My Magnificent Sea Anemone Journey....

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I received a beautiful purple Mag Saturday morning on 03/07, i was really excited to have the king of sea anemones in my aquarium. Prior to ordering the anemone i researched their requirements, care and signs to look for to get ahead of any potential problems. I have had my Colorado Sunburst bubble tipped anemone for over 3 years and it has split more than a handful of times. I also have kept SPS corals with success for years as well. I believe all the years of reef keeping and experience would give me the best chance of success at keeping the infamous Magnificent Sea Anemone. I have documented my journey on the below timeline. I hope this will help anyone who is thinking about keeping or has recently acquired one of these beautiful creatures.

Here is my story:

I ordered my sea anemone 03/04 and it shipped the day of 03/06. I chose the online retailer due to the length of time they stated they keep their mags before they sell them to the public. In my case my anemone, according to them has been in their system since 10/2019. This was important as it should result is a very easy transition from their system to mine or so i thought.

After removing the nem from the shipping package, i noticed it was packaged really well! I begin to temp acclimate and later drip acclimate the nem to its new home.

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This pic is the 1st few hours after the nem was introduced into the aquarium on 03/07 after acclimation. It quickly latched on the rock work, although not completely.
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Early observation: After it completely latched to the rock work... a few hours later, slightly gaping mouth... not overly concerned at this point, but noted. My thoughts...its adjusting to the water conditions, lighting, current....etc.

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It was recommended that i add small clown fish to further help it acclimate. So a few hours later, two small Occellaris Clownfish were added, at this point all appeared well.... Success!! Or so i thought.



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03/08: The following morning, the nem had a tight mouth but something looked off.... didn't look full and more tentacles where deflated. At this point im getting concerned.

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A couple of hours later:

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4 hours later: The nem appeared to deflate. Based on prior research, in Mag anemones especially...this is a red flag. Im concerned my nem is not healthy. I also read sometimes, they will deflate a time or two as an adjustment in a new system. My thought...I will give it the benefit of doubt.

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03/09: I didnt take any pictures, however observed the nem repeating the above cycle 2 additional times in one day. My biggest fear became a reality. I knew according to my research, if i didn't act now the animal would surely die in my system. I placed an overnight order of Fish Flox (30 pills 500MG each pill), in the meantime i would continue to observe and look for more negative signs.

03/10: I came home from work and at my door was my cipro order, when i looked at the nem that evening.....it didnt look well.

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At that moment I decided to take it out and treat it. Was it the right decision? Was i overreacting?

03/10: The anemone looked worse after i placed it in the treated hospital tank. Its mouth was gaped open pretty bad and all sorts of gelatin type substances coming from it. Its body was not flat, but smaller and tentacles deflated...big time.

My treatment regiment consisted of breaking one of the 500MG pills in half and mixing it with a small cup of water from the DT to dissolve it. I filled a 10 gallon aquarium with water from the DT and placed the anemone in the hospital tank (10 gallon aquarium) and mixed the dissolved cipro in the hospital tank.


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03/11: I continued the treatment by removing each day, 50 -60% of the water from the hospital tank and replacing it with water from the DT. Once the lights were off, i would dose 250MG of cipro. The goal was to repeat this process until 7 days passed. The nem appeared to get progressively worst. At this point it never looked better than the above image.

03/12 : I almost gave up... I figured the anemone was dead. It was unresponsive and not sticking to anything including the glass. I reached out to some folks here and the advice i was given was the following: Until the anemone breaks apart or turns into mush..there is still a chance....

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03/12: I continued the regiment, although in my mind I was preparing myself for the loss. That evening upon returning home from work, i walked in to find the following surprise:

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OMG!!! Did it work? Is my nem good? Will it make it? I could not contain myself.... this is the best the nem looked since the 1st day i placed it in the display. I remember the advice i received from @ca1ore "It will likely go through cycles of looking good then looking bad. Don’t get too encouraged by the former or discouraged by the latter. Do the full 7 days regardless." Great advice!

So the Journey continues....

03/15: The nem continues to maintain and i have not observed it deflating since the day i thought it was dead. This was a few hours ago:


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If it all goes well, in a couple of days it will be reunited with the clownfish that sorely misses it!


A special thanks to @ca1ore for the great advice! I will continue to document my nems journey. Thanks for being apart of this story, hopefully it will be an success!
 
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Glad to see that your anemone is on the up and up.

I'm curious to know who the retailer is. I have my suspicions. I doubt that they've had it since 10/19.

In terms of next steps, I highly recommend that you keep it in QT for another week. There's no need to rush it back into the DT. Keeping it in the QT tank will allow for careful observation and allow it to fully heal without the stress of the clownfish. Sometimes they can be rough on an anemone. If all goes well, you can move it into the DT the following week.
 
