2 New Gigs. Time for Cipro?

A

Aquarick

New member
Hi Everyone,

I've been scouring the forum for years now. Finally decided to post to get some help from more experienced reefers.

I purchased 2 gigs Friday afternoon; one blue the other purple. I was able to pick them up as soon as they arrived at my LFS. Since the gigs were straight from transport, I double acclimated over the course of a little more than an hour.

I currently have them attached to rocks at the bottom of the tank. I figured if they needed treatment it would be easy to remove the whole rock and anemone together and place them in a QT.

Based on the pictures of the gigs 24 hours after introduction in my DT, does anyone believe I should start a cipro treatment now? The mouths of both anemones are pretty open and neither are sticky to the touch.

I have several 20g tanks, and a couple 40B tanks on hand. If they do need treatment, should I treat both gigs together in one 40B, or separately in their own 20g tanks? I have a spare 8 bulb 4' T5 fixture on hand to provide light.

Thanks in advance for your help!
 
Here's the blue gig.

The mouth on this one is quite open to the point one of the clowns is sticking it's entire head in and out of the anemone.
 

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Here's the purple gig.

A bit smaller than the blue, but mouth still open more than I'm comfortable with.
 

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If they were my gigs, I would treat both of them individually in separate QT tanks with Cipro. Use the 20 gallon tanks since they require less medication, and you will be doing water changes so there's also less watere to change.

IME, I had my pair of clowns try to ram themselves into the mouth of my gig. This gig later died (this was prior to Cipro). I subsequently have had two healthy gigs, and the clowns never tried to dive bomb into the mouths of either. This leads me to believe that they won't do it to healthy gigs.

The reason I say to treat both is because gigs are known to pass on ailments to each other. Since the Cipro treatment doesn't appear to harm the gigs, it can be done for preventative measures.
 
D-Nak said:
If they were my gigs, I would treat both of them individually in separate QT tanks with Cipro. Use the 20 gallon tanks since they require less medication, and you will be doing water changes so there's also less watere to change.

IME, I had my pair of clowns try to ram themselves into the mouth of my gig. This gig later died (this was prior to Cipro). I subsequently have had two healthy gigs, and the clowns never tried to dive bomb into the mouths of either. This leads me to believe that they won't do it to healthy gigs.

The reason I say to treat both is because gigs are known to pass on ailments to each other. Since the Cipro treatment doesn't appear to harm the gigs, it can be done for preventative measures.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the replay D-Nak. So in your opinion these gigs look sick and definitely need cipro? I just took a look and the purple is starting to poop some pellets. I'll start setting things up now.
 
Aquarick said:
Thanks for the replay D-Nak. So in your opinion these gigs look sick and definitely need cipro? I just took a look and the purple is starting to poop some pellets. I'll start setting things up now.
Click to expand...

Visually, they looked okay. The purple one has a mouth that appears to be gaping (open and loose, which is different than open and tight). You confirmed a problem when you mentioned the pellets. When gigs start to expel pellets it means there's something wrong internally. Healthy gigs do not poop pellets. I would definitely start treatment of the purple one. You could possibly wait on the blue one, just be on the look out for symptoms of illness.
 
Thanks DNak. Unfortunately both are now pooping pellets. Since my 2nd spare heater isn't working, I may have to wait until tomorrow night to start my cipro treatment.
 
congrats on your purchase, both look beautifull and appear to be healthy.

lately there has been newly acquired gigs that look pretty good, nice color and all that, unlike before they usually are bleached.
 
Pinkskunk said:
congrats on your purchase, both look beautifull and appear to be healthy.

lately there has been newly acquired gigs that look pretty good, nice color and all that, unlike before they usually are bleached.
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With all due respect (since it seems as if we've been on opposite sides of the fence lately) but I wouldn't say these gigs look "pretty good." I would consider them normally acclimating gigs that need to be watched CLOSELY. The pastel color -- which does appear nice -- shows that the nem does not have all of its zoox (and backed up by it pooping dead zoox).

The bleached gigs that came in recently have a BETTER track record than the ones that had normal color. Granted, it took the bleached gigs longer to color back up, but most did not need treatment.

The key takeaway from this is that with gigs, looks can be deceiving. Knowing the signs is critical to being able to save a gig from dying.
 
I also think the blue looks OK for new arrival Gig. The purple look sicker.
If I am you. if this AM both anemone look a lot better than leave them be but if the purple does not show improvement, I would treat him today. The blue does not need treatment unless he slide backward.
Earlier is much better than later. If you have reasonable light in TT, good heater and willing to do daily water change I would really consider treating the Purple one.
 
