underwater vid of new baby blue gig
- Thread starter dangros
- Start date
taylor t
New member
I think the consensus between 3 gig owners is move it. When it's not going well, don't ask why, you were given advice that you won't take.
taylor t
New member
Dangros, I'm sorry my post sounds harsh, it wasn't intended to offend you....Trying to help with little time (and little thought)... But I saw something that should have given you immediate results, that's not being done... Anyways, how's your gig doing??? Can we help you? Everyone loves success stories. 
My earlier post should have read:
If you don't want to move it, can I suggest getting an LED spot light and adding more light to give that guy more "love" being so deep in the tank? You might be surprised by it's reaction to a 5K LED spot.
My earlier post should have read:
If you don't want to move it, can I suggest getting an LED spot light and adding more light to give that guy more "love" being so deep in the tank? You might be surprised by it's reaction to a 5K LED spot.
dangros
New member
taylor_t, no worries! Sometimes the truth is harsh and even if I was initially offended, it helped me "see the light" faster. And now the nem can as well. I do respect the fact that you softened the tone. Thanks on both counts. Hopefully it helps someone else down the road as well.
Now for the update:
I fed the nem on thursday and it seemed to expand back to normal during the day. But, I was still uncomfortable keeping it in the shadows. Once my 7mo old and 4yr olds are awake, there's no chance of moving anything so I'm decided to do it in 2 steps. The first was JUST completed while everyone slept.
Step 1) Hoping with all hope the nem was attached only to the rock and not the bottom of the tank, I moved the surrounding rocks out of the way. I had to take a large rock completely out of the tank, temporarily. With the nem's rock finally free of any other rock resting upon it, I flipped the nem's rock so the nem is now sitting on top instead of the side of the rock. Luckily it's not attached to the glass, WHEW! It's now going to be in the direct light but my rocks look crappy and I'm not happy with the layout. So...
Step 2) I have some dry pukani downstairs. I will drill swim holes through the largest chunk, clean it, and put it under the nem's rock. The final placement is yet to come but at least the nem has more light.
p.s. I only broke a little bit of coral in the process. Here's a vid of what I just did. Note the lights are out:
https://flic.kr/p/T4aHii
and a pic:
Now for the update:
I fed the nem on thursday and it seemed to expand back to normal during the day. But, I was still uncomfortable keeping it in the shadows. Once my 7mo old and 4yr olds are awake, there's no chance of moving anything so I'm decided to do it in 2 steps. The first was JUST completed while everyone slept
.Step 1) Hoping with all hope the nem was attached only to the rock and not the bottom of the tank, I moved the surrounding rocks out of the way. I had to take a large rock completely out of the tank, temporarily. With the nem's rock finally free of any other rock resting upon it, I flipped the nem's rock so the nem is now sitting on top instead of the side of the rock. Luckily it's not attached to the glass, WHEW! It's now going to be in the direct light but my rocks look crappy and I'm not happy with the layout. So...
Step 2) I have some dry pukani downstairs. I will drill swim holes through the largest chunk, clean it, and put it under the nem's rock. The final placement is yet to come but at least the nem has more light.
p.s. I only broke a little bit of coral in the process. Here's a vid of what I just did. Note the lights are out:
https://flic.kr/p/T4aHii
and a pic:
dangros
New member
It's definitely less bleached but it hasnt grown from what I can tell. It shrinks down to almost nothing at night and inflates to it's normal size during the day. It was opposite in the treatment tank. It would puff up at night and retreat a bit with the light on, albeit not as much as it does in the DT. I've continued feeding it small chunks of LRS about once every 2 days or so and it seems to consume it. I dont like how it retreats at night but I the same occurred with my LTA (which I had years ago in a different tank).
dangros
New member
As you can see above, the nem looked really crappy over the last couple of days. So I checked my levels. Not sure why but my nitrates are high. 50ppm!
Phosphates a bit too at 0.18ppm. I do automatic water changes (over a gallon a day) so that's uncharacteristic of the tank. I will do some manual water changes over the next few days to see if that helps. As for the carpet, should I pull it back into cipro treatment? The mouth is sagging open instead of closed as it was just days ago.
