Carpet Anemone - Acclimation/Feeding

Clawfish · Feb 2, 2022

Hey all,

I got this carpet online last Wednesday. After acclimating it spent a day or so purging itself, where they kind of go inside out a few times and expel gross stuff. I have seen this before with shipped carpets.
Anyways, he opens and closes throughout the day, when I feed snd some touches him, tends to shrink up a bit and then expels the food. I added a few photos here through its different phases.

Two questions:
1) Is this carpet just extremely stressed?

2) How much longer should I wait before target feeding?

Thanks all!

Eagle_Steve · Feb 2, 2022

Clawfish said:
Hey all,

I got this carpet online last Wednesday. After acclimating it spent a day or so purging itself, where they kind of go inside out a few times and expel gross stuff. I have seen this before with shipped carpets.
Anyways, he opens and closes throughout the day, when I feed snd some touches him, tends to shrink up a bit and then expels the food. I added a few photos here through its different phases.

Two questions:
1) Is this carpet just extremely stressed?

2) How much longer should I wait before target feeding?

Thanks all!

nem doesnt look too bad. I would suggest not feeding it until it completly settles in and stays inflated all day long. Feeding a new nems causes more stress on top of just being added to the tank.

Also, there is no need to even feed them. Light is enough, unless you want them to get big quick.

I would suggest that you post your parmaeters, tank size, lighting, and age of tank, so we can look to see if anything is out of whack.

Edit, just noticed the pic of it really small and about turned inside out. How often does it do that?

Clawfish · Feb 2, 2022

Eagle_Steve said:
nem doesnt look too bad. I would suggest not feeding it until it completly settles in and stays inflated all day long. Feeding a new nems causes more stress on top of just being added to the tank.

Also, there is no need to even feed them. Light is enough, unless you want them to get big quick.

I would suggest that you post your parmaeters, tank size, lighting, and age of tank, so we can look to see if anything is out of whack.

Edit, just noticed the pic of it really small and about turned inside out. How often does it do that?

Tank is a 65G - 36" x 18" x 24"
Proton V2+ Pro Light
Water I test religiously daily, I am good and stable there.

Other anemones are fine, MiniMax Carpet, Couple RFAs and a BTA (added last friday from LFS, and already happy as can be and hosting clowns).

Definitely stressed from shipping, the small picture was day 2, it does shrivel at night but doesn't seem to go inside out anymore, I think it is just acclimating still, it was shipped from Cali to South Florida.

I will prevent feeding it (I haven't fed it yet).

Eagle_Steve · Feb 2, 2022

Clawfish said:
Tank is a 65G - 36" x 18" x 24"
Proton V2+ Pro Light
Water I test religiously daily, I am good and stable there.

Other anemones are fine, MiniMax Carpet, Couple RFAs and a BTA (added last friday from LFS, and already happy as can be and hosting clowns).

Definitely stressed from shipping, the small picture was day 2, it does shrivel at night but doesn't seem to go inside out anymore, I think it is just acclimating still, it was shipped from Cali to South Florida.

I will prevent feeding it (I haven't fed it yet).

If other nems are fine, that is a good sign. As for parameters, I get stable, but carpets are more sensitive to nutrients than the other nems you mentioned. They also do not like huge swings in anything. Biggest thing at this point is to let the nem be, watch it closely and be prepared to react accordingly if it continues to deflate/spits guts or anything like that.

reefman888 · Feb 2, 2022

It takes at least a few days for it the adjust and find the spot it wants to stay at. Wait till its mouth is close and body extended before feeding.

Clawfish · Feb 3, 2022

reefman888 said:
It takes at least a few days for it the adjust and find the spot it wants to stay at. Wait till its mouth is close and body extended before feeding.

todays update, anyone know what the black scum/ring is near the foot? never been able to see a foot so clearly before lol

reefman888 · Feb 4, 2022

Look like crap that it threw up. Sign its recovering.

MartinM · Feb 5, 2022

If it doesn’t settle in 100% in 1-2 weeks, I highly recommend my low dose protocol for haddonis. About 50% of the ones I’ve gotten have needed antibiotic treatment, otherwise they very slowly decline (over weeks/months). Keep us updated!

Clawfish · Feb 9, 2022

MartinM said:
If it doesn’t settle in 100% in 1-2 weeks, I highly recommend my low dose protocol for haddonis. About 50% of the ones I’ve gotten have needed antibiotic treatment, otherwise they very slowly decline (over weeks/months). Keep us updated!

Martin, still going through the phases. seems to open and close fully about twice per day, but needs something. can you send me a link? we are almost two weeks in now

MartinM · Feb 10, 2022

Here you go:

Protocol for the antibiotic treatment of S. haddoni carpet anemones

The protocol is as follows: dosing of ciprofloxacin solution to achieve a dosage of .125mg/L (roughly 5mg per 10 gallons) in the system being treated, administered every 12 hours for 5-14 days. I recommend following this protocol in a quarantine system for all new S. haddoni carpet anemones...

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