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Help, totally bleached carpet anemone

dz6t

Acro Garden
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BRS Member
Bought a carpet anemone sight unseen and now I have a totally bleached "green carpet" that is snow white. Any chance for it to recover? Any carpet anemone expert here? Thanks for the help.
 
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If its mouth is closed nice and tight and it doesn't show sign of infection for 2 weeks it should recover. Give it lots of flow (gentle) and try to feed it small pieces of siverside or raw shrimp every third or forth day until you see some color returning. Then cut back to once a week. Make sure you rinse the shrimp really well, they spray them with preservatives.
 
Thanks.

I just fed it a silverside. It seems took it. I need to check later.
 
The question is: will it gain its color back or can it be changed to other color?

This is the "whitest" anemone I've seen. The poor guy must under extreme stress in the original tank.
 
I may be wrong, but I'd expect it to regain it's color as long as it's fed well.

Since it's looking bleached, it will need much food for energy since the zoanthalle won't be providing much if any. That said, I'd expect that there is still some zoanthalle in it, and with adequate food/energy it should be able to recover and color back up.

Just feed it as much as you can without it spitting a lot out, and watch it carefully. You'll know if it starts to die/melt. If it doesn't start to melt, it should have a good chance.

jk
 
I don't believe it has any zoanthalle in it, It is paper white. I can't believe how it can still be alive. Also, it was claimed to be a green carpet. I don't even see any green tint on it.

It ate the silver side. I am keeping a close eye on it to see if it will puke.
 
Dong, If its eating that is a good sign. Also you can see if it reacts when you touch it...it should also feel sticky...you probably don't want to use your hand...some people get really stung by them. I never have myself...but just use caution.

Also...make sure you alk is spot on while its recovering. Feed it often...the higher flow is a good idea as well.

Good luck!
 
I'd say just keep feeding and watching. It's either going to wither and die, or start to perk up. Which ever it is, I bet it will be pretty obvious.

If it's looking at least somewhat healthy, it probably won't suddenly crash overnight IMO? I'd expect it to slowly recover, or gradually shrink and wither for a while before it goes to mush. Either way, I'd think you'd be able to see the direction it's going in with plenty of warning if it's heading for a crash. Otherwise, you nurse it back to health.

*you should take some pics of it now if you can, if it recovers it will be nice to compare then and now pics.
 
Thanks Casey.
Also you can see if it reacts when you touch it...it should also feel sticky...you probably don't want to use your hand...some people get really stung by them. Good luck!

Too late, it stung my hand already:eek:
 
I'd say just keep feeding and watching. It's either going to wither and die, or start to perk up. Which ever it is, I bet it will be pretty obvious.

If it's looking at least somewhat healthy, it probably won't suddenly crash overnight IMO? I'd expect it to slowly recover, or gradually shrink and wither for a while before it goes to mush. Either way, I'd think you'd be able to see the direction it's going in with plenty of warning if it's heading for a crash. Otherwise, you nurse it back to health.

*you should take some pics of it now if you can, if it recovers it will be nice to compare then and now pics.

Thanks John. It did not puke up the silverside and it is reaching for light. Good sign.
 
Anemones bleach when the zooanthelle leaves the tissue and they can be bleached to the point that there is no zooanthellae left to reproduce and repopulate the anemone.

The zooanthelle is like our mitochondria or like plant chlorophyll and has a different genetic code than the thing it lives in, and can't be created from scratch by the critter.

In the case of complete bleaching, a few anemones have survived a long time just with solid food as their only nutrition. Most of the time though, whatever stress was bad enough to cause the zooanthelle to leave the tissue would be bad enough to also fatally injure the anemone.

Eating is an excellent sign. If you can get it to survive and it doesn't regain its color, it sure would be an interesting experiment to inject it with a tissue sample from something like a $1000 red haddoni to see what happens. :)
 
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Think positive, you might have a cool rescue story happening here?

Pics, Pics, Pics..... If it you save it, it will make a great story/pic thread.

jk

Edit; Cindy, you have some cool ideas :)
 
It's going to be on the move so be careful with the flow.
 
The flow is on the soft side.
I am thinking the same thing as Cindy.
 
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Anemones can bleach super quickly, just like SPS corals. It could possibly be just from shipping, but I'm not sure. Can you post a picture of it? You can tell a lot from the tentacle patterns and the mouth.
 
No shipping invole. Another BRS member pick it up for me(many many thanks to Pillowfish)

If it lost all green color (I was told it was green) from just a 35 minute ride from Lowell to Concord, MA, it will be a world record and I would have ended up with a buket of green water.
 
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here is a pict:
 
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Even if the colors of that pic are darker than reality, that carpet is in really good shape. I wouldn't be concerned at all with bleaching to that extent. Just light it and feed it and it will be back to full color in a few weeks.
 
are you sure? it is pearly white if look from above. The pic is draker than reality because there is no light and just the flash from the camera.
 
Dong- I don't know if I can really help...but heree's what I do know. The anenome has been in ONE place for over a year(per the seller) a few hours?? before we arrived he just "unfooted" it(I hope that's correct terminology) and previous to our arrival another gentleman was there to pick up a fair amount of LR. The tank was quite stirred and I do not remember any lighting over the tank(maybe it plays a part..maybe not) We also removed quite a bit of LR as well and again the tank was quite a mess from all the moving that had been done..by the time we were finishing the anenome had begun to try and re-foot itself..to me it was opaque in color but did have a little lumensecent glow of green. Removing from a position it had been used to for so long I would imagine stressed the anenome quite a bit as well as everything being stirred up around it. His fish were very viberant and healthy and had possibly the largest chocolate chip starfish I have ever seen..and it was gorgeous!! I am not the most familiar with carpet anenome's at all...but I do know you can provide the proper enviroment and it will thrive!! I wish you luck..it was an interesting day! BTW- how is the foxface?? Good Luck!!

-tabittha
 
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