Phosphates a bit too at 0.18ppm. I do automatic water changes (over a gallon a day) so that's uncharacteristic of the tank. I will do some manual water changes over the next few days to see if that helps. As for the carpet, should I pull it back into cipro treatment? The mouth is sagging open instead of closed as it was just days ago.
taylor t
New member
If it was me, I'd pull it and keep it in a 10 gallon tank. 100% new water aged 24 hours, aerated. No meds, unless by end of day 2 it still isn't recovered. I would also give it more light, and up the flow. I'm guessing, the water quality isn't helping it recover, that's why I'd move it asap. Then I'd also guess the light isn't enough par/proper spectrum. Higher flow is better than lower flow. When it looks like that so far into it, time isn't on it's side. I would act sooner than later. IMO, those clowns are too big for a new anemone like that to recover, even a month away I wouldn't put them together. It needs to be MUCH more healthy before it will put up with them. Best of luck to you, I hope you're able to get it to pull though. They can be very slow to recover, but the flip side is they can go down so fast.
What is the par at the location you placed it? In my tanks, they do really well in the 1000-1500+, the higher the better. That's one more reason everyone suggested first placing it so high up, best light and flow is up high in the tank.
Are you feeding it? If so, what, how often, how much, etc? Not suggesting it, just a detail left out...
Details matter, there are so many details, and they all matter. So often details are left out. Accurate guidance is difficult to give with lack of details. The more details, the better help you may receive.
Everyone can do this:
Gig in trouble??? GIVE IT A "RESET"...
(you can do this over and over, I have, it works)
Put it into a 10 gallon tank, as if you were treating it, but don't use meds. Change water every 24 hours, aged 24 hour salt water, aerated. Make new water at the same time everyday, the same way. This saltwater will have properties of XYZ at every 24 hour interval. This is different than saltwater that is a week old, or 2 hours after making it. I look in my bucket after a week, things precipitate out of the water. Just look at it, you don't even need to test it to see there's a build up in the NSW bucket! This is precipitation that hasn't occurred after 24 hours, but does occur after days or weeks of being made and sitting. Things in the water react and have a value of XYZ. GET YOUR GIG USED TO THIS WATER VALUE, in the 24-48 hour window of the age of the water, then change it and repeat. It will be difficult, unless you're a pro (and I'm not) and have excellent water quality. Using and encouraging others to use your DT water in rehabbing and treating anemones is only setting others up for failure.
Once you get your water to be a "nonissue", get the flow and lighting figured out.
What is the par at the location you placed it? In my tanks, they do really well in the 1000-1500+, the higher the better. That's one more reason everyone suggested first placing it so high up, best light and flow is up high in the tank.
Are you feeding it? If so, what, how often, how much, etc? Not suggesting it, just a detail left out...
Details matter, there are so many details, and they all matter. So often details are left out. Accurate guidance is difficult to give with lack of details. The more details, the better help you may receive.
Everyone can do this:
Gig in trouble??? GIVE IT A "RESET"...
(you can do this over and over, I have, it works)
Put it into a 10 gallon tank, as if you were treating it, but don't use meds. Change water every 24 hours, aged 24 hour salt water, aerated. Make new water at the same time everyday, the same way. This saltwater will have properties of XYZ at every 24 hour interval. This is different than saltwater that is a week old, or 2 hours after making it. I look in my bucket after a week, things precipitate out of the water. Just look at it, you don't even need to test it to see there's a build up in the NSW bucket! This is precipitation that hasn't occurred after 24 hours, but does occur after days or weeks of being made and sitting. Things in the water react and have a value of XYZ. GET YOUR GIG USED TO THIS WATER VALUE, in the 24-48 hour window of the age of the water, then change it and repeat. It will be difficult, unless you're a pro (and I'm not) and have excellent water quality. Using and encouraging others to use your DT water in rehabbing and treating anemones is only setting others up for failure.
