Blue S. Gigantea

[bkztrini465]

Hi All,

I've had my Blue Gigantea for about 3 months now and it's been doing great. It has grown from about 10" to over 12" in that time. I was away on vacation last week and it looked a little stressed when I got back, only opening to about 10" during the day. I changed my carbon, took GFO offline, and did some general maintaining of the tank. Yesterday it opened to about normal size, but it looks like it has some "kinks" in it, where it just isn't laying out like it used too.

What bothers me is that in the night its shrinking down to about 4" with my clowns still trying to host it. It's not deflating or getting that limp look at all, just looks like a much much smaller version of itself.

Has anyone had this happen before? Is there anything I can do to help it? The mouth has also been open, maybe 3/4" during the day.

I also have a S. Haddoni in the tank that was added a week before vacation, could it be the haddoni stressing it out?

Thanks,
Kris

 

[Cheebs]

I wouldn't be too worried - they can deflate significantly at night. The mouth hanging open may mean that it isn't "perfect". Giganteas can be sensitive to water conditions, but often the issue lies with flow+lighting. I do have some questions though:

What type of flow do you have it under?
Lights?
What size is your tank?

You say you have a Haddoni in there with it... Mixing anemones is generally frowned upon unless the tank is very large and they can have their own territory. Otherwise they will certainly stress each other out and cause potentially worse issues for the whole tanks in the process.

 

[bkztrini465]

Thanks for the quick reply!

The tank is a 200g Marineland (48*36*27high).
Flow consists of a Ehiem 1262 return pump, and 3 Gyre 150's. All of the gyres are on pulse mode for different intervals so the flow is always random.
Lighting consists of 2*250watt XM 10K halides and 5 54watt Blue Plus T5's.

I change my carbon every 2-3 weeks and 40g water changes are done every other Sunday. I mix the salt for a day in advance with a heater to get it to tank temp.

Pictures of the nem from a couple days ago. One pic shows mouth when flow hits it the other is when flow is hitting from another side.

 

[bkztrini465]

Pics

 

[Cheebs]

It honestly does not look like it's in too much trouble. What have you been feeding it with? I've had my Gigantea for roughly 6 years now and it seems to respon well to shrimp, as opposed to silversides.

 

[bkztrini465]

Thanks. It's my first gig and was getting a bit worried.

I feed it 1/3 of a a shrimp every week or so. Should I be feeding more often?

 

[Cheebs]

That seems like a healthy amount, I wouldn't increase feeding. Keep an eye on it, but things should be good!

 

[bkztrini465]

Good to know! I'm looking to get another green gigantea, thoughts?

 

[akida]

As Dnak would say, stop feeding shrimp. Too many reports of them killing anemones along with silversides. I prefer PE Mysis & fresh salmon (no additives). Your gig doesn't look too bad but not great either. Can you post photos of the haddoni? Haddoni can cause your gig to get sick, it happened to me exactly how yours look. My purple started losing form, which is what I'm seeing from yours. Mouth opening is another indicator. A healthy gig will have a closed mouth or near closed. I'd keep an eye on him. Also, your gig has no rocks under it's disc, gigs need disc support so you may want to consider placing some rocks under him to support the disc.

 

[D-Nak]

As Dnak would say, stop feeding shrimp. Too many reports of them killing anemones along with silversides. I prefer PE Mysis & fresh salmon (no additives). Your gig doesn't look too bad but not great either. Can you post photos of the haddoni? Haddoni can cause your gig to get sick, it happened to me exactly how yours look. My purple started losing form, which is what I'm seeing from yours. Mouth opening is another indicator. A healthy gig will have a closed mouth or near closed. I'd keep an eye on him. Also, your gig has no rocks under it's disc, gigs need disc support so you may want to consider placing some rocks under him to support the disc.

To clarify, only farmed frozen shrimp should be avoided, especially those treated with STPP. Here's an interesting article (and pretty cool video) that discuss farmed shrimp (note the issue of bacteria):

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/28/frozen-shrimp_n_7164248.html

Fresh, wild-caught shrimp, such as gulf shrimp, should be fine.

I would also like to see photos of your haddoni. I agree with akida that they can carry pathogens that can take down a healthy gigantea. I lost a blue gigantea after introducing a green haddoni to my tank. The haddoni quickly went down hill and died, followed by the gigantea.

 

[bkztrini465]

I'm going to place some rocks around the base of the disc so it can have a place to rest. I'll also have to check the shrimp out, I have lots of PE mysis I can feed instead, so I'll just got hat route. Would you guys recommend treating the gig and haddoni at this point? I'm getting some Cipro this weekend. Just not sure how I would get the haddoni out, the foot is buried under a main rock and attached to the glass.

Here's the haddoni, lights have been on for about 3 hours. T5's have been on for about 6 hours.

 

[bkztrini465]

I should mention I had a smaller haddoni die about a month ago. Didn't think that would still have a lasting effect, but just to put it all out there.

It was removed before deterioration started.

 

[akida]

The haddoni mouth is difficult to see well but it looks like the mouth is quite open?

 

[ThRoewer]

The haddoni mouth is difficult to see well but it looks like the mouth is quite open?

I would agree that it is open in a way that indicates a problem.

 

[bkztrini465]

That haddoni was with another reefer for about a year before I got it from him. I've had it for about 2 weeks or so now. I agree the mouth is more open than I would like and it's been like that since I got it. It has gotten more comfortable in the tank, judging by the size is now opens to. On day one it opened about 5" across, it's now maybe a foot or so across even with the folds. I thought it might still be getting comfy in the tank, but now I'm wondering if it's something more. The mouth is maybe 3/4" open.

Both anemones are sticky to the touch, very sticky and even the undersides of them are sticky with the discs having sand attached to the underside. I'm wondering if they are just figuring out how to live together.

I added the rock under the gigantea and the disc is sticking to parts of the rock already.

Should I do a couple of large water changes? I was thinking 40g this weekend and 40g next weekend. I can also change carbon more often to see if that helps at all. I'm feeding the tank mysis, should I target feed the nems or not bother since they appear to be at less than 100%?

 

[bkztrini465]

In the condition the nems are in should I treat them? Or should I let them be as they are?

 

[OrionN]

How is he today. He seem OK to me. You will know when he get sick with repeat deflations. They can shrink down without deflation at night without problem.

 

[bkztrini465]

It's doing much better, back to its former glory. No more open mouth and it's open and closing as it use to. It has never deflated which is good. I think the introduction of the haddoni may have caused some kind of stress but it's learned to deal with it.