Would be able to take photos under natural light? or light that's not blue-heavy? The only reason I ask is because the gigs that appear to be purple already look bleached. How long were they with the exporter? Where are they now (if you can divulge that)? What type of lighting are they under? The reason I ask is because I think there is a direct correlation between zooxanthellae death and the infection that ultimately kills the gig. We'll need to know how quickly zoox dies to determine how long it can be held prior to export.
Lights are roughly 50/50 blue and white. I will try to take some iphone pictures for you. UNEDITED.
They were with an exporter for 2 weeks prior to shipment roughly. They werent all collected 2 weeks ago but within those two weeks the diver accumulated my order.
They are under 6bulb t5. six inches deep to 1 foot deep.
I've seen quite a few bleached gigs survive, and many gigs with what appear to be a healthy zoox population die. This leads me to think there are windows of time for export -- either when a gig has lived long enough to become extremely bleached, or right after collection. If a gig is allowed to sit too long under less than ideal conditons, the zoox begins to die. Compounded with the shipping process where the gig must hold onto the dead zoox, this is the time where I think the infection sets in. Only sick gigs expel pellets of dead zoox. This is NEVER seen with healthy gigs.
Today I saw one expel super minute amounts of pellets. I seperated him if one more day goes by I will quarantine once again with cipro.
On a side note, to avoid general confusion, you may want to refer to gigantea as gigs, as gigas is the name most refer to Tridacna gigas (giant clam). Also, the "teeth" are called siphonoglyphs.
Thank you for the correction. I appreciate it
I'm glad someone has taken it upon themselves to find an export method more suitable for the gigs' survival. Have you considered treating prior to export with another antibiotic such as Nitrofurazone, which will allow the end user to begin treatment with Cipro/Septra without any risk of antibiotic-resistance?
