Help with changes in my magnifica

[Ento-Reefer]

I have had this mag for about 7 weeks now. It has never deflated and it shows normal healthy behavior except what it is doing now. It feeds extremely well. I don't feed it much because the female clown is always taking any large chunks of LRS to the nem. It gets a good amount of food from the clown at least 3 times a week.

About 10 days ago I noticed that the nem was holding the top portion of it disc kind of folded over a little. I'm not sure how to best describe this so I have included a photo. The first couple of weeks in my tank it was sitting in about 250 par then I raised it up on a higher rock island so that it was getting around 300. I have since adjusted my sliders a little and adopted the schedule Amoo had posted that he was using on his AI hydra lights, which I am also using. I set the lights on a 25 % acclimation mode for 30 days. The par is at about 330 now and will be around 350-360 once the acclimation is finished. I rented a par meter from BRS to confirm these numbers because my seneye was giving me weird readings.
I am wondering if the nem does not like the increased par. It has oriented it self facing the front of the tank. I have also noticed the formation of what looks like a tiny mouth near its current mouth???

Current tank parameters:

temp- 78.5
salinity-1.0263
Ph- 8.1
dkh- 8.0
nitrate- 12-15
P04-.06
Any advice on what could be going on?

 

[Ento-Reefer]

if you look at this video clip starting at 35-60 seconds if shows how this started as just a tiny part of the top and now it is most of the top. Video taken end of December.

 

[davocean]

I can't tell anything by pic, but looks fine in vid.

 

[Ento-Reefer]

I'll try and get a better photo tomorrow or shoot a new video clip. There has been a definite change in how the nem looks. The tentacles on the top half are much shorter and it seems to fold in, If it was like this for just a day or two I might not be concerned. It started as just a small .5 inch section of tentacles on the top right side not fully extending. I think you can see that in the video. The video was taken the end of December. Now it is almost like the top half is shrinking. Maybe I am worrying too much, but if there is something I can do now to fix this I want to act. I can't believe it is too much light, but it does almost seem as if it doesn't want to extend the part of its disk that is closest to the light. I thought about moving it lower to see if it makes a difference, but I wanted to get some advice from a few experienced magnifica keepers first.

Thanks.

 

[nolifer]

From my experience with them is they love flow and plenty of it, mine also liked to spread over my rocks to open up full, it would move about till it found that perfect space to extend out. I had mine in 24" cube and was just way to big in the end I moved it on. I find mags are easy to keep than bta. Because you have yours on what looks like an island mite be why it's not fully expanding out ? has it been moving about much? my friend had the biggest mag I've ever seen at 17" in 6ft tank and he had to give it it's own power head lol there stunning nems but get big fast.

 

[Ento-Reefer]

The nem has plenty of room to expand. I came across a post by reefaholic that talked about mags with shrinking tentacles having infection. He said not all mags deflate when they have an infection. Now I am wondering if I should pull the nem and do a cipro treatment? I just don’t know?

 

[davocean]

Cipro only works for bacterial infections, which would be noticeable from tentacle deflation, the entire nem would deflate.

It would be easier to just shade the nem by screening over it, see how it reacts, rather than relocate it again, try not to mess w/ it too much.

 

[Ento-Reefer]

Cipro only works for bacterial infections, which would be noticeable from tentacle deflation, the entire nem would deflate.

It would be easier to just shade the nem by screening over it, see how it reacts, rather than relocate it again, try not to mess w/ it too much.

Thanks for your help @davocean . It is much appreciated. Here is what the nem looks like now . Basically the normal nighttime balling up.

Here is a better photo that I took earlier this evening.

I think this shows what I am talking about much better. I’ll try shading like you suggest. I just don’t like the way it is looking this past week.

 

[davocean]

Looks pretty good in those pics and typical balling up, could have just been acclimating to more light.
7 weeks is still fairly new.

 

[Ento-Reefer]

I reset the acclimation mode to 30 % reduction for the next 2 weeks and I will put a layer of screening over it tomorrow and see if it has a positive reaction. The only thing that really changed was my adjustments to the light as a result of getting more accurate par measurements with a better meter. Maybe it was just a little too much? I hope this solves the problem.

 

[Ento-Reefer]

This photo was taken on Dec. 26 and it looks so much better. Can you see what I mean?

 

[jsvand5]

Yea. The tentacles don’t look great to me. I have two mags and I haven’t seen them retract their tentacles like that. I’d stop feeding all together. I never feed mine and have had one for over two years and the other over a year. They are healthy and growing. IMO feeding just introduces a possibility of them getting bad food and having issues. I’d try a large water change and carbon.

These are mine

 

[Ento-Reefer]

I just did a 30% water change yesterday and replaced carbon. I am going to make a better effort to keep the clowns from feeding the nem. I have only intentionally fed it once in the the past month and it was just small pieces of LRS frozen that I feed the fish.

 

[jsvand5]

Not sure then. It’s pretty unusual to have issues with them after that long and they’ve made it past the initial infection they often come in with. Maybe try more flow.

 

[D-Nak]

Is the deflated portion always in the same spot, or does it "move"? My mags sometimes deflate only portions of tentacles; the deflation happens in a clockwise direction and circles the entire nem. It's as if the nem flushes portions of the tentacles. This, of course, is different than balling up.

If the tentacles are only deflated in one area, I'm guessing that something irritated it. Has the flame angel picked at it? Or possibly the cleaner shrimp? Either one could've quickly picked at it. Does the injured area appear to be getting worse?

Finally, if you think it's lighting, can you rotate the rock to see if that changes anything? I don't think the culprit is lighting, but if it is, then it would mean the area closest to the light will always deflate.

 

[Ento-Reefer]

I moved the rock island the nem was on. It could have been reacting to its proximity to the two RBTA, the gorgorian, or the green sinularia. I have been racking my brain trying to figure out what could have changed to cause this as it has been doing very well and has shown increased expansion or growth in the 7 weeks I have had it. I have seen the occasional deflating of just a few tentacles like you have described @D-Nak . but this is different. Maybe something was irritating it, the area that is shrunk is not moving and is mainly the top portion. The nem has moved around some on the rock it is on, but not very much. Mainly it moves from the top to a few inches towards the front. I think it does this in response to the sunlight that shines on the tank from the two windows across the room.

Do you have any par recommendations? Everything I have read indicates that it would be hard to give mags too much. I am hoping that I will see improvement soon. Thanks for the advice.

 

[davocean]

Was it actually touching anything like the green sinularia?
I believe the sinularia can handle stings and sting back

 

[Ento-Reefer]

Was it actually touching anything like the green sinularia?
I believe the sinularia can handle stings and sting back

No. It wasn't touching, but the sinularia was moved closer to the nem and the gorgorian was recently added to the tank.

 

[Ento-Reefer]

I see an improvement already and it hasn’t even been a full 24 hours since I moved it. It is not back to 100% yet, but it looks so much better this afternoon. Maybe something was irritating it in its previous location? A big thank you to everyone that helped with advice.

I just took this photo.

 

[Ento-Reefer]

So I’m looking at the nem this morning and I notice the clowns are actually biting at the tentacles occasionally. I am beginning to suspect they maybe causing this issue. I think I am going to catch them and sump them for a week or two and see if this solves the problem. I would hate to part with them, but if they can’t play nice I may have too.

I can’t believe I never noticed this before. Is this common? I have never had this problem before? Can they kill the nem or does this behavior usually stop?