Once you get your water to be a "nonissue", get the flow and lighting figured out.
taylor t
New member
May I highly recommend stop feeding, atleast until it looks good all day everyday, and atleast for a week straight (or longer). If it was me treating, I wouldn't even think food, and would keep food from it for the first month. They shrink down a little at night (50-80% of daytime size is ok, less than half size is trouble IMO, 50% would still make me nervous). Mine all shrink down to about 80% full size at night. Every gig is different, yours looks to be in trouble, I fear food will not help it but hurt it. Feeding is a double edged sword. One side, you can get a gig that does very well and recovers quickly with food. The other side, you feed a gig that's on the fence to speak, or on it's way down, and you feed it, you will quicken the inside rot, and kill it. Feeding a gig in trouble will just add to the problems it's having. They can go a very long time with no food, and you can keep them a long time to recover, albeit slow, the goal is to not kill it. Feeding them when they can't handle it can kill them, not always, but promoting early feeding is another common disservice I see people offer as advice. Poor advice for a new arrival, IMO.
Moral of the story, feeding a new arrival gig is risky. Not feeding them may be a slower recovery, but death is a no recovery every time. Life is the goal.
Sorry for my scatter brained responses, too many details I didn't even cover. It's not a one size fits all solution to rehab gigs, wish it was.
dangros
New member
I moved it to the 10g tank this morning. It looks pretty bad. Seems to have gone down hill quickly for whatever reason. Very disappointing given the amount of effort I put into this tank. I have a hard time imagining that it didnt get enough light. It was under Kessil 360WE's at 98% intensity. Granted, part of the light was blocked from the rock above but from what I read, these Kessils are quite intense.
As for your questions, I fed it LRS frozen fish food every 2 days or so. It's what I feed the fish and seems to be a high quality food. I was doing automatic water changes @ a rate of 1.8g per day. I just upped that to 2.6 gallons a day.
As for your questions, I fed it LRS frozen fish food every 2 days or so. It's what I feed the fish and seems to be a high quality food. I was doing automatic water changes @ a rate of 1.8g per day. I just upped that to 2.6 gallons a day.
dangros
New member
worm5406: I did not.
Sadly, the nem died today. I tried one last ditch effort to save it by putting in the cipro last night. In a totally boneheaded move, I left it on the live rock that it was attached. The intent was to not stress it any further by trying to tear it off the rock. I thought that daily 100% water changes would nullify any chance of ammonia but I didnt account for the fact that the cipro would probably wipe out any bacteria on the rock, causing more issues. The water was cloudy when I came home from work. As I tried to move the nem to the other 10g tank with a fresh batch of salt water, it got sucked up into the powerhead. I'm not certain it was even alive before the powerhead b/c it looked terrible last night.
I'm pretty bummed out. I dont have a whole lot of confidence in being able to keep a gig at this point.
lessons learned:
1) Feed less, at least initially
2) Gigs attach to rocks fine and are better at the top. I thought it was supposed to be at the bottom, dug into the substrate.
3) Maybe keep in the treatment tank longer before going to the DT.
4) Dont place any part of it in shadow.
5) My clowns are too big for a baby gig. What size is appropriate... I have no idea.
6) Automatic water changes dont mean great quality water
Thanks for all of your help. I'm sorry it wasnt the success story we hoped.
Sadly, the nem died today. I tried one last ditch effort to save it by putting in the cipro last night. In a totally boneheaded move, I left it on the live rock that it was attached. The intent was to not stress it any further by trying to tear it off the rock. I thought that daily 100% water changes would nullify any chance of ammonia but I didnt account for the fact that the cipro would probably wipe out any bacteria on the rock, causing more issues. The water was cloudy when I came home from work. As I tried to move the nem to the other 10g tank with a fresh batch of salt water, it got sucked up into the powerhead. I'm not certain it was even alive before the powerhead b/c it looked terrible last night.
I'm pretty bummed out. I dont have a whole lot of confidence in being able to keep a gig at this point.
lessons learned:
1) Feed less, at least initially
2) Gigs attach to rocks fine and are better at the top. I thought it was supposed to be at the bottom, dug into the substrate.
3) Maybe keep in the treatment tank longer before going to the DT.
4) Dont place any part of it in shadow.
5) My clowns are too big for a baby gig. What size is appropriate... I have no idea.
6) Automatic water changes dont mean great quality water
Thanks for all of your help. I'm sorry it wasnt the success story we hoped.
Similar threads
