Stressed mag

MartinM · Feb 2, 2022

Hey, I recently had a water chemistry issue (calcium dosing pump failed AND alkalinity pump lost calibration within one day of each other, and I’m not at home currently, staff cares for the aquarium 3x/week. 4th time I’ve problems with Kamoer dosing pumps, don’t use them!) so my alk spiked to 14dkh and my ca dropped to 280. It’s slowly being corrected, but the result is that for 5 days one of my two mags has been stressed, with mouth open (See video). After no change in condition for five days I began my low dose Ciprofloxacin protocol yesterday. If I don’t see improvement in a few days, I’m considering removing it and placing it in a QT tank for a higher dose treatment. Or should I avoid stressing it more? I’m not sure what to do. The foot is still tightly attached and the anemone hasn’t moved from the spot that it’s been in for months. I appreciate advice from mag experts, I’m not all that experienced with the species, I’ve only had them for a little under a year. Thank you all!

For some reason I can never attach videos on this forum but I uploaded to Vimeo:

Rtaylor · Feb 2, 2022

Hmm, it doesn’t look too bad. Infections are caused by bacteria, a large parameter swing could make a nem more susceptible to infection, but I don’t think it’s likely. I’d just watch it for now.

MartinM · Feb 2, 2022

Ok thanks. I was concerned because it’s been like this for 5 days now. Nice to know it doesn’t look as bad as I was worried it might be. I’ll leave it alone and monitor for the time being.

Rtaylor · Feb 2, 2022

MartinM said:
Ok thanks. I was concerned because it’s been like this for 5 days now. Nice to know it doesn’t look as bad as I was worried it might be. I’ll leave it alone and monitor for the time being.

Apparently I only looked at the video where the mouth isn’t as visible. It does look worse than I thought. Is it inflating/deflating as well or just the mouth that looks bad? Maybe some pics if you have them would help.
Edit, I can see the one side looks deflated…..maybe time to call in the pros @OrionN , @Nemguy123 , @Eagle_Steve

MartinM · Feb 2, 2022

Parts of it seem to stay deflated, but it doesn’t seem to be going through cycles, it tends to always look like this. Mouth has been open like that for about 5 days now. :\

Rtaylor · Feb 2, 2022

MartinM said:
Parts of it seem to stay deflated, but it doesn’t seem to be going through cycles, it tends to always look like this. Mouth has been open like that for about 5 days now. :\

I wouldn’t stress too much if it’s holding stable. If it starts to go south then I I’d worry.

MartinM · Feb 3, 2022

Update from just a few minutes ago:

OrionN · Feb 3, 2022

In the earlier days, I used mechanical timers to turn on off various functions of my reef. My Kalk pump got stuck on and OD my tank with Kalk. The on mortality I got from that event was my Magnifica. I find that these anemones are very sensitive to pH spike.
Good luck with him. If you can remove the rock he is attached on then bring him out to treat, If his foot start to loosen from the rock then definitely take him out to treat. I would not try to remove a tightly attach anemone off the rock.

MartinM · Feb 3, 2022

Thanks @OrionN I appreciate your help. The good news is he seems firmly attached still.

I also don’t like automated things that can fail, but I’m having to spend a few months away from my home which has the aquarium.
If you think it’s ok to dose 2-part all at once each day, I can have my staff do it manually instead. I’m also upgrading to Red Sea reefdose pumps which seem to be more reliable. Thoughts?

I checked my Hydros and there wasn’t an appreciable pH swing, but the alk is definitely too high. I wasn’t sure if this affected anemones, I needed someone with a lot of experience with the species like you! ;Stop