Gig took a turn? - questions

[MachPilot]

Just a quick question for those of you who have successfully kept gigs for long periods of time.

Water parameters unchanged and perfect. Lets get that established.

I had a blue gig for the last year. It grew from 4" to over a foot. It has never moved from its original spot. Under 8 AI sol's, vibrant purple and blue tentacles.

I always feed it thawed frozen shrimp from the grocery store as I have had bad experiences in the past with contaminated silversides etc.

I used to feed my gig a small piece of shrimp (thumbnail size) about every 3-4 days. Lately I fed it more frequently as it really seemed to respond better to frequent feedings.

Three days ago I fed it and it shrunk up smaller then Ive ever seen it. It appeared to open yesterday to about 1/3 normal size and appeared to be "pooping." It has NEVER shrunk while going to the bathroom before. This morning its shrunk again...

Which brings me to my point. I spent a lot of money on my tank. Equipment etc. I have successfully housed ritteris, roses, carpets and mertens. I always knew this was a delicate species, and they can turn for the worse with no reason. Then again healthy specimens to start are hardy.

Is that what has happened? Its really disheartening to think of something I have "raised" from a baby suddenly turning. If that's the case I am going to stick to regular carpets which seem to flourish in my tank.

To any of you masterful gig experts - can this just happen? I don't want anymore of these animals if they can just turn and its nothing I've done.

Thank you all for your help

 

[MachPilot]

Any gig people have ideas? I did feed some medicated caviar food in the tank to some of my fish a week ago. I did avoid any of it touching the anemones. Could that be it?

 

[BuzzPion]

Water parameters unchanged and perfect. Lets get that established.

Grrr, I hate when people ask for help yet refuse to list the numbers. This usually means they have not tested in a while.

What are these perfect parameters you talk of and when did you last test?

 

[BuzzPion]

Any gig people have ideas? I did feed some medicated caviar food in the tank to some of my fish a week ago. I did avoid any of it touching the anemones. Could that be it?

Medicated caviar? Never heard of it. Chloroquine? Not a good idea to use that in a reef tank with nems.

 

[daveM100]

Bad shrimp maybe? Not sure, I never feed my nems, all they need is light. I'm sure they pick up bits and pieces when I feed the tank but that's all. And what is medicated caviar lol, what kind of meds?

 

[D-Nak]

Based on what you described -- in terms of how long you've had it, water parameters, etc. -- it shouldn't deflate. However, any out of the ordinary event, no matter how minor, may cause the nem to act as it did. For example, I had a 18"+ gig that deflated when I added aminos to my tank too quickly (I just dumped it in without thinking). It recovered a few days later.

Feeding a different food could definitely affect the gig, especially one that's medicated. What was the active ingredient? Many do not play nice with inverts. Despite you trying to avoid it touching the nem, the liklihood of the nem ingesting some via the water column is probably pretty high.

In terms of feeding my gigs, I only feed them fresh fish, usually salmon or sushi-grade tuna (my daughter is a pescatarian so we eat lots of fish). I try not to feed them shrimp as most shrimp these days -- even the ones sold at the seafood counter -- are treated with sodium tripolyphosphate. I don't know the affect of this on gigs, but I've had a few in the past deflate after feeding them shrimp, so I now avoid it just to rule it out as a possible cause.

 

[OrionN]

There is no way that a reeftank does not change over time. Growth of the animals will change the water flow. Built up of nutrient and depletion of trace elements and... ... ....
There is such thing as old tank syndrome. Is this a real condition or is it due to poor maintenance on our part? Maybe both.

In your case, if everything is the same then the anemone should be fine. I suspect changes in your tank, possibly due to build up or depletion of substance that is not measurable and cause for your anemone decline. Other possibility include feeding him bad, spoiled food.

Best of luck get thing turn around for your anemone. Keeping Gigantea long term is very possible. Mine is several years in captivity and I know that Rod Buehler (owner of Rod's Food) had his for more than 20 years and still going strong.

 

[MachPilot]

Water parameters and yes i checked them.

1.026
Ph 8.2
0 nitrites, nitrates, 0.01 phos
Ca 480 , alk 9.2

Like I said its not the water. The anemone is not doing well. It was Dr G's medicated caviar fish food for Brook I believe. I didnt see any of it get in the anemone. I have used this product at least 20 times before with no ill effects.

The anemone shrinks to almost nothing in the evening. During the day its 1/3 it size and its mouth is always open.

Alas the only thing I can think of is over feeding - can you really overfeed an anemone? Or a bad piece of shrimp. The latter seems highly unlikley as I fed the same shrimp to several other roses in the tank with zero ill effects to them.

 

[Canneddynomite]

I've used that Medicated food in two tanks and it had no ill effects on anything.

I also don't have a Gig but I do have 3 elegance corals and two bubble tip Anemones and some always falls down in them and nothing happened.

 

[clorox]

Take this with a grain of salt....

A few months ago I had a bad case of cyano in my DT. I read a ton of posts on RC and elsewhere about all sorts of remedies. Long story short, I gave a try this product 'continuum aquatics bacter clean-m'. I dosed my tank daily as recommended for about 2 -3 weeks and siphoned aggressively almost every day until I eventually eradicated cyano from my DT. Inside this tank I have 3 BTA's and a large Mag, all at least 2 years old. During the period I was dosing I noticed no ill effects on any of the delicate inhabitants.

Now, here's the flipside of this story.

I have also a species tank with 3 established gigs. I didn't have cyano in that tank, but just some nuisance alge. Continuum aquatics bacter clean-m is also supposed to loosen nuisance algae from rocks, so I thought about giving it a shot.

It took 1 capful, or about 5ml of product to have an immediate and significant effect on all the gigs at the same time. They contracted to about 1/2 their normal size making me have almost a fit. Note that the reaction was almost instantaneous, like less than 5 minutes. I performed at least a 30% water change and then kept changing small amounts of water for a few days later.
Things went back to normal and all was good again.

What happened was not a mere coincidence, 3 gigs shriveling to at least 1/2 their normal size at the same time at noon with full lighting on is some pretty solid evidence they didn't like what I put in the tank.

There is no doubt that whatever is in that product worked wonders in my DT and left BTA and a Mag unaffected, whereas in my gig tank it definitely made a rather startling impact on them.

Morale of the story.....gigs can be super sensitive to certain chemicals/bacteria.

I only feed my gigs from time to time LRS nano.

 

[MachPilot]

I think youre absolutely correct. Something non water related had an immediate impact on a gig that has been perfect for a year. I think it was the frozen shrimp. It had NO effect on the sebae or bubble tips, but it knocked out the gig.

I mean wow wth are you supposed to feed these animals that is 100% safe all the time.

It will likley not recover.

 

[clorox]

Once you try LRS reef frenzy there is no going back to anything else. Fish, inverts and gigs love it.

 

[OrionN]

I have had my Gigantea got really sick after eating a large Bristle worm. One died after eating bad food. I accidentally drop a piece of tuna into the skim-mate bucket. Took it our right away, wash it well then feed it to the anemone. I feed non contaminated tuna to my other anemones. The one that ate that one contaminated tuna got sick and died 2 weeks later.
Hind sight is 20/20. I absolutely will not feed my anemone anything I would not eat without hesitation.
Best of luck with your's

 

[OrionN]

To answer your question on (Private note)
I feed my anemone seafood that we often eat. We do eat a lot of seafood. Most common wild caught Salmon. I also have a Frozen Seafood Medley that I got from Grocery store that I use as anemone food. That way the get variety of food, rather than just one thing all the time