Question about my magnifica?

[BLANKENSHIP76]

My magnifica has been droopy for the past couple of days, and I can not get it to eat which is unusual, it drop the silversides over and over.

It is is expanding and retracting, but isn't accepting food or perky like usual. It hasn't moved or anyhting in months. It also seems to have a lighter pink hew to it and its tip seem to be a little more bubbled?????

Does anyone know is this normal or what???

Location is a the top of the tankon the front glass, my water is a little nasty( I overfeed tank levels are ok however) as always and everything in the tank is great except the magnifica.

[SVXH6]

how long have you had it?? whats a little nasty mean for water quality?? whats the params??

[BLANKENSHIP76]

I have had it for 9 months, and by nasty I mean I overfeed my level are fine however my ASM-3 pulls some muck, I do have small traces of nitrates, everything else is right on the money.

However, the anemone as always seemed to do better with the dirtier water, I have cleaned it up before when I was going to go SPS, and it seemed unhappy moved a lot more.

I feed the tank oyster eggs, cyclopeeze, reef flake, formula -1 flake and mysis on a regular basis.

I also keep a flower pot, so I like to keep the water a little dirtier from everything I have read magnificas and flower pots do better in dirtier(overfed water).

So I have catered the other corals I keep to their requirements.

[BLANKENSHIP76]

Oh and I run carbon!

[SVXH6]

i have had a H. Mag for a year.. i also noticed that it liked a little dirtier water as well.. can you post some pics of it?? how old are your bulbs?? have you tried to offer different foods?? sometimes they get bored with the same food.. what clowns host it?? how does the mouth look?? from it getting lighter i would be woried.. lets see some pics if possible..

[Flighty]

Pics would help. It sounds worrying, but it is hard to know without pics. The terms droopy and lighter are hard to quantify.

[traveller7]

The initial description at the 9 month mark is definitely a concern, as it is right in line with numerous past decline events.

In the case of H. magnifica, dirty water is not likely producing the "positive effect" as much as the stability. H. mag seems to be quite sensitive to changes in chemistry that a water change, carbon change, phos media, etc, provide. In our closed systems, behaviors vs measurable parameters vs tolerance are extremely difficult to narrow down.

I would hesitate to say they like dirty water based on anecdotal captive evidence, the reefs they seem to prefer are not ones classified as "dirty". But they are high flow and have fairly stable chemical conditions.

[graveyardworm]

Has anything been recently added to the tank, corals, fish, inverts?

[SVXH6]

i agree with Traveller7, but i also noticed that it does(and requires) clean water too.. i was using the term "dirty water" loosely.. my way for dirty water is not doing a WC for a couple of weeks.. i do WC every week.. but everything remaining stable is the key to keeping H. Magnifica..

[BLANKENSHIP76]

I do water changes bi-weekly and add 5 gallons of freshwater every other day(RO/DI).

It has perked up today and isn't as droopy as it was yesterday, the mouth is pointing up today and is closed tightly, it was however open yesterday. It does still have a lighter color.

I am cleaning my carbon filter tonight and switching out the carbon, hopefully this will help since I haven't done it in six weeks. The only thing that has changed in the tank is I had a maxi mod break so now I have three regular maxi 1200s running on a wavemaker.

It has two false percs in it a mated pair.

As far as pics, I have tried and tried and can't figure out how to post them???

[BLANKENSHIP76]

Another note I saw it eating a perc the other day it had it in its mouth all the way in except the head, I had to take a turkey baster and poke it loose???? A neat thing to see wish I had taken a PIC.!!!!!

[Flighty]

One thing that sticks out to me is the topoff. That seems like a very wide salinity swing for a magnifica. I try not to add more than 5g at a time and my system holds 625g total water.

[BLANKENSHIP76]

I have a refractometer, and while I should be checking the salinity more oftern when I check it is always between 1.23 and 1.24.

I have never had a big flux in that department, but I will begin doing 2.5 gallons a day, but when I have the fan running over the top of the tank it'll evap 4 gallons a day.

I let my tank flux between 78 and 81.

But honestly it will get 76 sometimes and 83 once in a while.

I know it is a swing, but rarely that happens.

[dantodd]

pulling food out of the anemone after it is almost completely swallowed can certainly stress it.

[BLANKENSHIP76]

yeah I couldn't let it eat the clown though!!

[BLANKENSHIP76]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v284/blankenship76/fishpics001_edited.jpg

Here is a pic taken a 12:30 Saturday afternoon, it is all the from the other side of the tank, so its the best I can get let me know what you think???

[BonsaiNut]

It is bleached (light color) and starving (short pinched tentacles). You need to get it out on rocks under very bright metal halide lighting and strong water flow.

Don't forget. The primary food source for clown anemones is the SUN. (Of course, it's actually bi-products of the zooxanthellae that live in the anemone's tissues, but you understand my point). Clown anemones can be grown from dime-sized individuals to 12" adults using only sunlight.

[BLANKENSHIP76]

I just relocated it to the highest rock under a 250W DE bulb that is about 6 montshs old, and I switched out a maxi 400 with a 1200, and took a 1200 out and put a mod kit on it, so it has a ton of flow more than I would ever normally need. We'll SEE!!!

[Pavlo]

I've never seen a magnifica with pointed tentacles. Are you sure you have the correct ID?