Ever Receive An Order Of Fish That You... Didn't Order?

They will sometimes eat the mucus or leftover food that a nem has, but the anemone didn't have either. It was picking at the flesh.

I moved the shrimp into the same container in the tank as I had the anemone in, for now. Appreciate your LFS guy, kids. Netting shrimp isn't easy.

I had him in the net, and he managed to jump out of the tank and land three feet away... then, when I got close with the net again, he stood up and crawled away! I finally got him, but it was literally across the room from the tank. He seems fine - although I have no doubt it stressed him out pretty badly.

 

Yeah, why can't the shrimp stay?-oh, never mind, it's a peppermint shrimp? I guess they do munch on anemones! I guess the store is better than dead.

 

People buy them to eat pest anemones (which they sometimes ignore), but I'd never heard of them eating larger anemones until now. Upon doing some research, apparently it does happen. I'm not sure if I'm gonna take him to the store, or set him up his own little tank yet. I'll probably do the former, just due to a lack of room - I don't have any free table space for the tank I'm thinking of!

 

Well, we're back to expelling zooxanthellae. He hasn't moved around anymore, and he was looking better until a few minutes ago.




It's hard to see, but that brown string is zooxanthellae. This is the most I've seen him purge - usually, it's just a little tuft, about 1/3 the size of the string he's got going on now. Hopefully this is the last time - his foot has darkened, which I think is a sign of him feeling a bit better, and when I touched him earlier, he was noticeably stickier and felt more sturdy than he did before. All I can do is hope for day-to-day improvement!

I'll suck the zooxanthellae off of his disc with a syringe in a few minutes. I've found that if I leave it on him, he'll stay deflated, almost as if it irritates him.

On the bright side, the Torch is doing great! I knocked it off earlier when I was netting the shrimp, but it's doing well. I still don't think it's completely opened, but it seems to be adjusting well.

 

Well, we're back to expelling zooxanthellae. He hasn't moved around anymore, and he was looking better until a few minutes ago.

View attachment 514070

It's hard to see, but that brown string is zooxanthellae. This is the most I've seen him purge - usually, it's just a little tuft, about 1/3 the size of the string he's got going on now. Hopefully this is the last time - his foot has darkened, which I think is a sign of him feeling a bit better, and when I touched him earlier, he was noticeably stickier and felt more sturdy than he did before. All I can do is hope for day-to-day improvement!

I'll suck the zooxanthellae off of his disc with a syringe in a few minutes. I've found that if I leave it on him, he'll stay deflated, almost as if it irritates him.

On the bright side, the Torch is doing great! I knocked it off earlier when I was netting the shrimp, but it's doing well. I still don't think it's completely opened, but it seems to be adjusting well.

View attachment 514071

Is that good for him to puke up all that zooxanthellae? I thought he needed that stuff! Gross, I'd be cringing too if my puked up parasites were glommed all over me!

 

Is that good for him to puke up all that zooxanthellae? I thought he needed that stuff! Gross, I'd be cringing too if my puked up parasites were glommed all over me!

They do need those zooxanthellae - it what gives anemones (and corals) their color. They tend to expel their zoo when they're in bad shape, or in conditions that aren't exactly optimal.

 

They do need those zooxanthellae - it what gives anemones (and corals) their color. They tend to expel their zoo when they're in bad shape, or in conditions that aren't exactly optimal.

Aaaah, poor little thing!

 

Aaaah, poor little thing!

He's looking better now!

 

How long have you had these guys?

 

The stuff that I got by accident? Wednesday.

 

The stuff that I got by accident? Wednesday.

The anemones.

 

The stuff that I got by accident? Wednesday.

Has anyone else noticed Fishlore running slow?

 

I've only had the anemone since Wednesday too. I've had small ones before (hitchhikers and RFAs), but never a bigger one like this.

Yes! I thought it was just me - Fishlore has been absolutely dragging along.

 

The shrimp escaped! I heard a little plop this afternoon, and the little guy was scurrying around the sandbed. I'll be watching him closely until tomorrow when I can see to fish him out.

The anemone is improving! It's becoming much more sticky. It now picks up sand and small rocks and shells as it rolls around the sandbed. Plus, as I was feeding the fish today, I noticed that the anemone's mouth was slightly open - not gaping, but just a bit open, and I've read that means that the anemone is hungry - so I dropped a mysid shrimp onto one of it's tentacles. It stuck, even in the current! Not sure if it ever actually ate it, but the shrimp is no longer stuck to the tentacles. If I can get it to eat, I'll feel a bit better about this guy's chances - it's continuing to expel zooxanthellae.

 

The shrimp escaped! I heard a little plop this afternoon, and the little guy was scurrying around the sandbed. I'll be watching him closely until tomorrow when I can see to fish him out.

The anemone is improving! It's becoming much more sticky. It now picks up sand and small rocks and shells as it rolls around the sandbed. Plus, as I was feeding the fish today, I noticed that the anemone's mouth was slightly open - not gaping, but just a bit open, and I've read that means that the anemone is hungry - so I dropped a mysid shrimp onto one of it's tentacles. It stuck, even in the current! Not sure if it ever actually ate it, but the shrimp is no longer stuck to the tentacles. If I can get it to eat, I'll feel a bit better about this guy's chances - it's continuing to expel zooxanthellae.

This thread is reminding me of how cool anemones are. Most crustaceans are escape artists. I have a brackish ten-gallon with some fiddler crabs in it. One day as I was going upstairs, I noticed one of them just sitting on the stairs! He had crawled almost 50 feet away from his tank, over piles of clothes and under a door.

 

Wow, I can't believe I forgot about this thread! Anemones are definitely cool. I think we sometimes forget that just because something doesn't have eyes, ears, arms, and a brain doesn't mean it's not a living animal.

Fiddler crabs are fun! I kept a few a while back - I had some fun with them. Don't think I'd keep them again, but they're interesting to watch.

So, after replacing the light on the tank, a 50% water change, and changing the media out in my HOB, the anemone seems to have settled in. It's hard to tell if he's gonna stay there permanently, but I hope he stays there long enough to recover. He's facing the back of the tank (of course...), but he's in a well-lit area with moderate flow. We'll see how it does.

 

Little guy was looking pretty nice last night (compared to what he's been like). He's still attached in that same spot as of this morning.

 

So, I decided that the firefish is ready for the tank this morning. He's been in QT with theurapeutic levels of copper, prazipro, and metroplex for 10 days, and I've yet to see any signs of disease or parasites. If there was ich or velvet, I believe I would have seen it already - probably would have seen symptoms in the first few days due to stress from being the bag for 48 hours.




Forgive my algae!