Gigs: leave in quarantine or place back in display?

[durb992000]

Ok so I have three gigs, all blue and all varying in condition. Two of the gigs were healthy but got hit badly by a bacterial bloom a while back. They are stable and neither are worsening at all. Both mouths are very tight but they have shrunk in size massively, bleached, and stubby tentacles and also don't inflate much. They have been like this for months and seem relatively happy as they havn't moved and aren't getting any worse but they just seem to be in a plateau so to speak.
My third gig I purchased recently and has been good. In fact when I removed the other two from the display to treat it seemed noticeably happier, is this a coincidence? I did notice the mouth on this nem gaping a bit so I decided to treat it with cipro along with the other two.
I'm wondering whether to return all three to the display or just the one, newer, healthier gig as I don't want the less healthy nems to bother it.
I would really appreciate some advice.
Thanks in advance,
James

 

[D-Nak]

They have been like this for months and seem relatively happy as they havn't moved and aren't getting any worse but they just seem to be in a plateau so to speak.

If their tentacles are not extending and they are not gaining any color, then they aren't happy. Gigs should be QTed in separate tanks to prevent them from spreading ailments to each other. If in in the same tank, I would run a lot of carbon, but obviously not when treating them with Cipro.

I would place the healthiest one in the DT and separate the other two. All should be blasted with light to get their zoax populations up. Ultimately the goal should be to get them to thrive and not just survive.

Despite what others think, I personally think that there is allelopathy between gigs. Unlike some magnifica and BTAs, gigs are NOT colonial anemones. Rarely have I seen photos of gigs together in wild. We know very little about how gigs reproduce, other than that there are males and females. I have personally seen a gig act strangely when another was introduced. Just like clowns can smell their host anemone, I think gigs have chemical receptors that allow them to detect other gigs. If they are like other animals who defend their territory, it could be that one sex is defending its territory against others of the same sex. With three gigs, there is a likelihood that there are two of the same sex. Some people have reported success with two gigs, and this could be due two of the opposite sex. Others have reported issues with three gigs and this could be due to allelopathy.

The reality is that the higher level of success with gigs has only occurred in the past year or so, so we really don't know much about how gigs fare with each other. Since gigs have been extremely rare, multiple gigs in the same system was virtually unheard of. Just goes to show that we have a lot to learn.

 

[durb992000]

Thank you for some much appreciated advice. I agree that gigs do seem to react differently when other specimens are introduced to the tank.

 

[OrionN]

I had Gigantea together, no problem. Also Haddoni with the Gigantea, Maxi mini, and Malu sll in one system, no problem