Blue Gigantea - New Introduction (Wish me luck)

[taylor t]

I agree with D-Nak. This guy has been in trouble for days now.

 

[OrionN]

I did not see the last set of picture until today for some reason.
I think the picture at 2PM is of concern. I would treat him.

I wish I can get my hand on one of the two Green Gigantea in that shop. Where are you Dennis? Can you give us the name of that LFS? (or email me)

 

[DP Reef]

Been out of town for a conference since Tuesday but set up a ip camera to watch his behavior while I was gone. No good. Last thing I saw before I left Tuesday was a much larger open mouth than usual (no guts or internals protruded, just a much larger mouth).

Saw he inflated/deflated twice yesterday during the daytime (could not see how the mouth was on the ip camera)

He was large and full looking this morning but around 2PM he got flat again. When I got home today at 3:30PM he looked like this. Looks like he's getting more bare around the mouth? This is all in less than 1 week!!! Will start treatment w/ Cipro ASAP.

Could it in anyway be my water?
Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate are zero
I run GFO and right now don't have much of any algae on my glass after 4-5 days.
Kalk dosing at night

 

[DP Reef]

Thought it was 5 weeks, but I checked the timeline on when I first saw the anemone at his store which was actually around 4 weeks ago which makes when I bought it maybe a little over 3 weeks. So it wasn't sitting at the store as long as I thought....(my fault). That is inline with the ~3 weeks at the sign of stress that has been quoted on this forum. ouch.

My 2 clowns seem to be picking at his innards while his mouth is open. Maybe I should go ahead and toss them in the sump right now...

 

[D-Nak]

Yes, your gig shows all of the signs of a sick gig, including the clowns picking at its mouth. This doesn't ever happen to an anemone that's healthy. Definitely start Cipro ASAP, and keep us posted. Best of luck.

 

[DP Reef]

Took me some time to pull out my QT tank and get it set up.

1. Is it ok to move the rock with the Anemone to the QT? I see the rock as a nice way to also provide filtration.

2. what about when I move it back to the DT (if all goes well). Is this rock now contaiminated with the medicine?

3. will the medicine cause some sort of die-off in the rock and make it worse for the anemone?

 

[Pastey]

The antibiotic will likely kill off beneficial bacteria from your rock. I would not transfer it to QT with the rock.

 

[DP Reef]

The rock came with the anemone and I prefer not to keep it. Maybe this is a good opportunity to get rid of the rock. I see that the anemone has part of the bottom of his foot exposed so I could probably slowly lift his foot and get it detached.

My only worry is getting him off the glass once the quarantine is over and he is healthy again.

 

[hecdr34]

Cipro will kill all the bacteria on the rock and could cause an amonía spike specially is you're treating in a small tank. Keep that in mind and test frequently if you do add the rock. It will cause more problems than benefits by transferring the rock with the Gig

 

[Pinkskunk]

i would move the nem along with the rock it's attached to and put them both in the QT.

the rock can/will provide some filtration. no sandbed in the QT

maybe you should give the Cipro sticky thread another glance and make sure you have everything covered.

 

[D-Nak]

In this case the risk of damaging the foot while trying to remove the nem from the rock may cause more harm than the benefit it provides. If you can easily remove it, then by all means go for it. The coffee mug method tends to work well with gigs because they usually stay planted. This will allow you to easily move the gig back to the DT and allow it to move off of the mug on its own.

Don't worry about what the rock will do to water quality both good and bad. With evening water changes it's a non-issue because you're changing 50%+ water volume. If you're concerned, do larger water changes -- some people have even done 100% water changes. This is assuming your water parameters don't change drastically. If you have the luxury of making a big batch of salt water that you can pull from daily, I would definitely recommend doing that. Use an ammonia badge to monitor water quality. If you see a spike, do a water change immediately.

 

[DP Reef]

The last time the anemone partially inflated was Thursday morning. By the time I got my QT setup, put him and the rock in it, and dosed (Friday evening) he had not been inflated for a day. I did try to get him off the rock by blowing a water stream at him and slowly lofting his leg, but it was well stuck. That was probably a huge mistake and stressed him too much.

Friday his mouth was wide open, deflated and showing all his guts. Was almost sagging of the rocks when the ciprofloxacin started in the evening. This morning (saturday) he was decaying and is a goner.

Wow, in exactly 1 week. Could it have been the water or something? I lost 1 day for not having QT and ciprofloxacin in hand but maybe it was already too late. Should have treated him on his first or second deflate in my system early In the week.

 

[OrionN]

I am sorry Dennis. Better luck next time. Be prepare to treat so you can do it right away.

 

[DP Reef]

I agree. Next time I will have a QT tank setup and running so that I can transfer the gig upon the first/second deflate. That would have headed off the infection. By the time I saw the clowns picking at the anemone's mouth, it was probably starting to be too late. My mimic puffer (filefish) even picked at it. That probably escalated it's demise.

I feel bad as it was such a beautiful creature.