Tank is more than 3 years old. Recently the RBTAs has spawned too much and decided to destroy quite a few LPS in the tank, so I had to move out the RBTA and ordered a Sebae instead (I know, very logical line of thinking, right?) . It's a Fluval flex 32g, with 2 Fluval stock LED (42w each).
Water parameters are stable: ph 8.1, salinity 1.026, phosphate 0.11 (it was 0.4 for the first few days until I replaced the phosguard), Alkalinity 8.7, calcium 400, nitrate 5-10
Day 1: arrived completed bleached, won't attach to rocks or sandbed, tentacles not sticky, respond well to touches. I left it in a low flow area and found it upside down mouth into sand an hour later. So I moved it into the corner, where there's a circulation inlet , but the inlets and flow are small enough to be an issue.
Day 2 - Day 7: the nem has stayed put in the same place, I tried to feed fresh squid / scalop / frozen mysis / plankton and it still refused to eat. My two clowns have finally found it on day 4 and made it their new home.. I did some research and thought that it may still be acclimating and not eating is expected?? However I was getting worried that the tentacles still being non sticky, and the lighting is definitely low for a Sebae. Also around day 6, it spilled out some white linked stuff that looks like guts but I forgot to take pics.
Day 8 - installed a NICREW 30w spotlight 10 inches away from the nem and gradually tune up the intensity, and the next morning, it has moved to the middle of the tank. Could it be that the light was too strong? (phone app measures 200 PAR 10 inches away when the white channel is turned on at 40%). By the end of the day the little creature has caught the wave and flew to the other end of the tank
Day 10 - Moved the nem back to a cave near the spotlight to give more lighting, and curfew'ed the clowns to a large breeder box to give the nem some breathing room during recovery (is this a good or bad idea??) . Interestingly the nem shrinks during the day when the lights are on, and inflates during evening time. It seems unintuitive but it clearly prefers less lighting based on the behavior observed. For example, when I shined a torchlight , the part where the torchlight hit deflated first. Tried to feed a piece of squid, still did not eat, and unsurprisingly the food got stolen by cleaner shrimp soon after. Its tentacles are still not sticky. I hope it likes the current spot , and plan to keep the strong spotlight during daytime and see how it goes.
That's the first 10 days. I know it's difficult to nurse a bleached Sebae, but I'm staying optimistic and would appreciate any advices from the experts here!
My plan is that if it still refused to eat for another week or so, and if there's no signs of zooxanthellae coming back - then I would consider treat it in a HT with Cipro. However, I'd very much prefer and hope that it can recover in the DT so save it from further stresses, fingers crossed.
Water parameters are stable: ph 8.1, salinity 1.026, phosphate 0.11 (it was 0.4 for the first few days until I replaced the phosguard), Alkalinity 8.7, calcium 400, nitrate 5-10
Day 1: arrived completed bleached, won't attach to rocks or sandbed, tentacles not sticky, respond well to touches. I left it in a low flow area and found it upside down mouth into sand an hour later. So I moved it into the corner, where there's a circulation inlet , but the inlets and flow are small enough to be an issue.
Day 2 - Day 7: the nem has stayed put in the same place, I tried to feed fresh squid / scalop / frozen mysis / plankton and it still refused to eat. My two clowns have finally found it on day 4 and made it their new home.. I did some research and thought that it may still be acclimating and not eating is expected?? However I was getting worried that the tentacles still being non sticky, and the lighting is definitely low for a Sebae. Also around day 6, it spilled out some white linked stuff that looks like guts but I forgot to take pics.
Day 8 - installed a NICREW 30w spotlight 10 inches away from the nem and gradually tune up the intensity, and the next morning, it has moved to the middle of the tank. Could it be that the light was too strong? (phone app measures 200 PAR 10 inches away when the white channel is turned on at 40%). By the end of the day the little creature has caught the wave and flew to the other end of the tank
Day 10 - Moved the nem back to a cave near the spotlight to give more lighting, and curfew'ed the clowns to a large breeder box to give the nem some breathing room during recovery (is this a good or bad idea??) . Interestingly the nem shrinks during the day when the lights are on, and inflates during evening time. It seems unintuitive but it clearly prefers less lighting based on the behavior observed. For example, when I shined a torchlight , the part where the torchlight hit deflated first. Tried to feed a piece of squid, still did not eat, and unsurprisingly the food got stolen by cleaner shrimp soon after. Its tentacles are still not sticky. I hope it likes the current spot , and plan to keep the strong spotlight during daytime and see how it goes.
That's the first 10 days. I know it's difficult to nurse a bleached Sebae, but I'm staying optimistic and would appreciate any advices from the experts here!
My plan is that if it still refused to eat for another week or so, and if there's no signs of zooxanthellae coming back - then I would consider treat it in a HT with Cipro. However, I'd very much prefer and hope that it can recover in the DT so save it from further stresses, fingers crossed.
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