To treat or not to treat the little guy gig.
- Thread starter DasCamel
- Start date
D-Nak
Active member
It's a tough call as to what to do. I received a few that were this size from Blue Zoo and none of them made it. They ate but never grew, then slowly withered away. I think these smaller gigs are a bigger challenge than the large ones because it appears that their care requirements are different.
I tried to use Cipro on one and it had no effect. I decided to switch to Septra which promptly killed it.
Hopefully you can feed yours to get it to grow. My only suggestion is to feed it a variety of food to see what it likes the best.
I tried to use Cipro on one and it had no effect. I decided to switch to Septra which promptly killed it.
Hopefully you can feed yours to get it to grow. My only suggestion is to feed it a variety of food to see what it likes the best.
I believe this is not a baby gigantea. It is a large one who shrink until get this size, and it will shrinking until disappeared . This happen to me with a 6" gig. She was looking very stressed and started to shrink more and more until she was less than 2 inches. It happened in about 6 months.
ThRoewer
New member
This kind of coincides with what I experienced with my last blue gig which was also rather small.
Good to know though that smaller gigs are more difficult. I will avoid them in the future.
addictedreefer
New member
Treat. That "pancake" look is never good.
DasCamel
Active member
Yeah, I figured this is probably a no win scenerio. It probably was a larger gig that has shrunk based on the liveaquaria info. They already refunded my money after seeing a photo of the size and shape along with the highly stressed arrival condition.
It's small enough were the treatment will most likely kill it. Doing nothing it will most likely die also. It ate some mysis earlier today and may treat it tomorrow if it looks worse. It sticks and moves well, seems to like its current spot, not worried about flow or light.
Whelp. Thanks for the advice guys. I figured the responses would go both ways, just making sure.
It's small enough were the treatment will most likely kill it. Doing nothing it will most likely die also. It ate some mysis earlier today and may treat it tomorrow if it looks worse. It sticks and moves well, seems to like its current spot, not worried about flow or light.
Whelp. Thanks for the advice guys. I figured the responses would go both ways, just making sure.
taylor t
New member
Hard to offer valuable opinion/advise. What's been done so far? Details matter. Try this. 100% water changes every day, make water and age it 24 hours every day. 10 gallon TT.
MEDICATE THAT SUCKER. Addicted reefer knows what he's talking about. I personally would NEVER have another gig without medicating it. Period. My opinion. My experience. It's not going back to the ocean, face it. It lives, or dies with you, take care of it!
Try this. Change 100% every day, same time, make same way, every day. Expensive and time consuming, I know. Do this, and a couple years later, you will have a group you don't know what to do with, they don't die when acclimated. Don't listen to the guys that got it all together, the rest of us have sucky water, and it's hard to acclimate them to it. Don't use your DT water, make it fresh for your new nem, you're trying to acquire a new addition, and it's touchy! New, fresh saltwater every day is required to acclimate them to our crappy tank water. Once acclimated, they are very durable. Salt water, made same time every day, same way. Aerated. That guy looks, to me, like it should have no problem. I have a gig 3" big, captivity for over a year. Being ALIVE and healthy is more important than trying to grow it, like the "Jone's" anemone (""""""their anemone always looks so good, and grows so fast, why doesn't mine look like that!"""""") [I kid, I kid]. What is the point of feeding it to 24"? Want a healthy anemone, or a huge anemone? SMALL ANEMONE ARE EASIER TO SELL, TRUST ME! They don't have to be 24" to be healthy. My 3" gig is the same size today, only turned green from brown. Well over a year of captivity. I don't/rarely feed mine directly. DON'T FEED YOURS while acclimating, which can take months, or up to a year. yep, a year. Your problems won't be so big if it's not struggling to discharge all the uneaten food it can't process, while it's acclimating. Stop feeding it. Give it some fresh water to purge itself. Keep that flow up. When it's looking "AWESOME" FOR WEEKS IN A ROW, then, try feeding it some very small food, DUST, fed from a 1/4" straw. If it doesn't fit in a 1/4" straw it's too big. Growing it has risk, keeping it healthy has low risk.
They can die in a blink with low flow. You can keep them alive, literally, MONTHS, with high flow, even when you know it's dead, it can be preserved with HIGH FLOW, FOR MONTHS, even though it is dead. HIGH FLOW IS BEST. Did I mention high flow? High flow WILL NOT HURT THEM. Low flow, can send their internals into meltdown, and you may not see it right away. They come from low tide areas, that get POUNDED by flow. They can handle it. Sure, there's always the one exception that lives in low flow, but generally, they thrive with high flow. 11 of my 11 LOVE HIGH FLOW. I still have 11, hoping to rehome a couple in the next couple months.
My tanks are far from perfect, I struggle with my own issues, mainly time to maintain. But I can prevent meltdown by adding a powerhead until I can do tank maintenance. High flow, is really the easiest way to time buy with these guys. Gigs give you warning. I have so much tank rot and overgrowth in my tanks, it's really sad.
Dascamel, good luck. I think your gig still has a chance, if you work at it.
MEDICATE THAT SUCKER. Addicted reefer knows what he's talking about. I personally would NEVER have another gig without medicating it. Period. My opinion. My experience. It's not going back to the ocean, face it. It lives, or dies with you, take care of it!
