Bleached anemones

[ThRoewer]

I have now 3 bleached anemones:

The first is my magnifica which has so far defied all my attempts to reinfect it with Zooxanthellae:
- first I tried if external contact with a Xenia colony might have some Zooxanthellae jump over - no joy.
- next I fed it a tentacle from my RBTA - nothing.
- I also fed it an entire Anthelia head - nothing.
- I also tried a few tentacles one of my haddoni "donated" - nothing.
- the RBTA lost another tentacle and I decided I may as well give it another shot instead of letting it go to waste - same result as before.
It seems I would need another magnifica as a donor - if this method actually works at all.
Or maybe the tentacles need to be put in a blender before injecting them into the anemone's gastrovascular cavity so that the Zooxanthellae are free swimming?



The crispa I got last week from LA also expelled all Zooxanthellae it still had left and is now as white as it can be.

The gigantea I got from LA in May has also bleached completely and on top of that shriveled up to next to nothing.



I will try feeding the bleached gigantea a tentacle of one of my 3 other giganteas and see how that goes...

[bradleym]

This may be crazy talk, but once I had a completely bleached Haddoni, and it recovered very slowly under low lighting with feeding mysis or clam every 2-3 days. After it regrew most of it's zooxanthellae over a 6 week period, I gradually removed the screens I had installed to shade the area and it colored up to a healthy green as it acclimated.

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[ThRoewer]

Originally Posted by bradleym

This may be crazy talk, but once I had a completely bleached Haddoni, and it recovered very slowly under low lighting with feeding mysis or clam every 2-3 days. After it regrew most of it's zooxanthellae over a 6 week period, I gradually removed the screens I had installed to shade the area and it colored up to a healthy green as it acclimated.

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If it recovered without being reinfected somehow then it wasn't completely bleached.
Did you have any other anemones or coral of any kind in that tank? I could definitely see that Zooxanthella from other coral got released and found their way into the anemone.

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[bradleym]

Originally Posted by ThRoewer

If it recovered without being reinfected somehow then it wasn't completely bleached.
Did you have any other anemones or coral of any kind in that tank? I could definitely see that Zooxanthella from other coral got released and found their way into the anemone.

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Yes, the tank was almost a year old and fully stocked with several soft corals and a few random anemones, but at the time, no other Haddoni anemones.

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[ThRoewer]

Originally Posted by bradleym

Yes, the tank was almost a year old and fully stocked with several soft corals and a few random anemones, but at the time, no other Haddoni anemones.

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I don't think that the Symbiodinium (Zooxanthella) species are that host specific. I feel that the ones associated with anemones should accept most anemones within the same family if not beyond that.
There have been studies done on stony corals and the findings were that the associated Symbiodinium species can not be used to determine the coral species because they were not host specific enough.
So I would think that there are two possible scenarios how your haddoni colored up again:
1. It wasn't completely bleached and a few Zooxanthella were still somewhere inside it, or
2. it picked up some Zooxanthella that where set free by other corals in the tank.

With my magnifica I can by now be fairly sure that it has no Zooxanthella left. Otherwise it should by now show signs of coloring up again.

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[ThRoewer]

Flexibility and Specificity in Coral-Algal Symbiosis: Diversity, Ecology, and Biogeography of Symbiodinium

Similar specificities of symbiont uptake by adults and larvae in an anemone model system for coral biology

[bradleym]

Originally Posted by ThRoewer

I don't think that the Symbiodinium (Zooxanthella) species are that host specific. I feel that the ones associated with anemones should accept most anemones within the same family if not beyond that.
There have been studies done on stony corals and the findings were that the associated Symbiodinium species can not be used to determine the coral species because they were not host specific enough.
So I would think that there are two possible scenarios how your haddoni colored up again:
1. It wasn't completely bleached and a few Zooxanthella were still somewhere inside it, or
2. it picked up some Zooxanthella that where set free by other corals in the tank.

With my magnifica I can by now be fairly sure that it has no Zooxanthella left. Otherwise it should by now show signs of coloring up again.

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Sorry, my comment wasn't very well written out. In essence, I was wondering if lower lighting conditions would make a bleached anemone more hospitable to transplanted zooxanthellae since they cannot provide much natural protection at first.

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[ThRoewer]

Originally Posted by bradleym

Sorry, my comment wasn't very well written out. In essence, I was wondering if lower lighting conditions would make a bleached anemone more hospitable to transplanted zooxanthellae since they cannot provide much natural protection at first.

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I don't think low level light actually helps. There are actually different Symbiodinium species for different light levels, and there are much more for high levels of light than there are for low levels.

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[ThRoewer]

Impact of Light and Temperature on the Uptake of Algal Symbionts by Coral Juveniles

While the above article deals in particular with corals, variations of the methods used will be most likely applicable to anemones as well. One aspect, the separation of the symbiotic algae from the donor tissue, might be actually critical for success. Or at least breaking up the donor tissue so that the algae can get out.

The findings also show that high light intensities favor the symbiont uptake.

[OrionN]

I think that the population of zooxanthellae in a host is a heterogenous group, but somewhat (loosely) host specific. When a host adapted to new condition and bleached, then recovered, what we really see is the change in the make up of the zooxanthellae population.
I did Zooxanthellae transplants a numbers of time in anemones, the few rare instant where I did a cross species transplant, it did not work. Most of the time, when I do interspecies transplant, it does work. When intra-species transplant does not work, I usually thinks about what I did and can account for why it does not.
I have not done control trials, but in our hobby, there are very few case where we can do control trials on things that we do to keep/treat our animals.

[OrionN]

ThRoewer,
I would love for you to document your procedure in the Zooxanthellae thread. Specifically, if you can document the intra-species transplant of the Gigantea.
With my experiences, I always consider Zooxanthallae are somewhat host specific.

[ThRoewer]

Originally Posted by OrionN

ThRoewer,
I would love for you to document your procedure in the Zooxanthellae thread. Specifically, if you can document the intra-species transplant of the Gigantea.
With my experiences, I always consider Zooxanthallae are somewhat host specific.

The host specificity you observed may have come from the delivery method: feeding a tentacle.
Maybe, if the symbionts could be isolated from the host tissue the results would be different.
The thing I want to try next is to at least liquify the host tissue so that the symbionts are free.

I also had noticed that there were still living symbionts in the matter sick anemones expel. Maybe it could be possible to isolate some of those, culture them, and then use those cultures to reinfect the anemone...

[Planetmacro]

ALGAGEN sells live zooxanthellae. https://www.algagendirect.com/products.html

Try introducing the algae culture into the mouth and using a hypodermic needle directly into the anemone's tissues. Worth trying.

AlgaGen Premium Live Feeds™ Phyto-PLASM™ Zooxanthellae
PhytoPLASM Zooxanthellae
Zooxanthellae is a mixture of 2 species of symbiotic microalgae, both known for their nutritional goodness as well as having attributes that include their relationship with corals and clams positively impacting on their health. Zooxanthellae generally live inside the tissue of many marine corals and clams. The essence of the interaction is that the zooxanthellae consume the waste of its host, and release “sugar” as a byproduct of photosynthesis, which then feeds its host. We recommend using PhytoPLASM Zooxanthellae to add to a reef tank periodically in order to maintain coral health and vibrancy. PhytoPLASM Zooxanthellae comes in the Easy Feed Packaging that allows you to drip feed your system for days at a time, or it can also be stored in the refrigerator and used “manually” to spot feed when desired. Life span in the refrigerator is upwards of 1 month. Product should be agitated periodically to prevent settling and maintain its shelf life.

[ThRoewer]

I tried that before and it didn't work.