OrionN said:
I also think the blue looks OK for new arrival Gig. The purple look sicker.
If I am you. if this AM both anemone look a lot better than leave them be but if the purple does not show improvement, I would treat him today. The blue does not need treatment unless he slide backward.
Earlier is much better than later. If you have reasonable light in TT, good heater and willing to do daily water change I would really consider treating the Purple one.
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Thanks for the advice Minh. I read up on many of your threads here before I decided to purchase my gigs.Please note the Purple looked flat in yesterday's pic because of bad PH placement. It was aimed right at the gig and made it look flatter than it normally was. I should have corrected it prior to posting the pic yesterday.

OrionN said:
If you have equipment for separate TT, I would treat separately. However, I treated all three of my Gigantea together and they did great. All doing great at this time.
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2329256
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Here are pics of the gigs as they are just a few moments ago:

Blue Gig Day 2

Anemone shape seems to be a bit flatter than Day1. My biggest concern is the gaping mouth. The skunks aren't going head first into the mouth as much as yesterday. It is also definitely feeling more stickier than yesterday.

<a href="http://s1080.photobucket.com/user/aquarick/media/Gigs/BlueGig2-1.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1080.photobucket.com/albums/j322/aquarick/Gigs/BlueGig2-1.jpg" border="0" alt="Blue Gig Day 2 photo BlueGig2-1.jpg"/></a>

<a href="http://s1080.photobucket.com/user/aquarick/media/Gigs/BlueGig2Mouth.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1080.photobucket.com/albums/j322/aquarick/Gigs/BlueGig2Mouth.jpg" border="0" alt="Blue Gig Mouth Day 2 photo BlueGig2Mouth.jpg"/></a>

Purple Gig Day 2

Anemone shape is staying consistent throughout the day. Again, (the flat shape of yesterday's pic on this anemone was due to the PH and not so much the anemone itself). Mouth has closed up pretty well compared to yesterday. This gig has also become stickier compared to Day 1. It "looks" healthier, but I'll leave the diagnosis to you folks who have done this before.

<a href="http://s1080.photobucket.com/user/aquarick/media/Gigs/PurpleGig2.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1080.photobucket.com/albums/j322/aquarick/Gigs/PurpleGig2.jpg" border="0" alt="Purple Gig Day 2 photo PurpleGig2.jpg"/></a>

<a href="http://s1080.photobucket.com/user/aquarick/media/Gigs/PurpleGig2Mouth.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1080.photobucket.com/albums/j322/aquarick/Gigs/PurpleGig2Mouth.jpg" border="0" alt="Purple Gig Mouth Day 2 photo PurpleGig2Mouth.jpg"/></a>


I had planned to start treatment in separate tanks tonight but needed to help with family stuff first. If you don't mind, I'd like to get your opinions on starting treatment again after looking at these recent pics. I can start treatment tomorrow morning if needs be.

Thanks again for your help folks!
 
I think they both look OK. It can be either way. From the latest picture, if it is representative of how they look through out the day, then I think you don't need to treat the purple. Maybe treat the blue.
Trust your observation. From what you wrote, you can tell a sick anemone from the one that is not.
 
Day 4 - 1st Day of QT

Ligershark said:
have you decided to treat any of the nems yet?
Click to expand...

Thanks for asking Ligershark.

As a matter of fact yes, I put both gigs in separate QT early this afternoon. The blue gig was just looking awful. Even the tangs were going for it's mouth. You can see it taking a turn for the worse in my DT here:

<a href="http://s1080.photobucket.com/user/aquarick/media/Gigs/Blue3.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1080.photobucket.com/albums/j322/aquarick/Gigs/Blue3.jpg" border="0" alt="Blue Gig Day 3 photo Blue3.jpg"/></a>

Since the blue gig was doing so poorly, I decided to place both in QT. The purple is still looking ok, but also still pooping small pellets. I dosed 250mg Cipro for each QT tank. I'll be dosing it again later tonight after a 5g water change.

Here are how both are doing now:

<a href="http://s1080.photobucket.com/user/aquarick/media/Gigs/GigsDay3.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1080.photobucket.com/albums/j322/aquarick/Gigs/GigsDay3.jpg" border="0" alt="Gigs Day 3 - QT photo GigsDay3.jpg"/></a>

Unfortunately the blue gig isn't looking so great. Very flat and now smaller than the purple. Hopefully things will turn around.
 
please keep up updated. best of luck!

my cipro came in today. i have not begun to look for a gig yet but am getting hospital tank components ready.
 
good scores, just a little love of cipro and they will be back to normal, best of luck aquarick.
 
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