Waste expulsion vs zooxanthellae???

[COreefer]

What is the difference? What does it look like? I have kept anemones for years and they take a nice poop every once in a while but I have never been able to detect the difference. Any thoughts?

 

[elegance coral]

Discharge of zooxanthellae is typically brown slimy stuff. In some cases it can be tiny dark pellets. When/if an anemone poo's, it is usually the remains of a meal that wasn't fully digested, so it will be a wad of slimy stuff that contains fish scales, bones, or exoskeletons depending on what they ate. Other than that, they can usually expel their waste through their tissues as they go through their daily cycle of expansion and contraction, so you won't actually see any poo. I try not to feed my anemones things they can't digest, so they typically don't poo.

 

[COreefer]

So the brown stringy stuff is zoo? My anemones (even the healthy ones) do this all the time and I always thought it was poop.

 

[WaffleWalffle22]

So the brown stringy stuff is zoo? My anemones (even the healthy ones) do this all the time and I always thought it was poop.

Me too! :sad1:

 

[shutiny]

I don't remember ever seeing a healthy anemones(larger species, excepts E.qua) expels brown "poop". An unhealthy/stressed anemone is the ones that expel their zooxa. In H.mag, E.qua, and carpets, their waste have always been with"substance", not just mucus, and never brown slimy for me. In the case of food intolerance, the food will be coated with clear digestive enzyme when expelled. I have seen some newly arrived anemones with mild case of expelling zooxa without deflation and the chance of survival is pretty good if the waste is accompanied by some solid substance , slowly over a day or two the brown slimy waste is replaced with regular waste. In my view, the anemone is compensating and it is on its way to recovery. In a decompensated state, the brown slimy waste is accompanied by frequent inflation and deflation and its chance of survival is minimal. This is more often seen in the Stichoductyla genus(more often with gigantea, red pink "super species" carpets and to the lesser degree in haddoni) and some times, I also noticed in H.magnificas. But, in a magnifica, it has better recovering record for me.
Hope this is what you are looking for Jim, I'll have to look for the pictures I took over the years. Cheers!

 

[elegance coral]

So the brown stringy stuff is zoo? My anemones (even the healthy ones) do this all the time and I always thought it was poop.

Elevated nutrients like phosphate can cause rapid reproduction of zooxanthellae while the anemone seems to remain healthy. The anemone can only allow the zooxanthellae population to reach a given level before it starts to cause problems for the anemone. In these situations, the anemone can regularly discharge long slimy strands of zooxanthellae. If the nutrient levels are reduced, zooxanthellae reproduction will be reduced, and this behavior should stop.