New Purple Gig.....

My Gigantea eats day or night. Essentially when ever there is food

+1.

And my old gig ate snails. I know because I had missing snails and empty shells at the foot of the rock that my gig was on. I think snails somehow fell off the back wall and into the gig. There was also a time when I placed a snail on my SeaSwirl to clean it, and it fell off and into the gig, which quickly covered it up with its tentacles, so I was unable to retrieve it.

I'm guessing your assumption is right -- it ate a snail and is having slight issues pushing the shell back out.
 
+1.

And my old gig ate snails. I know because I had missing snails and empty shells at the foot of the rock that my gig was on. I think snails somehow fell off the back wall and into the gig. There was also a time when I placed a snail on my SeaSwirl to clean it, and it fell off and into the gig, which quickly covered it up with its tentacles, so I was unable to retrieve it.

I'm guessing your assumption is right -- it ate a snail and is having slight issues pushing the shell back out.

I'm not asserting he doesn't eat snails.. trust me, there is always a pile underneath where his position on the rock is, but I've never seen the gig this small before, literally went from being 1' expanded, to essentially almost entirely contracted... Now i'm freaking the heck out. I can see the white insides of the mouth (normal when pooping or pushing something out), but boy, this is absolutely frightful..... I went to bed this gig was like normal, HUGE and beautiful. Now this?!

If this isn't indigestion, then... well, it's not good.
 
So he isn't pancaked, no mouth gaping, but he's certainly retracted with some folding... All I can see is a little siphlonoglyph, so really really really praying this is just severe indigestion from something he ate.....

I just don't understand how this would otherwise happen overnight with zero warning.
 
I am sure he will be back to normal later in the day.

already starting to get larger, and I can see his mouth might be in the motions of pushing something out... Heck, for all I know several snails could've fallen into the gig last night.
 
That's good news. Too bad gigs don't have the ability to say "hmmm... another snail? Thanks for offering, but no, I'm full right now, I'll pass."

:lmao:
 
That's good news. Too bad gigs don't have the ability to say "hmmm... another snail? Thanks for offering, but no, I'm full right now, I'll pass."

:lmao:

No kidding!! I wish man, that way I don't have to have a heart attack when this happens. He's already much larger than he was this morning, expanding slowly, and looking better... I think there is a new snail on the bottom of the rock, but can't confirm for sure. Either way, think he is recovering......
 
Still smallish but bigger than this morning.... Lights are starting to go out, and I saw our onyx pulling stuff out of the mouth like normal when it is pooping.

Hoping to come back from work tomorrow and see a normal looking Gigantea....
 
I can't say for certain relating to gigantea as I've never kept one, but my personal experience with all the other species I have grown over the years says they will do this from time to time. No harm done they just do.

Small species BTA and the like do this sometimes nightly, larger species not that often but usually in response to a major change in water chemistry, water change, too much top off, or something environmental like that. Sometimes triggered by dosing a new supplement, putting your hand in the tank (and whatever is on it) or adding new fish or corals, snails etc.)

If no other symptoms are present I should think it will recover within a day or less, probably by lights on or during the day tomorrow.
 
Will get a picture tomorrow, lights are going down now even more so.


Interesting.. So yesterday we added some nassarius snails, astreas, a serpent sea star, and five SPS frags.. I've added snails, frags, etc in the past and had no problems with this guy.

Initially I was looking all over for the serpent sea star, but found him, so that's not the culprit. The gig is looking larger than it was this morning, so I'm taking that as a good sign and that whatever it ate is passing slowly but surely.

One observation i've noticed.. This gig has a long column, 4-6" normally from where its foot is. The column is skinny, but I have noticed that after being fed, and when the food is on its way out, the column swells up real large, as does the pedal area for a while until the food is passed. I saw the column swell a lot earlier, and then I happened to catch the onyx picking something out of the gigs mouth. Tentacles are still inflated around the mouth so I couldn't get a glimpse of what was coming out, but certainly waste.

Hoping to see our normal Gigantea again tomorrow...

I can't say for certain relating to gigantea as I've never kept one, but my personal experience with all the other species I have grown over the years says they will do this from time to time. No harm done they just do.

Small species BTA and the like do this sometimes nightly, larger species not that often but usually in response to a major change in water chemistry, water change, too much top off, or something environmental like that. Sometimes triggered by dosing a new supplement, putting your hand in the tank (and whatever is on it) or adding new fish or corals, snails etc.)

If no other symptoms are present I should think it will recover within a day or less, probably by lights on or during the day tomorrow.
 
Lights are still out, but certainly isn't as big as it normally is overnight, but not as small as it was yesterday morning, so I'm taking that as a positive... I did spot a huge shell at the base of the rock from one of my crabs (long spiral at the end)... That must've been a paid in the butt to digest and work with.

Hoping that with lights on and all day should start seeing improvements. I can't imagine a Gigantea that has recovered as such for over seven months would mysteriously die overnight.
 
I think that is what it was. When my Gigantea get a huge meal it get smaller for a few days, then exploded with growth.
Just make sure there are clearand around it so the coral won't be wipe out.
 
I think that is what it was. When my Gigantea get a huge meal it get smaller for a few days, then exploded with growth.
Just make sure there are clearand around it so the coral won't be wipe out.

The pillar the Purple Gigantea is on, is all his.. nothing else on it, and actually I tried putting a coral on the very top, but no dice.. He is a HUGE Gig and would damage anything on that pillar.

I've reserved the middle pillar in my tank for SPS.

Interestingly enough, the green gigantea\haddnoi hybrid has stopped getting shaggier since I have stopped feeding him daily....
 
Slowly but surely coming back to life. As he was inflating (and still is) I've seen more siphonoglyph than I have in months... The mouth was open a little bit here and there, but no gaping, no insides coming out... Maybe he needs pepto to settle down the stomach. :-)

Certainly is taking his time, but looking MUCH better..... glad to see the positive progress

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glad to hear it is doing better. mine looked a little off for about a week after it ate the boxfish.

When I left the house a bit ago it was looking reasonably good.. Still slowly getting bigger and I suspect it will be back to normal in the next day or so... Whatever it ate, didn't make its stomach happy.. All my fish as accounted for, brittle star, everything..
 
Came home to sunset and the purple gig looks MUCH better... Full stretched out column, and pedal looks great..

We'll see tomorrow how he looks, but boy.. that was a scary experience!
 
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