Great info regarding anemone bacterial infections

[E.J. Coral]

A new gigantea that I purchased shows some signs of bacterial infection similiar to the symptoms described in this thread:
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1054979&highlight=bubble+haddoni+infection

I contacted the OP, and apparently the situation was caused by a contagious bacterial infection capable of infecting multiple species:eek2: He was able to save his haddoni and his other anemones with a maracyn treatment, both to the tank and through shrimp "plastered" with maracyn and fed directly to the anemone. This is the first internet report that I have seen of successful treatment of a carpet with antibiotics....very interesting indeed! Needless to say, I removed the new anemone to a makeshift quarantine. If it is still alive when I get back from a business trip on friday, I will begin treatment......

[reefman13]

Oh, great....here I go...two brand new anemones...this looks like it could be fun...

[DLBerlin]

LOL!
Actually he is a she;)
Debbie

[NanoReefWanabe]

where do we attain this drug?

my mini is looking just like the Hadoni...:(

[delphinus]

Isn't Maracyn fairly commonly available at LFS's?

That's a very interesting idea, to try feeding foods laced with Maracyn. I honestly would have guessed that if it came to needing something like that, that it would have been too late. So this was after the carpet resumed eating, and the treatment helped it recover from the "bubble mouth?"

[DLBerlin]

I haven't found it to be a fatal condition, other than starvation from not being able to eat. The Haddoni was like that for over 6 months, and my flower anemones still have it. I just picked up some erithomyacin to treat them with. The carpet didn't start eating again till after the first Maracyn treatment, and it still hasn't resumed spawning. The first treatment shrunk the bubble to less than half the size and it was able to eat then.
Maracyn is available at the LFS, but erithomyacin is much cheaper.
I wasn't very scientific on the treatment, but I'll try to document the flower anemone treatment better. Some of the offspring of the flower anemones even caught this from their parents, so I have several to treat. It should be a decent enough test to be sure the antibiotic is what is curing them.