2 blue gigs.

Pics from today.

Green is doing very well. Strongest gig I've ever had.


This is the blue one that was cut, it has healed to the point it's cut is not detectable at all, and turned around for the better. Eats well. Mouth is not super tight, but closed nice. I'm very happy with the progress this one has made lately.


This one I'm sad for. It is progressively getting worse. The tentacles are disappearing around the mouth, and the baldness is getting more and more. It does eat, the outer tentacles seem to be doing very well, getting longer it seems, but around the mouth, this guy is going bald and is getting worse. Mouth is always open, but after it eats, it closes a little, but still remains slightly open. Not good. It still is hanging on, but I don't have much hope for this guy. I feed them every other day, sometimes every day. This one seems to do better with daily feedings. One small piece of thawed shrimp. Half inch square piece, crushed. It is hanging on, don't know how... When I skip a day of feeding, it really shows.

:(


FTS
 
Here's a better pic with no flash.


This is right after eating. The best, and most inflated it ever looks. Couple more hours, that mouth will start hanging open again. I wonder if this guy needs two smaller feedings spaced out 12 hours? Cut it's meal in half and feed twice a day? It seems to always look better after a meal.


Green, with no flash. Base color of the tents look pink. Pic doesn't show well.
 
The green is amazing looking! Great job with these animals and as well hoping the blue pulls through. I still need to find a blue to complete my collection...
 
Thanks for the kind words everyone. Here is today... too lazy to clean my glass... I still think I'm going to lose a blue.
Green looks great as always.


The one blue seems to be doing better.


Here's a side view through really really dirty glass...


This guy has been through two treatments, and still refuses to really turn around.


Balding continues to get worse.




I know the photo's don't show a nem that is in decline, but sad to say, it is. The edge of the disk looks like it's getting ready to start falling apart. My guess, is, having all my algae rotting a couple months ago in the display, really set these guys back, and one doesn't look like it's going to recover. Strange, but both nems doing well have one of those white anemone crabs in them. The one on it's way out doesn't, nor, do the crabs want anything to do with it. I don't think the crabs are the reason, but something just to note.
 
Well, here's today. One blue gig is still "declining", but strange enough, it still eats...! ...? Not sure what to make of it. The center of the disk has now lost all it's tentacles. It is smooth in parts. Mouth is nice and tight. Go figure.


This blue, the one I refer to as "the cut one" is really doing well. Seems to have started to jump up in health, and I mean JUMP, and overall appearance. Eats really well too, when fed. The visual appearance of this guy has really improved, and quite noticably.


And, the green one. Strange, but yesterday it refused food. First time it has done this, that I can remember. This one doesn't look quite as "robust" as it did a few weeks ago, but still appears to be doing well.


You will have to give me a little grace... it was either, clean the glass, or post some pics... you see what I opted to do with my small window of time - we all LOVE pics, right? I didn't want to clean the glass until after I test my water, and I have a list of other things to do tonight before that....

I'm not sure what to make of the one losing it's tents. It still eats, never deflates, doesn't move, and mouth looks ok. Not tight like I want, (I like the mouth invisable to the eye/undetectable), but it is closed. Maybe it's turning into a haddoni! I kid, I kid... It eats, which I don't understand. And, to add, it eats with vigor. Not a slow response, but fast. It has plenty of energy to it, and is still very brown in the disk. It doesn't appear to be losing it's zoo algae, it does the same as the other two with the light cycle - only deflates a little bit at lights out, like normal. Stays that way all night, then lights on - inflates to full size in the day. Just going bald. It's tentacley challenged.
 
Looking back at my pics, looks like only one at a time can thrive. Maybe it's time to pick one and run with it.
 
Tom, I know you have your crosshairs set on one of these guys in the future.... I'll let you know if that's the direction it goes, but someone else already had dibs on them if they go... But I'll remember you if that person turns down... I'm going to hang on to all of them as long as I can, but we'll see.

