Woke up this morning to it completely retracted into itself like a Mag does. As soon as the lights came on (actinic only) it opened up but has not inflated. The halides do no come on for another 50 min. Why would it do this? Gig is not supposed to retract at all right?
Also would like to ask. When Nem deflates or starts to look rough, does one just ride it out till water change or change then. I am wondering If the nem doesn't like the cipro. Yesterday when I changed 50%, a few minutes later he perked up and looked fantastic and stayed that way all evening. Woke up to him retracted. Lights will go up in about 20 min. Looks like he is slowly inflating now.
I just wrote about this in my thread. I noticed that my gigs ball up like mags do, and I think it has more to do with their small size. My larger gigs never did this. If I were to guess the reason, it would be that larger gig simply don't have the energy to move such a large mass, or it doesn't make sense to expend the energy to do so, while small gigs, being physically smaller just have the ability to do it. I hope that makes sense. Also, larger gig have an easier time expelling waste, so they don't need to ball up.
For me. It only happens when I clean the tank and stir up detritus. It almost appears to be a protection mechanism -- they close up and literally seal themselves up to not have to take in dirty water. A few minutes later, and they all open back up. But they also release what looks like detritus covered mucus, similar to what you may find around the base of the nem.
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2474141&page=2
In my case, it actually appears perfectly normal. I can predict when it will happen and I can also predict when they will reinflate. It was scary watching it the first time it happened because I thought something was terribly wrong. And thinking back, I had another smaller gig that balled up as well, and it ended up acclimating well.
Another reason I think they do this is to expel waste. I'm guessing the inward and then outward motion helps to collect waste, then push it out. I'm willing to bet that when your gig did this, it spewed out a bunch of waste.
Finally, as to why your gig did it and if it was a reaction to Cipro, my guess is that Cipro is killing the bacteria within the nem that's causing the zoox to die. While doing this, it's creating waste within the nem, both dead bacteria was well as dead zoox, and your nem was trying to purge it. So, I think it's an indirect reaction to Cipro. You may want to consider tapering off the dosage though. Based on previous experience I think there is a tipping point where too much Cipro can actually cause negative effects. Maybe it starts to kill beneficial bacteria as well. I equate it to chemotherapy for cancer patients.
I wouldn't consider this a set back. Keep chugging along and if the gig doesn't fully deflate, I think it will be fine.