Try this. Change 100% every day, same time, make same way, every day. Expensive and time consuming, I know. Do this, and a couple years later, you will have a group you don't know what to do with, they don't die when acclimated. Don't listen to the guys that got it all together, the rest of us have sucky water, and it's hard to acclimate them to it. Don't use your DT water, make it fresh for your new nem, you're trying to acquire a new addition, and it's touchy! New, fresh saltwater every day is required to acclimate them to our crappy tank water. Once acclimated, they are very durable. Salt water, made same time every day, same way. Aerated. That guy looks, to me, like it should have no problem. I have a gig 3" big, captivity for over a year. Being ALIVE and healthy is more important than trying to grow it, like the "Jone's" anemone (""""""their anemone always looks so good, and grows so fast, why doesn't mine look like that!"""""") [I kid, I kid]. What is the point of feeding it to 24"? Want a healthy anemone, or a huge anemone? SMALL ANEMONE ARE EASIER TO SELL, TRUST ME! They don't have to be 24" to be healthy. My 3" gig is the same size today, only turned green from brown. Well over a year of captivity. I don't/rarely feed mine directly. DON'T FEED YOURS while acclimating, which can take months, or up to a year. yep, a year. Your problems won't be so big if it's not struggling to discharge all the uneaten food it can't process, while it's acclimating. Stop feeding it. Give it some fresh water to purge itself. Keep that flow up. When it's looking "AWESOME" FOR WEEKS IN A ROW, then, try feeding it some very small food, DUST, fed from a 1/4" straw. If it doesn't fit in a 1/4" straw it's too big. Growing it has risk, keeping it healthy has low risk.
They can die in a blink with low flow. You can keep them alive, literally, MONTHS, with high flow, even when you know it's dead, it can be preserved with HIGH FLOW, FOR MONTHS, even though it is dead. HIGH FLOW IS BEST. Did I mention high flow? High flow WILL NOT HURT THEM. Low flow, can send their internals into meltdown, and you may not see it right away. They come from low tide areas, that get POUNDED by flow. They can handle it. Sure, there's always the one exception that lives in low flow, but generally, they thrive with high flow. 11 of my 11 LOVE HIGH FLOW. I still have 11, hoping to rehome a couple in the next couple months.
My tanks are far from perfect, I struggle with my own issues, mainly time to maintain. But I can prevent meltdown by adding a powerhead until I can do tank maintenance. High flow, is really the easiest way to time buy with these guys. Gigs give you warning. I have so much tank rot and overgrowth in my tanks, it's really sad.
Dascamel, good luck. I think your gig still has a chance, if you work at it.
DasCamel
Active member
This morning until the lights went on it was deflated looking like a sad flower. It's so small I'm using a 5g bucket, heater and airstone to treat. Used about 75mg of Cipro. The airstone is large and generated some flow. I need a small power head to get more flow going.
I agree with the 100% water changes, with 5 gallons easy to get fresh saltwater with 100% water changes. Not going purge him with freshwater, once he expels the water change will deal with it. I did massage him once I peeled him off the rock. Checked his foot, looked great. Very firm attachment. Lot of discharge around it though. Cleaned him up nicely before the transfer. Keeping it dark rest of today, setting up a Home Depot lEd light tomorrow at noon for some light. Treating him again early in the morning with a water change.
Thanks for the pep talk, I'll up his flow with something tomorrow. Yeah, my success with my nems is generally very good. I've had the same Haddoni, Mag and Crispa over a year half. Tanks about 2 years old. Not good with bubbletips, go figure. Great flow in DT and water conditions, hopefully get him healthy enough to transfer in the next few weeks.
Well he's settled in the bottom of the bucket, well attached with some discharge. Upon inspection his base is purple and still has a decent green color to his tentacles. Wasn't completely bleached. More updates tomorrow.
The 3 female anthias and coral banded shrimp along with the corals are doing great since Tuesday. The big male in the DT will get a harem back.
I agree with the 100% water changes, with 5 gallons easy to get fresh saltwater with 100% water changes. Not going purge him with freshwater, once he expels the water change will deal with it. I did massage him once I peeled him off the rock. Checked his foot, looked great. Very firm attachment. Lot of discharge around it though. Cleaned him up nicely before the transfer. Keeping it dark rest of today, setting up a Home Depot lEd light tomorrow at noon for some light. Treating him again early in the morning with a water change.
Thanks for the pep talk, I'll up his flow with something tomorrow. Yeah, my success with my nems is generally very good. I've had the same Haddoni, Mag and Crispa over a year half. Tanks about 2 years old. Not good with bubbletips, go figure. Great flow in DT and water conditions, hopefully get him healthy enough to transfer in the next few weeks.
Well he's settled in the bottom of the bucket, well attached with some discharge. Upon inspection his base is purple and still has a decent green color to his tentacles. Wasn't completely bleached. More updates tomorrow.
The 3 female anthias and coral banded shrimp along with the corals are doing great since Tuesday. The big male in the DT will get a harem back.
DasCamel
Active member
Lmao, that's why I was skeptical about treating it. But I really didn't have much of a choice. Looking at the positives at least he's still sticky and has a strong foot.
DasCamel
Active member
Well, it detached a few days ago and looks like a pancaked glob now. I kept the dosage consistent, decent lighting and great flow with a power in the bucket. 100% water changes and bumped up the temp from 78 to 80.
My daughter and I gave it a great effort, but it's looking like a ceremonial flush later on tonight when she gets home.
My daughter and I gave it a great effort, but it's looking like a ceremonial flush later on tonight when she gets home.