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Glad to see that your anemone is on the up and up.

I'm curious to know who the retailer is. I have my suspicions. I doubt that they've had it since 10/19.

In terms of next steps, I highly recommend that you keep it in QT for another week. There's no need to rush it back into the DT. Keeping it in the QT tank will allow for careful observation and allow it to fully heal without the stress of the clownfish. Sometimes they can be rough on an anemone. If all goes well, you can move it into the DT the following week.
Thanks for the solid advice... the retailer is Aqua SD.
 
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Glad to see that your anemone is on the up and up.

I'm curious to know who the retailer is. I have my suspicions. I doubt that they've had it since 10/19.

In terms of next steps, I highly recommend that you keep it in QT for another week. There's no need to rush it back into the DT. Keeping it in the QT tank will allow for careful observation and allow it to fully heal without the stress of the clownfish. Sometimes they can be rough on an anemone. If all goes well, you can move it into the DT the following week.
The only reason i was considering moving it sooner than later is the QT setup isnt ideal. The nem currently receives a peak par of about 97....it i turn the lights up it overheats the 10 gallon pretty rapidly. Something to consider however...i want it to survive!!
 
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As of this morning: Nem is still looking good, however im noticing its losing color... I know it's based on the light and the percentage. I cant turn up the percentage as it would overheat the aquarium. The nem has finished the 7 day program as of yesterday.

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Cipro tends to cause anemones to bleach IME. Nothing to worry about.

Can you raise the light higher, then increase the intensity? Also, if the light is an LED, it usually won't increase the tank temp very much. Adding a fan will help. I still recommend trying these things instead of adding it to the DT right after treatment is over.
 
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Cipro tends to cause anemones to bleach IME. Nothing to worry about.

Can you raise the light higher, then increase the intensity? Also, if the light is an LED, it usually won't increase the tank temp very much. Adding a fan will help. I still recommend trying these things instead of adding it to the DT right after treatment is over.
Something for me to chew on.... its a radion g4 on a rail. I could raise it... not sure how i could mount it.
 

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Something for me to chew on.... its a radion g4 on a rail. I could raise it... not sure how i could mount it.
Radions by design -- the fans draw air up and then out the sides -- don't add much heat to the tank.

As long as the tank doesn't get over 82 degrees or so, you should be fine.
 
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Radions by design -- the fans draw air up and then out the sides -- don't add much heat to the tank.

As long as the tank doesn't get over 82 degrees or so, you should be fine.
Remember its a 10 gallon tank.... 25% warms the water pretty quickly at 9 inches. Also since im changing water from the main tank...id like the temps to match. Ill decide what im going to do this evening.
 

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I've QTed quite a few anemones using a Radion on a 10 gallon tank. Typically I ran it at about 30% and it was fine. I've since moved on to a Kessil A80 over a 10 gallon tank, so the nems get even less light.

I forgot to mention that you don't really need to worry too much about PAR for the week that the nem is undergoing Cipro treatment. I think the protocol kills a lot of the zoox along with the bad bacteria (assuming that's the cause of the infection) or the bad bacteria is what kills the zoox, which is why you see a lot of sick nems expelling dead zoox. Either way, without a way to process light via zoox, the nem doesn't need a lot of light.

Last tidbit of information -- I recommend not using tank water for replacement. Instead, use fresh salt water. There may be contaminants within your tank water that may affect a sick anemone. This can be mitigated by using fresh salt water.
 
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Hey guys update on my purple mag. After the 7 day treatment, i left the nem in the quarantine for another day then transferred it back to the main system. So far so good...ive had some moments but all appear to be ok. I know im not out of the woods yet, but things are looking promising. Thanks for all of the good information. I might need it soon....hopefully not. On a different note, hope everyone is doing ok...the world is a crazy place atm.

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Just another update...Nem appears to be well. No sign of deflating what so ever. My only concern is from time to time i see black flaky stuff come out of its mouth.... im assuming thats zooxanthellae? If so how concerned should i be?

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If I can add something to this thread, please get covers for your power heads or get them out. Believe me a Mag can move very fast at night and if it gets to the power head it will kill him and every fish in your tank but the Clowns. Be very cautious and don’t think it can’t happen to me! It can and will.
not trying to be mean. Just giving advice
 

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Mag looks good. Mouth looking like an outie belly button is a good sign. Just don’t feed it for a while. Color looks good to me.
 
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Mag looks good. Mouth looking like an outie belly button is a good sign. Just don’t feed it for a while.
Oh nice... thanks. Any reason i shouldn't try to feed it? is it introducing bacteria kinda thing? The reason i ask is the clowns sometimes try and other times they steal it...
 
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