New blue gig

[ThRoewer]

Found a small blue gigantea today and decided to take it home for my first percula pair. It's about 5 to 6 inch in diameter.

I have it in a 5.5 gallon QT for now. Hopefully I can get away without treating it, and hopefully it won't bleach.

 

[CoralsAddiction]

Good luck. By the way, it looks purple on my phone screen.

 

[ThRoewer]

I think it's somewhere in the blue purple range. Right now I have it under a 5000 K daylight LED bulb which may give it a slightly more reddish hue.
It contracted a bit which distorts the color also a bit.

 

[D-Nak]

It looks purple to me as well. When contracted and under light closer to sunlight, the real color tends to show more.

It doesn't look very happy. Is it the one from Aquatic Collection? If so, be prepared to treat it as it was spitting out dead zoox.

 

[ThRoewer]

Yeah, it's the one they got in today. When did you see it?
I'm getting ready to treat right now as it got worse.

Since I have it in a 5.5 gallon tank, would you up the dose to double or rather quarter the 500 mg Cipro tablet?
Right now I feel I may give it a double the dose for the first dose.

 

[D-Nak]

My friend sent me a photo this afternoon. It had brown pellets on the oral disk and was partially deflated.

Since it's so small, I worry about doubling the standard dose, but it may be a good idea given that it's already showing signs of sickness. I believe that the nem needs to re-inflate in order to absorb the medication, so if it's having a hard time inflating, a double dose may give it the same amount if it were the standard dose. I hope that makes sense. Good luck!

 

[ThRoewer]

I put 250 mg into the tank - let's see how it looks tomorrow.

I used a 5 gallon tank this time so 100% water changes are not a problem. This way I can also keep it right next to my current main tank which also makes water changes easier.

 

[tassy]

i QTd my gig in 5 gallons and 125mg per gal and it worked out fine. As long as the gig is smaller

 

[ThRoewer]

After the lights went out last night it let it's mouth/stomach hang out:

This was it in the morning before the lights are on, mouth/stomach hang still out but it has inflated a bit more. When I shined a flashlight on it, it would pull its mouth in, but the moment it was back in the dark the mouth came out again.

I'm gonna add a picture when the lights are on.

 

[tassy]

it looks fairly strong hopefully it's just acclimation. nice gig by the way good luck

 

[ThRoewer]

It's still expelling some zoox.
The mouth closed when I turned on the light. But I will turn it off again since there is enough ambient light.

It also expelled some blue/purple spherical objects. Some look like they could be torn off tentacles but they all react to light and move - could these be larva? How do gigantea larva look like?

 

[ThRoewer]

As soon as the lights go out it puts its mouth out again.
It looks like this is going to be a rather tough battle.

 

[Dkuhlmann]

It's still expelling some zoox.
The mouth closed when I turned on the light. But I will turn it off again since there is enough ambient light.

It also expelled some blue/purple spherical objects. Some look like they could be torn off tentacles but they all react to light and move - could these be larva? How do gigantea larva look like?

That would be cool, have any pictures?

 

[D-Nak]

It's still expelling some zoox.
The mouth closed when I turned on the light. But I will turn it off again since there is enough ambient light.

It also expelled some blue/purple spherical objects. Some look like they could be torn off tentacles but they all react to light and move - could these be larva? How do gigantea larva look like?

I think they are tentacles and not larva. They appear more spherical because they were ingested and are surrounded by mucus. When people say that nems that are starving "ingest themselves" for nutrition, I believe this is evidence of this.

 

[elegance coral]

How much and how often are you changing water?

 

[ThRoewer]

Every night as close to 100% as possible. And then I dose Cipro right before lights off.

 

[CoralsAddiction]

Every night as close to 100% as possible. And then I dose Cipro right before lights off.

What dose did you decide to go with for cipro?

 

[ThRoewer]

I dosed 250 mg on 5 gallon for yesterday and today. The anemone still looks pretty crappy and is still expelling zoox, so I may do another double dose tonight after the water change.

 

[bobbravo2]

Keep up the hard work. I'd keep the same dosage up. Last thing you want is resistant bacteria

 

[ThRoewer]

Did another 100% water change and gave another double dose.

This is how it looked right before the water change:

It perked a bit up after the water change - let's see how it looks in the morning.

I think they are tentacles and not larva. They appear more spherical because they were ingested and are surrounded by mucus. When people say that nems that are starving "ingest themselves" for nutrition, I believe this is evidence of this.

I kind of suspected these might be tentacles, though I'm not sure if this was self ingestion or tentacles torn off during handling. At the store was also a blue/purple haddoni in the basket with this gig.

I had these tentacles collected out of the tank for microscopic inspection. After that I left them next to the tank in the little cup I put them in. Tonight they were covered and surrounded by a large number of Heliocostoma nonatum that were feasting on them and their zoox. I'm not sure if Heliocostoma nonatum is just an opportunistic secondary parasite, part of the clean up crew or the actual cause of this disease. I've also seen them on dying corals.