Here's from today. Typical. FTS. I cleaned the glass last night. :)

 
taylor t said:
Updated pics.
They really do better with no food. Every time I feed them, they look worse the next day. Sorry, just what I'm seeing. You be the judge.



Here's the guy that was cut. The mouth has moved a bit to the center, the bald patch that is around the mouth has gained more material, but the poor guy needs a dentist sometimes. Still sticks one tooth out once in a while. It appears the mouth is moving slowly to the center of the disk now.
Click to expand...

Awesome blue gig....any problems with it stinging other corals ?
 
Personally, I would stop feeding - and definitely stop feeding big chunks of food. Digesting big chunks is a very high energy exercise for an anemone. Smaller chunks or even liquid food is easier to digest. You can raise a gig from the size of a dime to full adult size with no supplemental feeding in fresh seawater in sunlight, so supplemental feeding is NOT a requirement for these photosynthetic creatures. Supplemental feeding is really only necessary if an anemone has lost its zooxanthellae - and even then it is preferable to feed small food like a blend or a mash and not big chunks.

By the way - in that purple one you don't have an anemone crab, do you?
 
Bonsainut, as always, I appreciate you're experience and opinions. I may just stop feeding for a while and see how they do. And, I do have 2 anemone crabs, but I don't have a purple anemone, so not sure which one you're wondering about. The anemone crabs are really only staying in the two that are doing well (one blue, and the green). I have caught the one living in the green nem making it's way over to the other blue to say "hi" to the other crab, for a one nighter, (more than once) but the next day it's back in the green one again. The one that's going "bald" doesn't have a crab living in it. But, the "bald" one, as I type this, has a nice tight mouth, and has great "body" language, nice and ruffled... just balding...

I DID find a peppermint shrimp in my tank a couple weeks ago (I bought a few a couple years ago, I thought they all died, hadn't seen any for a couple years)...? Maybe it's coming out at night for a side dish of gig?

Thinking of feeding... I have a mertens (had for several years, so I've been able to see results of different husbandry/tank conditions/care) "played" with various levels of dosing things (mainly varying KH levels), that has gone a very long time with no food, months. But, when it's fed, it really "looks" better... I know it goes against the "no feeding" school of thought. But quite honestly, the anemone's I've fed over the years, really look better when fed (basically all of them). Maybe it has to do with an anemone that's struggling to acclimate to tank life vs. well acclimated?


I'm wondering what I'm doing wrong. I see others claim their gigs go from a tiny dink to a monster in months, with feeding. I think I remember EC saying his eats "a lot of groceries"... (made me laugh, that's why I remember that)Others also claim the opposite, that their gig has grown with no feeding at all, in a short time period also. The gigs I've got have been in captivity for 9+ months? Minus a few months for acclimation. Seems like they should be bigger than they are. One of the reasons I've been wanting to keep feeding them... I will try not feeding for a while and see how they do.

Thanks to all for opinions and thoughts. :)
 
jcarbone61 - sorry I blew past your question... I got distracted earlier...

Thanks! No, the corals in this tank are secondary. If they / when they get stung, I don't care. They are all "extras" from another tank. Like all anemone's, they can/will kill corals if/when they touch. The anemone's get full reign of the tank, if they want, and any coral killed is no loss. All corals are duplicates from my other tank. My only concern with coral in the tank touching anemone's would be the dying tissue adding to the bioload.
 
Hi Taylor;

When I said purple I was referring to the bald one :) It looked a little purple in the photo above.

All of these guys can be a little different. I have had gigs in a tank together and one will behave one way while the other will behave in a different way - in the same water, light, etc.

Here's what confuses me. Normally when I see missing or stubby tentacles, it is a sign of starvation. But that is usually accompanied by bleaching, since an anemone with a healthy population of zooxanthellae (and light to support it) should have plenty of energy to survive, at the minimum. Your anemone looks nice and dark, AND it is in a tank with two other healthy gigs, which suggests to me that the environment is fine.

