Another Zoo transplant

[Ryleerei]

First, I must give big props to Skyrne_isk as his thread on zoo transplant gave me direction with my gigantea.

Aug 6, 2014,


Gig stayed this way with no coloration in sight for 3 months so I decided to do a zoo transplant from the green gig on Nov 5, 2014.

November 17, hints of brown began to show


From this point on, zoo spread exponentially, Nov 26, 2014


Dec 10, 2014


Dec 16, 2014


Dec 22, 2014


Dec 29, 2014


Can't wait to see the final coloration. I believe it will be purple. Thanks for looking

 

[this is me]

Looking good.

 

[Bristle_Worm]

Looking better. How much did you feed it and number of times fed? Can we be sure it didn't start to populate naturally? I think when they start to become healthy, something changes inside them and they begin to produce zoo again. Of course this is purely a guess. I think giving the time frame, he may have started to color up on his own.

 

[mrbnx]

That's a huge improvement in a fairly short period of time. Great thread of hope.

 

[geckoejon]

please share more details... zoo transplant procedure, amount / frequency of feeding, lighting, and ect...

 

[OrionN]

Looking better. How much did you feed it and number of times fed? Can we be sure it didn't start to populate naturally? I think when they start to become healthy, something changes inside them and they begin to produce zoo again. Of course this is purely a guess. I think giving the time frame, he may have started to color up on his own.

I did not really want to jump in in this thread but, oh well.
Bristle_Worm
The anemone was bleached for 3 months with no change. The coloration started 2 weeks after the transplant.
Too bad none of us have 100 bleached Gigantea so we can do transplant on 50 and observe 50. That will get us a control study.
All the transplanted thread I read, the coloration started about 10-14 days after the transplant. All the evidences we have regarding this topic is anecdotal evidences like this. Not as good as a control study but as you all can see, control study evidence is just not possible regarding this issue so we just have to do the best we can with what we have.

When we don't have the all the information we want or need, we just have to use whatever we have and try to think logical about it. Maybe sometime in the future, a reefer can have huge resources and can perform this control study. Somehow, I doubt that this will ever happen.

It really does not matter how many tentacles, but the more the merrier. The inoculation dose jump start the zooxanthellae re-population process. The higher the dose the quicker the process.
Leaving to his own devices, the anemone may get one or two zooxanthellae. The re-population then start from this. Given several thousand zooxanthellae with a feeding, you can see why this re-population process is a lot quicker since the growth is exponential.
Another advantage with zooxanthellae transplant is that the population of zooxanthellae is likely to be a lot more diverse since it started with several thousand rather than a population that just get start form one.

 

[Ryleerei]

Looking better. How much did you feed it and number of times fed? Can we be sure it didn't start to populate naturally? I think when they start to become healthy, something changes inside them and they begin to produce zoo again. Of course this is purely a guess. I think giving the time frame, he may have started to color up on his own.

Completely agree with Orion. 100 days of white, not a hint of zoo and then after transplant, population after a little over a week. Very similar to Skyrne_isk. I highly doubt zoo was obtained from water column. I fed the gig two days in a row approximately 4 small tents, gut loaded in krill. Other than the two days, everything else was the same. Lights are AI sol blue at 80%, tank 80 gallons. I do feed the anem twice a day which will be throttled back to once a week after the anem regains full health

 

[OrionN]

...... I think when they start to become healthy, something changes inside them and they begin to produce zoo again. Of course this is purely a guess. ......

Zooxanthellae are not something the anemone produced. These are symbiotic micro-organism, a dinoflagellate, that obligatory live in anemones. They cannot live outside of the anemone for long. Anemone cannot produce this symbiotic organism de novo. They have to start with at least one single one before re-population can be start. This group of organisms can only live in anemone, coral or other photosynthetic inverterbrates. They are available in the water breefly when for some reason the inverterbrates expell them into the invironment. If they don't get into another inverterbrates they will not last too long.
IMO, this is the reason why a completly bleached anemone will not regain their color easy. Mostly bleached anemone (even completly white under our eyes) that still have a small zooxanthellae will color up without help but the one that completly bleach will rarely if ever color up again by themselves. IMO, 3 months with optimal care and color does not come back qualify as completly bleached in my book.



