When to begin antibiotic treatment, s.gig?

8 Days in QT, 3 Days w/o antibiotics:

Observations:


I missed posting yesterday so here is today's update. The anemone's tentacles have become very elongated which is a great sign. The mouth is still open however it is difficult to see now due to how long the tentacles are. I don't believe the mouth is as gaping as it has been, kinda just slightly open.

Just a side note, the live rock the anemone is attached to also has a small blue mushroom and some zoa polyps attached to it. They don't seem to have been affected at all by the antibiotic treatment.

Pics Attached:

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9 Days QT 4 Days W/O antibiotics:

Observations:

The Negatives

Mouth still open and I discovered some expelled zoa in the pump this morning.

The Positives:

Today the anemone has re-gained its stickiness. First day its been sticky since I've received it. The anemone is still looking good, firm stance, nice tentacle length, and is going on 8 days without an observed deflation.

I think I'm going to keep it in the QT for the weekend and move it to the DT on Monday if all continues to go well.

Anyone have suggestions on when I should attempt to feed the anemone? It hasn't been fed since it has been in my care. I attempted a feeding on the second day in my care before I started treatment but it didn't take the food and the clowns quickly stole it.

Pics attached:

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The opening of the mouth of my Gigantea stay at dime size for months befor it close up. Don't get too worry over it.
Don't feed when you have him in treatment tank. There is nothing there to deal with the ammonia release from the feeding. No biological filtration, or not much of it. He won't starve from not eatting. Start feeding a few days after he got back to DT and don't over feed.

I am very glad that he is doign well for you. I think antibiotic give us a fighing chance to keep these anemone from dying in the first month or two after they come into our care. After that it is up to us.
 
You guys about have me convinced to give Gigs another go... I've let a few slip through my fingers because I wouldn't buy them before they'd been at the LFS for 3 weeks at a minimum... Might be time to try one out again...
 
Temperature Issues

Temperature Issues

Brief update:

The temperature was dropping significantly outside so I decided to check on the S.Gig since it was in a room that wasn't insulated well. I'm glad I checked because the heater in the tank inst adequately working anymore. I've kept the temp in the QT tank steady at 80 degrees everyday and it has dropped down to 75 over the course of 6 hours when I last checked it. I immediately replaced the heater with a titanium heater with separate temp probe...

So far the anemone hasn't reacted at all to the temperature swing and looks fine. We will see how the night goes as I slowly raise the temperature back up.
 
1/21/2013 13 days in QT total.

I didn't update during the weekend because the anemone continued to progress positively and I was quite busy.

Observations:

When I had the issue with the temperature spike with the heater the other day (1/17/13), the only negative that happened was that the anemone once again was no longer sticky to the touch. It hasn't been sticky since 1/17/13 prior to the temperature spike.

Today I removed the anemone from QT and placed it back in DT. I was pleased with the progress it was making. The anemone's mouth had become mostly closed, now looking "puckered" which I believe is a good sign. The anemone hasn't deflated since the original deflation in QT (12ish days)

The anemone appears to be doing well since being back in DT.

I'm concerned that I might of jumped the gun as far as re-acclimating the anemone to my light system. It came from QT with a Kessil a150 10k LED pendant, and now its in a DT with a Kessil A150 10k led Pendant and A Kessil a150 15k Led Pendant. I haven't noticed any issues yet, but if the anemone appears to close up or if there are any symptoms of light shock I will only run one of the pendants for the next couple of weeks.

In summery I believe the treatment was successful in that the anemone would have eventually perished without. The anemone stopped the deflation cycle with antibiotics, Ive never been able to prevent this, once started, in any species of anemone without antibiotics. I'm very pleased with its progress through the treatment and it was relatively easy to do once a scheduled was put in place.

Now all I have to do is make sure it stays happy in DT with the clowns trying to foul up the water with their dirty habits, haha.

I want to specifically thank Minh for leading the way and being my inspiration with his originally documented antibiotic thread with his Mag.

For anyone else who offered advice or encouragement during the process, thank you!

For anyone lurking in the background following the thread, I will update it in the next couple weeks with progress assuming all continues to go well. If it goes downhill or anything negative happens I will update as well.

Thanks for following! -Cole

Pics attached:

1/21/13 In QT prior to being placed back in DT. If you look close you can see the mostly closed puckered mouth.

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1/21/13 a couple hours after being placed back into DT

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If color and tenticle extension are anything to go by, that critter is well on its way to full recovery. Good job and good luck.
 
Great job! I am looking to get a blue & green coming up and will be doing just what you did....... Thanks for documenting everything in such detail, and Minh, kudos my friend!
 
2 month update.

2 month update.

Well its been about two months since treatment and I'm happy to report the anemone is doing fantastic. It has doubled in size and its tentacles are elongated to almost 2 inches each. The anemone has a great feeding response and is extremely health. (its about 2 inches smaller in diameter at time of photos because I cleaned the glass and a bunch of Coraline algae crust went into the water.)


Pics attached:

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Video:
 
I am very happy for you. It is a very beautiful anemone. Hopefully over the next several years we will have a lot more data and information on the range of condition that we can keep this anemone species in aquarium. :)
 
Update and a 2nd Cipro treatment

Update and a 2nd Cipro treatment

So....... 5 months after my last post we moved. As a result, we moved the tank as well. At the time the tank move went successful and I had no issues with the anemone. During this time my female clarkii did commit suicide unfortunately jumping out of the tank. I later purchased a new pair of maroon clowns from the LFS.

Around the beginning of this month 4/01/2014 my aquarium sprang a leak... Ive been meaning to upgrade anyways, but this disaster forced my hand.

Well after my tank disaster I moved all the inhabitants from the tank into a rubber made trash can for few days until I could get the new tank set up. I purchased an Innovative marine nuvo 60. (love this tank)

After setting up the new tank I brought all the occupants from the previous tank over.

The anemone didn't like the frequent changes and thus began to show signs of stress.. It began to slowly reduce its size. I decided to feed the anemone to see if it would perk up, and ended up feeding it RODS foods predator feast. This food has been in the freezer for many months and I believe I fed the anemone a rotten piece of food by accident.

The next day the anemone deflated.. first time since the original treatment more than a year ago. I was hoping it would re-bound however it only got worse. The anemone never re inflated and continued to shrink for a period of four days. The last day the anemone appeared to look like the "fluffy pancake" which we all know is a sing of ultimate doom.

I decided to pull the plug and set up a hospital tank with the same treatment and protocol I did last time. After four days of treatment the anemone was still not inflating, however It was no longer the fluffy pancake and was holding shape. I figured the damage was done and it would either come back from disaster at this point or ultimately die. I put the anemone back in the DT and am happy to report it has re-inflated and is progressing. (not out of the woods yet, however has shown the first sings of improvement since the tank disaster. Mouth still very open)

I just though I would share my experiences with a 2nd round of cipro treatment on the same anemone. Not saying the anemone has healed but I can say, without a doubt... without this second round of CIPRO the anemone would have been dead two days ago. Some pictures, Enjoy:











 
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