susyq458
Non-member
My beautiful, 6-7 inch purple tipped Condylactis Anemone got sucked into the stupid plastic "intake protector" of a maxijet on Tuesday evening. It was looking for light because I had shut off the lights for a day to combat an algae problem.
I was horrified. I shut the pump asap and removed the basket for inspection. When I looked inside, it looked like anemone tartar. bits of tentacle and guts. The whole foot was intact and wrapped around the outside but the body was interwined in the plastic.
Needless to say, I thought it was dead and called Mauro to share my sadness while I threw it out. He said if the foot was intact it might still be alive. It did still have some coloring and as soon as I turned on the lights, I could see bits of tentacle turning purple. I also called Greg Hiller who told me the same thing so I figured maybe there was some faint hope.
Please understand that it looked like fish goo inside and I could not imagine how it could survive if half of it's body including the mouth were sucked through the plastic. I am the forever optimist and started surgery with my tiny sewing scissors and cuticle scissors to trim the thin plastic pieces and pluck them out one at a time while keeping the anemone in the container of water.
It took me about 15 minutes to get the flesh of the anemone clear of the plastic and when I tell you it looked bad, that just doesn't do it justice. It looked like someone had come along and trimmed the body from the foot with a chainsaw and then gone back and stabbed it a few times. Only three shreds of tentacle remained on one side and the whole top of the body and mouth was gone. It looked like a half eaten scallop on a plate of leftovers. But the foot was intact and it still had color AND it was struggling with me while I tried to free it. I gave it a quick rinse in RO and placed it back into my tank with the foot side down in a shady spot on top of some rocks so the open flesh didn't get covered in sand. I was still full of hope that it would live and pretty sure I'd come back in an hour and find it melted and wrapped around another powerhead.
I've read up on it now and you are supposed to just shut off the pump and let the anemone work itself free but there is now way that could have happend in this case. It was solidly sucked in through the bottom and sides of the plastic cover.
We left for the Harry Potter midnight screening around 8 and got home around 3. I checked on it and much to my complete shock, the whole base was puffed up and expelling sand and other bits of crap out of the various fleshy bits. Remember there is no identifiable mouth on this thing now, it is just a mash of chunky fleshy bits attached to a foot.
Today is day three and the three remaining tentacles are huge mishapen ballons but swollen to about triple their size and waving in the current. It has moved to the back of the tank in a spot that does not get direct light but has good ambient light. The body still looks like chopped meat but you can see the foot is solidly attached in a nook. Here's hoping.....
I was horrified. I shut the pump asap and removed the basket for inspection. When I looked inside, it looked like anemone tartar. bits of tentacle and guts. The whole foot was intact and wrapped around the outside but the body was interwined in the plastic.
Needless to say, I thought it was dead and called Mauro to share my sadness while I threw it out. He said if the foot was intact it might still be alive. It did still have some coloring and as soon as I turned on the lights, I could see bits of tentacle turning purple. I also called Greg Hiller who told me the same thing so I figured maybe there was some faint hope.
Please understand that it looked like fish goo inside and I could not imagine how it could survive if half of it's body including the mouth were sucked through the plastic. I am the forever optimist and started surgery with my tiny sewing scissors and cuticle scissors to trim the thin plastic pieces and pluck them out one at a time while keeping the anemone in the container of water.
It took me about 15 minutes to get the flesh of the anemone clear of the plastic and when I tell you it looked bad, that just doesn't do it justice. It looked like someone had come along and trimmed the body from the foot with a chainsaw and then gone back and stabbed it a few times. Only three shreds of tentacle remained on one side and the whole top of the body and mouth was gone. It looked like a half eaten scallop on a plate of leftovers. But the foot was intact and it still had color AND it was struggling with me while I tried to free it. I gave it a quick rinse in RO and placed it back into my tank with the foot side down in a shady spot on top of some rocks so the open flesh didn't get covered in sand. I was still full of hope that it would live and pretty sure I'd come back in an hour and find it melted and wrapped around another powerhead.
I've read up on it now and you are supposed to just shut off the pump and let the anemone work itself free but there is now way that could have happend in this case. It was solidly sucked in through the bottom and sides of the plastic cover.
We left for the Harry Potter midnight screening around 8 and got home around 3. I checked on it and much to my complete shock, the whole base was puffed up and expelling sand and other bits of crap out of the various fleshy bits. Remember there is no identifiable mouth on this thing now, it is just a mash of chunky fleshy bits attached to a foot.
Today is day three and the three remaining tentacles are huge mishapen ballons but swollen to about triple their size and waving in the current. It has moved to the back of the tank in a spot that does not get direct light but has good ambient light. The body still looks like chopped meat but you can see the foot is solidly attached in a nook. Here's hoping.....
