Is my sebae dead or dying?

[cane]

Just picked him up Sunday and he was looking good at first. This ia my second one and the first has been doing qreat for about about a month.
I purchased him from a LFS.
Parameters
Sal 1.025
Calc 420
Temp 79
Ph 8.4
Phos 0 (API test)
Ammo 0
Nitra 0
Nitri 0
Alk 11

Before and now pics

 

[Amoo]

Definitely to the not doing good stage. What kind of lights do you have and how did you acclimate him? Do you have any Cipro on hand?

 

[cane]

Temp Acc for 20 min then drip for a little over an hr. T5 and LED lighting run on a cycle. No Cipro. What is that. Checked my ammonia and it is still at zero

 

[Amoo]

Sorry I should have been more specific. How did you acclimate the Nem to your specific lighting in your tank and what intensities do you currently have them at? You could be lucky and all you might need is to properly acclimate it to your lighting. It may be too far gone and may need meds.

As for Cipro read this. I'm not big on cross posting from other reef forums, but this is where the original information is posted and I feel it deserves it's proper credit: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2271385

He does not look good at all and while not dead yet, he has a very high risk of dying fairly quickly without you taking some kind of action.

 

[cane]

No light acc besides turning the LED to 50% the first day then 75% the next. I also put him to the side of the tank where it would get less light. What else should I watch for and how long should I wait before I remove him?

Checking out the Cipro article now.

 

[Amoo]

I would turn your light down to about 50% for a week and raise them 10% a week. I would look at the grading system in that post and if he doesn't start showing signs of improvement over the next 24 hours look at trying to treat as it may die at this point anyways. You may want to go ahead and order some Cipro as it really is an important thing to have on hand if you're going to be keeping nems. If it starts getting worse and starts looking like it's melting even more then it already is you're safer to remove it from your tank, then risk it melting in their when you're not home and nuking your new tank.

 

[Trex]

The odds of recovery are against you.

That H. crispa is bleached (( very bleached )). Unfortunately it is more common to see them in this condition as opposed to in a healthy state. White ones should be avoided like the plague.
IMO, Cirpo won't do much for this one -- this isn't a bacteria issue, but a handling/conditions issue.

In the future look for ones that are tan in color with long tentacles. Do an google image search for "H. crispa" the first 2 pictures are what you should be looking for when purchasing a healthy one.

 

[cane]

Ok, thanks everyone

 

[cane]

He is looking better. Should I give him some time?

 

[TreyC2010]

Never had one but if it doesn't hurt the tank then I'd always give it a chance. Looks better than the other pics for sure. Good luck man.

 

[Cleo642]

Looking way better than the earlier picture.

 

[twilliard]

That is all you can do is give it time and good care.
Bleached badly, it will for now rely on you for proper food and nourishment

 

[Amoo]

I don't totally agree that this isn't a situation that would call for Rx treatment, and here's why.

1. We don't have any idea how long the Nem was in the LFS it was purchased from.

2. We don't know if this is the first sign of deflation.

3. All of the tests I have done and threads I've seen and first hand accounts lead to the working theory right now that your best chance of survival upon first deflation is to begin treatment.

So do we know the anemone is bleached? Yes we can clearly see that, but Nems who are recovering from being bleached don't start the deflation cycle. The deflation cycle is usually the beginning of the end. We don't know 100% what causes deflation, we only know the few drugs we currently have that tend to help us weather the storm. There are times where treatment works, there are times it doesn't. Usually in those cases it's believed the Nem would have died anyways. There is a saying in the Vet industry that no animal should die without the benefit of steroids. I carry that over into my treatment of Nems and feel no Nem should die without having been given at least the best shot we possibly can to help it recover.

My working theory from my experience would be as follows: The Nem isn't dying from being bleached. Nems can live an extraordinarily long time while bleach and even fully recover. Similar to AIDs, Cancer...etc things like that, the Nem has begun the deflation cycle because of another outside factor, which is probably amplified by the fact it is bleached and doesn't have it's full immune system in fact.

Because of this I would treat this animal. I would also advise the OP to look into procedure for properly light acclimating any photosynthetic animal we introduce to our tanks as Nems are just as sensitive to lighting changes as any of our other corals.

Also just to be clear, there is no 100% correct answer here. If there was we would all be doing it and it would be common knowledge to most well informed reefers. All we can do is work off of the experiences we have personally or read about. The above is simply mine.

 

[cane]

Wow, great information