Ritteri anemone, aiptasia-x, and the unfortunate water change

[mstark]

Hello forum. Noob here. After several years of freshwater, I purchased an established and stocked 29 Biocube two weeks ago off of c.list for $275. Came with the stand, 2 powerheads, hydror skimmer, ato, 50lbs of rock, chemicals, salt, stand, etc etc. It was stocked with the following:
occ clownfish, 2 ritteri nems, mystery wrasse, 2 yellow-tail blue damsels, and a bluespotted watchman plus some star polyps and pulsing xenia, and a mojano infestation. After reading on here (and elsewhere) about moving tanks, I decided to discard the bulk of the sand and kept maybe 5lbs or so as seed sand. Also took the mystery, one of the nems and one of the damsels to the LFS for credit. The tank mini-cycled, as I thought it would from the sand removal, but after 4 days with water changes each night, it stabilized at 10ppm nitrates, 0 amonia and nitrites, ph8.3. I've added a few more snails to beef of the CUC which was pretty slim, and some mushroom frags.

Tonight, knowing the nitrates were still high for the nem, I did a 4g water change and dosed the mojanos with the aiptasia-x the previous owner included. Pump and powerheads were off, but one of the mojanos popped and before you can say "turkey baster" the aiptasia-x had gotton on the ritteri and the mushroom frags. Both bloated and then deflated. the mushrooms are expelling gunk, the ritteri is not. So, any suggestions?
Thanks
Michael

 

[ca1ore]

You sure the nems are mags? 29 bio cube is awfully small for a Mag. Also, Mag will be far larger than a majano, so unless you used an entire syringe full I cannot see how enough of the Aptasia x would really affect the nem. Wait it out.

 

[mstark]

Thanks for the reply. The previous owner said there were rose nems. Guy at lfs said they were mags because it had split itself (not sure if that is correct info?). They took up the entire top half of the tank. It deffinately reacted to it- but it isn't gaping or secreting, so that's good. Just sad looking. It hasn't fully expanded since the mini-cycle- its mouth gaped and it secreted then, though it never lost its footing and gradually moved to where the removed anemone was.
Mushrooms I think are done. It was a frag with 5 dime sized shrooms on it, and the 4 that got it look shot.

 

[OrionN]

If the owner said Rose BTA, then then are Rose BTA. Magnifica and BTA both split but BTA split much more often than Magnifica.

 

[garygb]

Regular water changes and running activated carbon along with your skimming should help get things back where they need to be. Pics?

 

[olemiss reb]

May want to find a new LFS.

 

[mstark]

I'll post some pics later. Original owner said that it was a rose nem, but also said the goby was a ywg (clearly bluespot/blackfin) and that the pests were aiptasias, not mojanos.

it looked like this when inflated http://www.meades.org/fish/fish_2005/ritteri_anemone.jpg

I have a bag of chemipure that I moved from the return chamber (passive, above the return pump) to the bottom of chamber 2 (active). Not sure how old the bag is, however. I'll throw some carbon in with it when I get home. Or should I only run one or the other?

 

[OrionN]

"Look like this" is not going to cut it for ID. If you want an ID, you got to post pictures. To tell the different between BTA and Magnifica, the picture of the mouth is important. Where it is in the rock structure and good clear picture of the tentacles, especially the tip.
BTA and Magnifica really require very different care. To keep him well long term, you got to correctly ID him.

 

[mstark]

so here are cell-phone pics. first is of the night we sent the tank up. lots of sediment floating in the water column, hence the poor, dim photo.

this is from the other night.

 

[OrionN]

You got two Green BTA with purple column. This color morph is (generally) not consider Rose BTA. The white lines around the mouth is the positive ID feature of BTA. Not all BTA has it but if an anemone has it, it is a BTA.

 

[mstark]

Thanks for the info!