it immediately started to ease a white smokey looking substance into the water out of two tubes located somewhere around its mouth.

It looked as though a gas bomb had went off and the smoke was oosing. WEll this didn't last long, soon after it just deflated back to a small mesh. I really didn't think it was going to last much longer. I did not take amny pics of the anemone at this point, because it was dark in the room and I was more concerned in getting it in the tank. I think I took one or two, but the lighting was not good so you couldn't see anything.

Well to my amazement the next day it was stuck to the side of the mesh prison. Inflated some what. I didn't look like it was purple anymore, I cant really tell yet what color the boot was. Oh and I couldn't see the pink tips anymore either. I did snap a shot of it though from the top of the tank.
 
Bumping to provide info requested by pm :)

Still not sure how I feel on the whole antibiotic issue, but it deserves looking into someday. Anyone have any grant money burning a hole in their pocket?
 
Very interesting thread.
I think in TRA 2, Delbeek and Sprung mention treating sick anemones (S. gigantea) with antibiotic help survival of this species.
Minh
 
hey phender...you're a teacher...how about doing a lesson on petri dishes, specimen collection, microscope use, fungus, bacteria and viruses with a little sterility and cross contamination thrown in?

:)
 
Or maybe I should just write a microbiology lab book. :D

Last time I isolated and IDed a bacteria was 25 years ago.
 
Flighty & Phender,

I can only add my experiances to the thread, maybe they'll help, maybe they wont. Here goes...

Purchased 1st H.magnifica from phishybusiness. After a week or two of touch and go behavior, (deflating and generally looking like crap for a few hours while acclimating to my lighting), the anemone began doing great. After about a year, I found another one for sale from another online vender. I got this anemone in and it looked a little rough, so I hurried through the acclimation and put it in the tank. The only other thing I added to the tank during this time was a Red Sea Regal Angel. The new H.mag did not make it. Shortly before it died, my healthy one began to show the same symptoms as the new one, flacid tentacles, slack mouth, tentacles withdrawing inside themselves almost like fingerless gloves. I was pretty upset since I'd had this anemone for over a year at this point.

I talked to one of the LFS guys here in StL who seems to have better than average luck with anemones in his store. He stated he dips all anemones in Doxicyclene for about 8 hours after they arrive from the shipment. He said his wholesaler told him to do it for best results. I was able to beg a couple of doxicyclene pills from him. Took the once healthy, now sick H.mag, and placed it into a specimen container with a dox pill, (100 mgs), added an airstone. The nem began to slime and with the airstone, I had a foam dox bath going in short order. After 5 hours, I did a 100% water change, and used another Dox pill. Left the nem in that mix for another 12 hours.

The nem made a full recovery and I still have it. I decided then and there that I would dip all incoming nems to prevent another cross contamination.

Hope that helps,

Nick
 
Thanks for this this thread, Flighty:)

I am setting up a 250 for my anemones. I plan on having a Magnifica island in the middle of the tank. I was going to set up a QT tank for the new Mags so that infection could not spread to my healthy Mag. I really didn't like the idea of how expensive it would be to set up a proper QT for a mag. Especially knowing it would only be used a few time. If these antibiotics work, a new Mag should be ready for the display in two days and not two months. Now I just need to ask my Vet if she will prescribe the meds for me.

I agree with you 110% on the possibility of the infection spreading to healthy anemones. I don't need a scientific study to tell me that infections are contagious in closed systems. We see it all the time in this hobby. Fish diseases spread, brown jelly spreads, RTN, STN, the Elegance coral infection. It only stands to reason, that as the microbes responsible for an infection increase in numbers, that eventually they can overwhelm the defences of a healthy animal. I would imagine that the Oriental people learned this hundreds of years ago in their Koi ponds.
 
I wouldn't be too quick to decide that an antibiotic will be a cure all. We don't yet know what causes this apparent infection, what antibiotics if any would be effective. It could be a virus a protozoan or any number of things and even if it is a bacteria that is the problem we have never determined what antibiotics affect it.
 
I don't expect the antibiotics to be a cure. I just said "IF these antibiotics work"

This treatment could provide a possible alternative to setting up a QT tank. It's worth a shot, right?
 
Wow I was in this thread too :).

I've never been on board with the infection or the chemical warfare theories.

Why? There hasn't ever been a solid connection between circumstances of the losses. Another words over the years I've had a fews Ritt's die on me. Let's look at the symptoms.

-Rapid purging cycles
-Roaming [Questionable if this should be here]
-Shrinking of body mass
-Gaping

This goes on for a few weeks at most and then we see the interior of the animal began to break down and the mouth gape completely. Dead anemone.

The problem here is that these symptoms are common to all "unhappy anemones". There isn't one symptom that we could say is common to all Ritteris who pass on. The only distinquishing thing I see from experience is that Ritt's don't bleach or visably throw their zoo, they just die.

I respect you guys for looking into this though and would be more than open to it working :).
 
This is simply my opinion based on my experience with anemones in general. It's not based on scientific experiments carried out in a lab, so take it for what it's worth.

The only distinguishing characteristic Mags have in my opinion is their level of sensitivity to shipping stress. They do show the same symptoms to this stress as other anemones. It's just much more common in Mags.
I BELIEVE that the rapid purging is an effort to rid themselves of foul water and growing microbial populations within the anemone. They run into problems in closed systems because when they reinflate they take up some of the water they just purged. The microbial population continues to grow and overwhelm the weakened anemone. The microbes begin consuming tissue, the anemone shrinks, and the purging continues. Eventually the destruction becomes to severe and the anemone dies.
We know that newly introduced anemones will be weak and stressed. They become an easy victim of microbial infections. If there is a way to reduce the number of microbes within and on an anemone, it only stands to reason that the anemone would have a better chance of survival. At least to me. To me, this would be like putting Niosporin on a cut. It doesn't cause the wound to heal directly. It simply removes the microbes that inhibit healing.
 
I don't know where anybody else gets it but I have three pharmacists in the family LOL. If I didn't, I would simply go to a veterinarian and explain what it is that you want it for. They probably won't give you a hard time about it and may even have some sample packs they could give you since you really wouldn't need much.
 
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