Donya's 55-Gallon

[lljdma06]

Just a lot of biting and shredding of anemones that you'd think they'd host. Similar to your clown weirdness.

I'm very sorry that your clowns won't make it. We kind of made fun of their shenanigans, but it still was a strange turn of events with these two fish.

L

 

[Donya]

Just a lot of biting and shredding of anemones that you'd think they'd host. Similar to your clown weirdness.

Dang! Strange stuff. I wonder if it does have to do with the amount of inbreeding going on. Just as deformities and other strange physical features can be isolated that way, you can get abnormal behaviors cropping up too.


Well, while doom and gloom is looming in the background, here are happier things. I cleaned all the splash marks and residual coralline off the front pane today.

Vid of left side of tank:

Had to shut off the treasure chest because one of the urchins ripped out and partially ate an insert that was keeping it manageable. Without the insert to keep a bit of air always trapped in the lid, it literally makes a water rocket. Came in yesterday morning not quite awake and immediately got hit in the face with water because of that.

Vid of right side:


Still hairy but still getting a little bit less hairy every day. Slowly but surely.


Other pics:

And finally, a happy nem:

It has been getting daily munchies along with my LPS. Pretty good rebound from being covered in raw patches.

 

[SaltNoob]

What kind of nem is it? Does it have sweepers? Very pretty though!

-Tyler

 

[lljdma06]

Wow, the nem looks so much better! Huge improvement. A testament to daily feedings.

How is the clown faring?

L

 

[Donya]

What kind of nem is it? Does it have sweepers? Very pretty though!

-Tyler

It's just a bubble tip (Entacmaea quadricolor). Anemones in general don't have sweeper tentacles in the same sense as corals, although some like Aiptasiids can eject long fillaments from their column and/or disk that basically function like sweepers and can deliver quite a pop too. From what I have seen of BTAs, I think they have rather short fillaments that would only inflict very local damage if ejected; sort of like mushrooms in that regard. My BTA ejected a few such fillaments after being savaged and they were quite short and curly.

Wow, the nem looks so much better! Huge improvement. A testament to daily feedings.

Funny thing is I found it also loves the same pellets as the LPS, and with those I also don't have to worry about a gang of peppermint shrimp lining up to be thieves. I still do proper meaty food every other day or every two days though depending on how hungry it looks.

How is the clown faring?

Amazingly still hanging around but really looking awful. Large areas of her fins turned necrotic and literally fell off in chunks, but that seems to have stopped. She kept getting worse to spending most of yesterday of being partially paralized (could only move pectorals and gills) but has regained full movement since then. Ultimately I decided to just do a continuous bath with the meds rather than a dip. I don't know yet whether I'll see recovery (various organs may be shot after this), but the bath has at least stopped her from being done in by a secondary infection.

 

[lljdma06]

If she pulls through... Wow, just wow...

She's one tough b****

L

 

[Donya]

Well, this morning is the second time I have had a LPS frag knocked free from its plug unexpectedly: walked in to find my candycane on the sand. There is a small cut in the soft tissue on one polyp from taking a tumble to the sand but otherwise the coral seems ok. My Duncan experienced far worse when it went got knocked off its plug, so I'm not too worried about the candycane. I have reglued the frag plug too for safey and also glued down some acans I got yesterday but forgot to glue because I was tired. They snotted all over my hands in the process. Not as bad as the way Anthelia smell, but it still doesn't scrub off completely.

And all this before even being able to get to my coffee. GRUMPY DAAAAAAY!

 

[lljdma06]

Well, this morning is the second time I have had a LPS frag knocked free from its plug unexpectedly: walked in to find my candycane on the sand. There is a small cut in the soft tissue on one polyp from taking a tumble to the sand but otherwise the coral seems ok. My Duncan experienced far worse when it went got knocked off its plug, so I'm not too worried about the candycane. I have reglued the frag plug too for safey and also glued down some acans I got yesterday but forgot to glue because I was tired. They snotted all over my hands in the process. Not as bad as the way Anthelia smell, but it still doesn't scrub off completely.

And all this before even being able to get to my coffee. GRUMPY DAAAAAAY!

Awwwww, poor you.

How's the b**** doing? She any better, or did she kick the bucket and go off to the happy ocean in the sky?

