No way to tell whether the transplant expedited the recolonization of zooxanthellae. Seems to have occurred at about the same rate as it likely would have just allowing zooxanthellae in the water colonize. Would be interesting to do an actual experiment using two bleached anemones.
Zooxanthellae Transplant Heteractis Magnifica
- Thread starter ryannterror
- Start date
shred5
Premium Member
I have had a gigantea that I got it was bleached so white it was like bleached snow.. I mean pure white. It had a blue base and that was the only spot with any pigments at all.... I have had it 3 to 4 months now and the Zooxanthellae started out blotchy too but not like that.. Basically it started out with brown areas and they spread. It is now a dark brown and starting to get some color.. A couple weeks ago I said this thing is the ugliest brown anemone ever.
I will now slowly increase the light so it develops pigments.
I wish i would have taken pictures of its progress. I was afraid to jinx myself because this one was so white and afraid to loose it...
I see no reason for transplanting Zooxanthellae I have brought back lots of anemones bleached pure white. I have always dropped them into tanks with corals though and not in a tank by themselves.
I will now slowly increase the light so it develops pigments.
I wish i would have taken pictures of its progress. I was afraid to jinx myself because this one was so white and afraid to loose it...
I see no reason for transplanting Zooxanthellae I have brought back lots of anemones bleached pure white. I have always dropped them into tanks with corals though and not in a tank by themselves.
ryannterror
New member
I got the mag back in June and it was white as snow. Up until I feed it the piece of tentacle from the GBTA mag had no signs of ever getting its color back.
This mag was super sick when I got it so I wanted to keep an eye on it for few months as I didn't not want to get my other huge mag sick in my main display.
I've personally never seen an anemone come back from being this sick or bleached. The pattern of the zooxanthalae is definitely unusual. Its hard to get a good picture of how speckled it really is.
I cant really say nor can anyone really that the transplant is the reason or not for the mag starting to regain color, but if anything I'm sure it most likely helped.
I've been feeding every other day sometimes daily. scallop, shrimp, and fresh fish from whole foods injected with garlic and seclon or vita-chem.
xtlosx
Just Reefin'
FWIW my purple gig came almost 99% bleached with a tiny hint of purple at the tips... After feeding, good care, and selcon enriched food the brown zoox started in a speckling pattern just like yours.. Now my Gig is fully healthy and looking great. Honestly, I don't think the speckled pattern of zoox is unusual, just my .02.
ryannterror
New member
:beer:
OrionN
Moved on
If a anemone is 100% bleached, meaning there is no zooxanthellae in his body, then he need to ingest it from somewhere. Likely if he ingested from the water column, he will get one or two here and there if any. Feeding him hundred or thousand zooxanthellae cannot hurt. It will speed up the process, increase in diversity of the zooxanthallaes (there are often more than one species of zoos in each coral or anemome)
Zooxanthellae transplant cannot hurt. This process only help the bleached anemone.
Zooxanthellae transplant cannot hurt. This process only help the bleached anemone.
ryannterror
New member
I totally agree. It can only help.
shred5
Premium Member
I have questions though about transplanting..
Was it the correct Zooxanthellae?
May it have actually digested it with its food and not used it?
May it have rejected it?
Could something like a little bit of tissue or slime gone with the zooxanthellae from the other anemone that could actually be bad for the other anemone.
I am not saying this was not successful or isnt a good thing but how do we know this actually worked or may have been bad or made no difference at all.
Also how do we know a anemone is 100 percent bleached? it may save a packet or two and without close examination dont know...
Personally, I think any bleached anemone that is in otherwise good health will regain zooxanthellae given proper conditions (light, water quality etc.). Some zooxanthellae is going to be present in tank water, just as sure as diatoms will grow on the glass of a newly set up tank. The zooxanthellae transplant may or may not expedite the recolonization, but speculation can't replace an actual experiment.
ryannterror
New member
Some updated pictures. Really starting to color up now! iPhone pictures
xtlosx
Just Reefin'
Some updated pictures. Really starting to color up now! iPhone pictures
Looking great!
ryannterror
New member
The mag is really looking good now. Here is a shot during a small water change.
only had my iPhone handy sorry for the junkie pic. originally I thought this mag was going to have a red base seem to be turning purple though! Tentacle are almost back to normal color it seems. The mag has almost doubled in size since I brought it home.
only had my iPhone handy sorry for the junkie pic. originally I thought this mag was going to have a red base seem to be turning purple though! Tentacle are almost back to normal color it seems. The mag has almost doubled in size since I brought it home.
ryannterror
New member
This tank I've had very green algae with some spots of purple coralline algae on the rocks I think the algae just loves the 10k MH and the wonderful iPhone color balance doesn't help. Water perms are always good. Just never went away after the cycle.
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ryannterror
New member
Yes thats a green gig. I have the Mag, green gig, and purple/blue gig all in the same QT tank while the get healthy for the next few months. The green gig is super healthy and seem to be loving life under the 10k MH. The purple gig is pretty bleached but starting to color up. All I keep in this QT are new anemones and fresh cut xenia frags.
OrionN
Moved on
I am glad that the Magnifica regain his healthy. Whether the transplant help or not in this case is immaterial. He got better. Unless we can do control trials we cannot accurately determine the effects of transplant. Doing a control trial is just out of the range of my resources at this time. I cannot see attempting transplant would hurt anything other than remove a tentacles or two from the donor anemone, which he can easily tolerate.
Think of transplant in this case like the clam farmer ground up a clam and put this slurry in the baby tank so that the baby clams get the zooxanthellae they needed. This step vastly improve the survival of baby clams.
We (at least I) can assume that the anemone is completely bleached if after several months in optimal condition, it does not gain his color back. We assume that anemone initially obtain their zooxanthellae by ingesting them, so the best way fur us to give zooxanthellae is to let him ingesting it. I suppose we can inject it via a syringe, but I would not recommend this since this will injure the anemone.
shred5
Premium Member
