New Gigantea-MH On or Off

Hi Tufacody,
I'm very concern about blasting the new nem with too much light and too quickly. It might be impossible to give it too much light but it's relatively easy to give it too much too quickly. I'm slowly increasing my MH period to acclimate it in its bleached condition. So far, so good.

btw, that's a beautiful gig you have on your avatar!
 
Sigh.......Here we go! Immediately after the 3hrs of MH, the nem shrunk rapidly and all the tentacles were deflated. It stayed deflated for a good hour and finally start to come back when only the last pair of T5s were on.
After lights out, about 1.5hrs after the MH went out, it was fully inflated. I tried a small piece of shrimp to see if it has any appetite and it gobbled the shrimp down like it usually does.

So.......I decided to keep my MH off for the rest of the week and continue to feed it until it gets a little better. It never deflated under T5s. Today is the first time it deflated since I got it and the MH was on for 3hrs. This is quite an adventure.

Tonight after deflation and a piece of shrimp.
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Tentacles look okay.
_dsc3334.jpg


Mouth is a little open. Maybe because it just ate.
_dsc3347.jpg
 
So after posting up my last post, I went to bed and thought about it a little more.(Yes, I do take this THAT seriously) I know I have a pretty healthy anemone to start. Otherwise, it wouldn't be accepting food especially right after it deflated. Maybe the anemone just need to do this to flush out the old fluid in its body. Of course, if it does this repeatedly then that means the anemone is on its way out. But it deflated once and popped right back up and was accepting food right away.
I also thought in the wild, the anemone would not be exposing to high tide for 8hrs long. Maybe 1 or 2 hrs at times. Maybe I can turn on my MH for only 1-2 max, shut it off, then turn it back on again for another 1-2 hrs. I did exactly just that, and the anemone seem to be accepting it well.
This could be all wrong but it's working out for now. I figure if the anemone continues to eat, it would get even stronger and better. Then, I can blast the MH a longer.
Color is not the concern at this point. My short term goal is to not have this thing deflated and weak.
I have this gig. for exactly a week. It was at this hour that I finished acclimating it and placing it in the tank. So far, 5 meals has been served and eaten. 1 event of deflation for roughly an hour.

Tonight's updated pics. After eating its meal.
_dsc3365.jpg


The reason why I love gigantea nems so much is the interaction between my clowns and its host. It also intensify the colors of the clowns. All this is worth every effort I'm putting to keep this thing alive and well.
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Personally I'd cut back on the feeding a little. Twice a week with good food should be more than enough. Its possible that the deflation might be caused by having to expell excess waste from the feeding. You have to keep in mind that while this anemone is bleached, it is not healthy, even if it otherwise appears so. As such it may not have the same digestive powers. It more important that it get high quality food over quantity.
 
I would decrease on the feeding also. I fed my every other or third days instead of daily. As long as it eat some food, it will be fine. Mine was bigger than your to start with, about 7-8 inches in diameter. I fed it about 1 cc of fish, squid or shrimp each feeding. Now it is about 18 inches I feed it 2 cc, but only once every 10 days or so.
 
this is such a cool thread. if that thing makes it it will make it even more gorgeous for you lol. makes me want a anenomy for my tank but its been being moody lately. ima fallow this
 
tufacody said:
While I have no clue if anemones have melanin-like qualities, I do wonder if bleached nems have the same UV protection ability as healthy nems.
Click to expand...

Cnidarians do have melanin-like qualities. The beautiful colors we see are their version of that. The brown coloration is the zooxanthellae and has nothing to do with UV protection. The most colorful cnidarians have the most UV protection but not unlike humans they gain or lose their UV protection to meet the needs of their environment.

I agree on not "blasting" it with light whether that means the screen method or the timed method.

That said, I have no experience with giganteas.
 
I feed mine a pea-sized amount of food about twice a week. Its not too picky. I haven't had any problems with very small pieces of silversides, but also feed clam, scallop, fish and shrimp when I can get it fresh. I usually soak it in selcon for a few hours in the fridge.

Other things I have noticed about my gig is that it prefers full salinty and high PH. The PH has been a challenege for me because my tanks are in my basement and I live in MN. I can definitely see minor differances in it from an 8.3 day and a 7.9 day. It also prefers strong but indirect flow.
 
Update on the gig for those who are interested.

The nem continues to do well after my previous post, I did not feed it for 3 days straight. When I fed the tank last night, I noticed that the mouth started to open. The "I'm hungry" open mouth, not the "I'm dying" open mouth. So I fed a chunk of shrimp and as usual, it gobbled it down. It is too bad that my clowns are not smart enough to feed the nem. I've kept a pair GSM clowns before and they always feed the anemone first before feeding itself. These onyx percula steal food from the nem!

The nem also moved when I didn't feed it for 3days. It moved toward the light and kind of turn it's back against the flow. It's pretty much right beneath the MH now. I've increased my MH lighting period to 7 straight hours today. It seems to like it. It is about 20" directly below the bulb.

It does seem to be bigger than last week. Not sure if it is growing from the feeding or it is expanding more because of the light or just my imagination. But it is on the right track, it seems...
_dsc4134.jpg
 
I think it look great. I also see that the zooxanthellae start to come back. Looking great. Congratulation.
 
FWIW, check this out http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=16301392....more than one way to rehab an anemone, but I fed mine DAILY. Went with krill, about one or two a day for the first couple of weeks. I reasoned that the lack of zoo would mean the gig needed supplemental nutritition - hence the heavy feeding. I don't know if I know if I'd call myself an expert, but I still have the two pictured in the thread with me to this day (and I rarely feed now). The green carpet last night ate one of my favorite echinata frags....grrrr. And I mean ATE it. Digested it and spit it back out this morning after pulling it out of it's hole - the whole thing.

If you haven't come to this point already, don't sweat an OCCASIONAL shrink down...especially in the first couple weeks. IME, that's just acclimation happening. If you fought the urge to do something for the sake of it, that's a good thing. With the other life in your tank, you should have biological indicators if anything is amiss - as long as the rest of the life in your tank is happy, your carpet should come along if it is going to.

If you have any questions, feel free to shoot me a pm....you look well on your way. Your carpet should end up close to the color as the one in my old thread.
 
I would feed atleast every other day (small amounts) until it recovers its zoo...

I do agree a bleached anemone is not a healthy one, but in your case its not completely bleached. if all other signs are positive IME the anemone should be able to recover its zoo...
 
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