 

[Donya]

How's the b**** doing? She any better, or did she kick the bucket and go off to the happy ocean in the sky?

She is stable but still a mess. Basically she has no tail, including part of the fleshy bit. If she survives, I don't know whether it will be able to regrow or if it will just be a stump. However, all other fins have actually been healing and she has eaten a few bites of mysis and flakes the past two days. Still no signs of infection or further decay and even the raw tissue looks clean at this point, but I will have to stop the formalin very soon since it is harsh stuff. I'm not sure how that will go down with a great big raw area where her tail used to be.

 

[lljdma06]

How's the b**** doing? She any better, or did she kick the bucket and go off to the happy ocean in the sky?

She is stable but still a mess. Basically she has no tail, including part of the fleshy bit. If she survives, I don't know whether it will be able to regrow or if it will just be a stump. However, all other fins have actually been healing and she has eaten a few bites of mysis and flakes the past two days. Still no signs of infection or further decay and even the raw tissue looks clean at this point, but I will have to stop the formalin very soon since it is harsh stuff. I'm not sure how that will go down with a great big raw area where her tail used to be.

Wow, she is one tough fish. You can't reduce the strength of the formalin, just to give her time to heal her tail a bit more? It'd stink to have her come this far only to die of a secondary infection.

Yes, I'm gunning for the crazy b**** now. I'm a softie!

L

 

[Donya]

The problem with formalin is that the decreased stress from no infection vs. stress from the chemicals hits a tipping point pretty fast, and fish with raw spots are hit harder. Decreasing the dose can make the fish may be happier,but nasty bugs also survive it a lot more easily. When I did the dose the day before yesterday, the clown flopped to the bottom as soon as the drops hit the water and was very sluggish for several hours after that, suggesting the treatment had reached the point of diminishing return and therefore needed to stop. She's has been in my "meds bucket" for the treatments and is still there now that they've stopped, so it will at least be a pretty sterile place that should minimize reinfection risks. She is back to being active after being in clean, no-formalin water, but I saw a bit of slime accumulation near the raw area this morning, so I've switched to a Melafix+Pimafix combo (to hit both bacteria and fungus). I can drag that out for much longer if needed without worrying about causing death by meds.

 

[lljdma06]

Good, I was going to suggest just that combo for her as its less harsh. If she pulls through...

Wow.

Here's hoping for her.

L

 

[Donya]

Well...I failed, although at least I tried. She started getting really weak again late last night and then, earlier today, another bunch of muscle and other tissue suddenly fell off from around the damaged area, exposing the spinal column. That was what I was hoping to avoid since I knew she'd be toast if it got to that point, but I guess there was no stopping it. She lasted a little less than an hour after that happened. I don't think continuing the formalin would have avoided this result, since I still don't see any evidence of infection. Of course, I'm not equipped to detect something like a virus if there was anything cryptic like that involved, but it seems rather unlikely and the formalin wouldn't have helped then either. More likely some organ or another was hit hard from ingesting toxins and it just didn't give out right away.

On the bright side, everything is going still going strangely right in the 55gal. Peppermints are very aggressively getting rid of the Aip problem that has been lingering on one part of the rocks, and some green Zoas are going crazy making new polyps for me.

 

[ainsy]

Oh that is a blow Donya

It is really hard when you put that much effort into saving it!

 

[lljdma06]

Well...I failed, although at least I tried. She started getting really weak again late last night and then, earlier today, another bunch of muscle and other tissue suddenly fell off from around the damaged area, exposing the spinal column. That was what I was hoping to avoid since I knew she'd be toast if it got to that point, but I guess there was no stopping it. She lasted a little less than an hour after that happened. I don't think continuing the formalin would have avoided this result, since I still don't see any evidence of infection. Of course, I'm not equipped to detect something like a virus if there was anything cryptic like that involved, but it seems rather unlikely and the formalin wouldn't have helped then either. More likely some organ or another was hit hard from ingesting toxins and it just didn't give out right away.

On the bright side, everything is going still going strangely right in the 55gal. Peppermints are very aggressively getting rid of the Aip problem that has been lingering on one part of the rocks, and some green Zoas are going crazy making new polyps for me.

Ah the poor, crazy b****, I'll miss her stupid shenanigans.

I send you hugs, Donya.

L