Green Carpet problem...

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stellablu

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Yesterday my boyfriend went to purchase this BEAUTIFUL 8" full Green Carpet Anemone. We saw it a week ago and have trying to hold off because of it's price but couldn't resist. All was good and jolly until the LFS owner scooped...err, let me rephrase that because he didn't exactly scoop it out, instead he kind of quickly shoved his hand in and out and almost rough handled it. I have never seen someone detach an anemone so aggressively. He also brought it out of the water, which I heard could stress it.

This beautiful gleaming anemone shriveled up once in the bag and stayed that way on the ride home (we figured it was stress, he'd adjust in the tank) but once he was placed in the tank...he began acting strange. First, because in the store he was sitting in sand, not on a rock, my boyfriend tried setting him in sand. He turned himself upside down and just sat there. We waited a bit, then decided to place him on a rock. He attached to it. We waited, and waited. He never grew back full like he was at the LFS. He shrunk to 4" and everted his mouth with his "tongue" hanging out. Bryan tried feeding him but he grabbed the food, then just threw it up and dropped it. I thought maybe we should reposition the rock so we turned it away from the current a bit. He began to puff up a bit, but not a dramatic change.

The Carpet is still sticky to the touch, which I hear is good news. I'm suspecting that he is in shock or harmed by the rough handling. The only thing is that the LFS doesn't guarantee it's fish...which is absurd. I have never seen that sign before, but Bryan saw it the other day. All my other LFS's from big names like Petsmart and PetSupermarket to smaller specialty saltwater stores have guarantees. I'm seriously perturbed by this. We invested $60 on this gorgeous anemone and from the moment it was detached we have had zero enjoyment and 100% worry because of it.

I have browsed FAQ's on every site imagineable not exactly finding my answer to the problem...the best I have come up with is that he was mishandled improperly and could take a few days to liven up again. I just feel so bad because we were truly excited and he was in AMAZING health and the little bugger looks so pathetic.

I realize anemones go through moods and change shapes a lot (from melted to "raise the roof" within minutes and under lighting conditions) but this has remained constant and we REALLY don't want to lose him.

I intend on confronting this owner with our problems as soon as the store is back open, probably on Monday. I see no possible way that we could have done ANYTHING to harm the anemone because his disposition has not changed from the time we left the store.

Does anyone have any experience with this behavior or anything problem solving solutions? I wish you could see how brilliant and vivacious he was before this...it's breaking us up inside. Thanks ahead of time and if you have any questions, feel free to ask!

(Happy Holidays, btw :eek: )
 

stellablu

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Update: It opened to about 6" earlier today. It stayed full and "clam" shaped for a few hours...then back to 4" and pitiful. It is still shedding its slime coating. I think he'll be fine in another day or perhaps tonight...I'm doing everything I can to convince my boyfriend the anemone isn't going to die. I told him it opening up for so long was a great sign...right? ha


EDIT: I guess it's a good thing that the anemone seems to be doing better instead of regressing because no one has offered any sort of advice here that could have perhaps saved him otherwise. Probably a bad time to ask for advice during the holidays when everyone is busy with family and travel.

Last night he spent quite some time expelling garbage. He finally opened up and looked considerably better even though his mouth was still open. We're assuming he is release more excrement and soon fully open up. I'll post pictures of his status shortly.
 
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Joey D

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carpet anemone

Well, I have a green carpet anemone and must say for the most part the thing has pretty much survived anything imaginable. From being burned in half by my heater, to being partially sucked up by my filter, the thing refuses to die. Anemones are interesting creatures, sometimes they may appear dead for a day or so but will soon open up and begin to get well. Sometimes, usually after water changes, my anemone will shrivel up and deteriorate a little, but soon after looks "thankful" as it fully opens and accepts the nice water change. That is when you should feed it, when it looks healthy. Mine has been pretty happy on a diet of silversides and krill. These anemones generally will only attach to sandy substrates. Ayway, hope this helped...
-good luck

..........Joe D
 

OrionGirl

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I'd give it a day or four to recover. You would be able to see any damage--tears in anenomes are very visible. I'd give it several days to get used to the new tank and lighting, especially if there's more than a 10-15% difference in the lightin it was under to what it's getting now. They'll usually start moving around to find a good place in a week or so.
 

Max

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Jan 26, 2004
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How's it doing today? These guys often take a week or more to adjust to a new home as og stated. I would have said something to the jerk at the store when he ripped it off the bottom of the tank! Does it have any tears in it's foot ? Is it expanding more every day ? Is it senative to day and night ,"closed night open day or open when you're running your acintics/hvo's"? Is it eating well? Also you said that it was expelling something was it sort of a brown string or a white noodle looking thing?
 

stellablu

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maxilaria It's doing MUCH better. He is retracting at night with the moonlight on and blooming during the day. He still isn't quite as big as he was in the LFS tank, but he's getting there more and more each day.

It doesn't appear to have any tears on his foot. I "tickled" his foot to see if there was any damage today. Everything looks just fine.

It hasn't eaten anything since we bought it partly because it has been shrunken and/or expelling that mess since he's been home. Tomorrow morning we're going to give it a try again when it's happy.

The stuff he's spitting out is ball-shaped with a thin brown gooey casing over whatever it was. Is this normal excrement? He also had thin, stringy mucous coming off him the first day or so, which I understand to be his protective membrane...?
 

Max

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Sorry, this reply has taken me so long but, with the holidays etc. I haven't had a lot of time. Brown goo is normal anemone poop it's just the white stringy stuff you have to worry about," that means it's expeling it's intestines not good ever." The slime was probably just protective mucos it released due to movement and rough treatment. Has it eaten yet is it moving around;is it sticky? keep his water conditions as good as you can and give it several small meals . These guys are pretty hard to keep alive. You have to make sure the water conditions don't fluctuate rapidly they can't take the changes at all. It also needs a lot of light and water flow so you can sort of expect it to move as high as it can get in the tank. Do you know what species it is?
good luck and keep us posted
Chris
 
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