EMERGENCY! Need help with rescued H. Mags

[Paleozoic_reefer]

This Friday I went to pick up a H. Magnifica from my LFS store that they were holding for me while I was out of town for vacation. When I got there all 3 mags were in poor shape and needed cipro treatment (visible gas bubbles around mouth area). The LFS gave me all three to see if I could keep them alive and return the two survivors to the store for credit (I would have done it for free just to give them a fighting chance). I got my hospital tank up (10 gal with sponge filter, kessil lighting, and small pump acting as a PH with temp 74 and sal .025) and surveyed the damage. The largest one look like it was either splitting or got sliced up by a PH at the LFS and was in rough shape (I later had to remove it since it was falling to pieces and posed a contamination issue). the other two are in the tank . I did a cipro treatment of 250 mg yesterday evening after the light schedule was complete and did a 90% change this morning. They don't look much better (maybe even worse). I plan another 250 mg cipro this evening and 90% WC tomorrow morning. Should I stay the course or does anyone have any suggestions (moral support also appreciated! )

Acclimating them to temp before putting them in hospital tank.

The second nem is in the cup due to them shooting out their mesenterial filaments to one others when they touch.

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

Oi vei you're right, those look a bit rough.

@Eagle_Steve @F i s h y got any ideas?

 

[Paleozoic_reefer]

I lowered the light intensity and it seemed to help (?). the mouths seems to be closing a bit on both...

 

[Nemguy123]

They look like they pull through keep the water parameters as stable as possible through treatment clean water is so important for the mags but they pull through looking like a lot

 

[Anthony Scholfield]

A couple thoughts from my experience when treating these….

You will likely want to increase the flow by inserting a power head behind an egg crate.

A lower light setting and shorter photo period is better. Cipro breaks down under light exposure.

Run the treatment a full 7days according to @OrionN protocol.

@Nemguy123

 

[Paleozoic_reefer]

Thanks @Anthony Scholfield and @Nemguy123. Glad to hear I'm not dead-in-the-water with these (no pun intended). I will do another water change later today before I add the cipro. Unfortunately all my extra power heads are way to strong for my 10 gal. so as soon as they begin to attach I'll add one to the tank. here they are as of now...

 

[Paleozoic_reefer]

So things aren't any better today when I checked on them in the morning and I'll be disposing of them when I get back home later today (they are no longer attached to any surfaces). So for the sake of information and documentation here are some thoughts I have on this experience in hindsight:

-I should have not accepted the large mag that was very dammaged and just taken the smaller two. I feel there may have been some allopathy going on from the larger one due to the damage in that stressed them even further.

- The mags were touching each other and sending out their mesenterial filaemants on the areas where they were in contact leading to even more damage and stress. So separating them in the tank should have been done better.

-Make all the water at once that is needed for the daily WC to help with stability. I ran out of salt and had to use a different salt and didnt have the opportinuty to let the the new saltwater rest for a bit before using it.

I'm sure there are other things I could have done better, but at least I've learned from this experience and tried my best. Hopefully my next mag experience will be better when another one comes my way...

 

[MartinM]

Don’t throw them away until they’re actually dead, mags can come back from looking very bad (almost dead). IME, keep treating, and as someone else mentioned, lots of water motion is necessary. I run even more in my treatment tanks than my display tanks, FWIW.

 

[chizerbunoi]

I agree with the others. Even if they are not attaching, keep doing treatment. Even if another disintegrated and you take it out, continue with the last one.

 

[Paleozoic_reefer]

@MartinM and @chizerbunoi at what point would you consider it's time to stop and dispose of a mag in treatment? unfortunately, I didn't think there was no saving them at the end. They had already begun to decompose (turning into a brown mass of jelly) and the tank had a foul smell within a few hours of a new WC. There was also no response to any stimuli or movement of tentacles at all when the flow was shut off. I'm going to try again with what I learned and hopefully be more successful the the next time!

 

[MartinM]

Oh, well a bad smell means they are gone Good effort, though.

 

[chizerbunoi]

Agree.