The other thing is this - when an anemone starves it consumes its inner tentacles fastest. But ALL tentacles shrink and shorten. Your gig has long very healthy tentacles on the outside mixed with bald / disappeared tentacles on the inside. It doesn't look the way I would expect a starving anemone to look.

The only other time I have seen missing anemone tentacles, and general stress like your anemone is showing, is in the case of predation. The only critters that I have seen/experienced that eat tentacles so that they appear "bald" like yours are crabs and shrimp. I have seen fish and worms pick on anemones, but they don't normally exhibit the same way.

That's why I asked if you had any anemone crabs. Same goes for shrimp. I would consider locking up your crabs for two weeks to see if your anemone changes appearance. The other thing to try - check out your tank in the middle of the night. Make sure lights are totally out, then creep into the room with a dim flashlight and see if anything is in/around your anemone. I have caught all manner of nocturnal critters up to no good in my tanks at midnight.

Finally, are you sure your anemone is getting to digest its meal? I have had cleaner shrimp that were very adept at waiting until an anemone was fed, and then walking over and ripping the food out of the anemone.

Just trying to help out.
 
BonsaiNut said:
Hi Taylor;

When I said purple I was referring to the bald one :) It looked a little purple in the photo above.

QUOTE]



BonsaiNut, I really appreciate your feedback... Looking back, you are right.... it looked a little purple in that pic... but, it's not purple at all. It's blue for sure, but a darker blue than the other one. It's kind of shrunk up, making the tents a bit concentrated in the color appearance.

As for crabs, I have only (2) of these guys, and I've never seen them doing anything questionable with my nems... had them for atleast the past year, and in other nems too. I have only witnessed model citizen behavior from these guys:


I HAVE heard "clicking" at night, but never have I been able to see what's making it. I've had this rock for atleast 6, 7, or 8 years, and have tried to find the "clicker", and never have I been able to see it. I heard it 6, 7, or 8years ago, I still hear it when I come down at night, but never see it. I'm guessing it's a pistol shrimp. It's not as loud as a mantis. Little clicks. This rock has been with various anemone's over the years too... never had an anemone go bald like this. I'm having trouble thinking it's a predator, (but I'm sure it could be) the tents are all the same size nubs in the center, with a tiny blue spot at the tip where each tent was/is. My gut is telling me it's "self shrinking" for some reason. A while back the edge looked like it was about to start falling apart, when I had too much rotting algae, but not anymore. The disk looks pretty firm now. Maybe the bald guy is more sensitive than the others to something going on, or that went on. It did have much thinner tents that the other two. The other two have thick tents, for gigs.


I think it would be easier to not feed any of them, to avoid the crabs stealing eaten food, than to try to get those crabs out of the anemone's, the anemone's are like velcro.

Here's the bald one today:


And if you made it this far, this view is through the side of my tank, as I sit at my desk. I like it. :)


I think short term, I will not feed them for a while, and keep an eye on the crabs. I may try to trap the pepermint shrimp. I don't trust that guy.
Click to expand...
 
FTS today.


Green doing well.


This is the one I'm most excited about. It has 1/4" tents growing all over, where it was bald. It's made a complete 180. Now the crab has made it's way to it during the day, as you can see.


This one is doing amazing.


This is a day or two ago, before I moved the rock, giving the top one more room.


I'm really happy with the progress these guys have made since my last post. No food. :)
 
I am glad he is doing well for you. I got the same thing happen to one of my Gig also. Not deflating, just not doing well, and not eating well either.
 
OrionN said:
I got the same thing happen to one of my Gig also. Not deflating, just not doing well, and not eating well either.
Click to expand...

I'm sorry to hear this. I hope it pulls through for you. Do you direct feed yours frequently? Is this a new addition?
 
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