</PRE>

 

[syrinx]

I dont disagree with anything said- but my question would have to be-wouldnt the bleached anemone be the same color as the one that inoculated it? Or could it be the inoculation sparks the anemones remaining few zooax to multiply.

 

[enchelycore808]

If I remember correctly, zoox are brown/golden brown in color. The other colors come from fluorescing proteins and pigments.

 

[Bristle_Worm]

Zooxanthellae are not something the anemone produced. These are symbiotic micro-organism, a dinoflagellate, that obligatory live in anemones. They cannot live outside of the anemone for long. Anemone cannot produce this symbiotic organism de novo. They have to start with at least one single one before re-population can be start. This group of organisms can only live in anemone, coral or other photosynthetic inverterbrates. They are available in the water breefly when for some reason the inverterbrates expell them into the invironment. If they don't get into another inverterbrates they will not last too long.
IMO, this is the reason why a completly bleached anemone will not regain their color easy. Mostly bleached anemone (even completly white under our eyes) that still have a small zooxanthellae will color up without help but the one that completly bleach will rarely if ever color up again by themselves. IMO, 3 months with optimal care and color does not come back qualify as completly bleached in my book.



</PRE>

That is awesome. I did not realize exactly what the zoo was and how it fuctions. I think that you are right. He was Snow White and if he regained it in two weeks or so like the others have, I'm sure this was a successful transplant. I need to try this. I may know somebody that has a bleached gigantea I can test this with.

 

[Ryleerei]

Update, gig looks good. Thought it would be purple but remains brown with hints of purple.

Donor gig

New gigs 37 days old. 6 days septra treatment and zoo transplant after 20 days. Blue has taken to transplant well, purple may need another shot.

 

[Ryleerei]

So my most recent additions, the blue and purple, continue to show signs of improvement. Two weeks ago the purple decided to make a climb up the tank wall, I've left it in that position thinking it would come back down when ready. MP60 is covered and the anem is eating and acting normal. Should I move, leave? Thoughts please.

 

[OrionN]

cover or not an MP 60 will chew up the Gigantea if her is close enough to it. I would move the MP 60 if you don't want to move the anemone.

 

[Ryleerei]

Thanks Minh, that's what I need to know. Will move MP now.

 

[xtlosx]

Looking better. How much did you feed it and number of times fed? Can we be sure it didn't start to populate naturally? I think when they start to become healthy, something changes inside them and they begin to produce zoo again. Of course this is purely a guess. I think giving the time frame, he may have started to color up on his own.

+1. I had a completely bleached whit'ish with hints of purple S. Gigantea..

Fed selcon soaked meaty foods daily for 3-6 months, and now 2.5 yrs later we have this beast... 18" across.

That's an old lousy picture but you get the idea... I don't really know if transplanting does much, but that's just my opinion.

Regardless, your nems look great, I always will have a soft spot for S. Gigantea.

 

[OrionN]

xtlosx,
The picture of the anemone in the bag look light but not completely bleached to me.
Sometime they can look bleached but still have a few zooxanthellae. You really cannot visually tell the different between the anemone that is completely bleached (no zooxanthellae) from the one that have only a few or one zooxanthellae in his tissue.

The single most important piece of information Ryleerei gave in this fist post on this thread is:
"Gig stayed this way with no coloration in sight for 3 months…"
Assume that Ryleerei can take care of his Gigantea, there is a thriving Gigantea in the tank so there is no reason to doubt that, this means that this gigantic is complete bleached.
Another piece of information, not just from this thread but from all the zooxanthellae transplant thread, is the visible repopulation of zooxanthellae all started at about 10-14 days after transplant, after months of bleached without recovery.

That is my take on zooxanthellae transplant