How to proceed with my little gig

[MikeyA]

I need the boards opinion on how to proceed with this gig. He is still in 5 gallon qt, and I change his water 100% everyday. First a little back story:

Received July 2nd,began to deflate continously and started cipro on July 5th for 7 days. Recovered well and was doing great.

Then on July 20th: began deflating and expelling material multiple times a day. Started smz this time on July 22nd for 10 days. Around July 27th he hit a wall with his recovery. He showed signs of improvement since the 22nd but never fully inflate again. I continued his smz dosing for another 5 days but no improvement since the 27th. And today he still looks the same as he did on the 27th.

He won't fully deflate nor fully inflate, has stubby tentacles. He has no feeding response but has a slow touch response and is sticky. He will not fully close his mouth and everyday he expells brown little pellets. Should I begin another round of meds? Cipro or smz? Pics below are how he looks continuously 24/7, day, night, moving him into another qt, etc.

I'm lost how to proceed.

 

[PharmrJohn]

First, I'd get him out of the 5g container. Give it some room. Maybe a 20g long. Also, what kind of lighting are you using? I'll loop in an expert @OrionN

 

[MikeyA]

Thank you for your reply. He's in a 5 gallon aquarium, he's about maybe 2" at largest. I'm using a simple 30w hyger light right now. When I first got him he bleached out really bad so I'm trying to restore his zoox slowly without the lighting stress. He's getting about 160 Par where he is now. Once he's eating, restored to good health he'll go into my 20 L mushroom/zoa tank to grow out big enough to go into the mag tank

 

[krak256]

I think its fine for it to stay in a 5g for continued observation. I've kept a QTed gig in a 5g for a month with no issues.

Is there a reason you went with smz vs. cipro? The brown pellets are zoox. I think unless it deflates or is gaping, it shouldn't require any meds. I would just give it time to get sticky and then start feeding it a bit. It seems like it just needs time to recover but welcome @D-Nak and @OrionN thoughts.

 

[MikeyA]

Thank you as well for your response. After the first cipro dosing and the gig showed signs of infection again I went with smz to ensure I could kill the infection incase it developed a cipro resistant strain of bacteria. You believe the brown pellets are zoox? I wonder why is expelling zoox? To much lighting maybe? The zoox doesn't look like it's dead zoox. Would you recommend continuing the 100% daily water change?

 

[D-Nak]

I just responded to your message, but here are my thoughts in case others run into the same situation.

A few questions for you:

1. Does the mouth remain tight? Are you ever able to see the siphonoglyphs? Does the mouth ever appear "loose" or "floppy"?

2. What kind of light do you have on the tank?

3. What kind of flow are you providing?

If the mouth is closed and remains tight and it never fully deflates, I don't think you need antibiotics. Keep it in QT to observe. If you're able to remove the brown pellets without having to do a water change (a turkey baster works great) I think you can decrease the amount of water changes.

Since it doesn't appear to be bleached, my guess is that you don't have a lot of light on the tank, and it's expelling zooxanthellae to adjust to the lower level of lighting. Don't be too concerned about lack of feeding response, that's normal while acclimating. Also, since it still has zoox, it'll receive all of the nutrition it needs from light/zoox.

Assuming the gig is strong enough to remain attached to the container or bottom/wall of the tank, I recommend increasing flow. By doing so you should expect to see the tentacles begin to elongate.

 

[Hot2na]

When I had a gig that wasn't responding to cipro alone well = I added in amoxicillin at the same rate ... helped turn things around ...As far as smz goes: I have it on hand along with doxycycline -but have yet to try either of them on any species of nem. HTH

 

[MikeyA]

Thank you everyone: I believe I learned something just now. The bottom of his foot is dissolving it appears which explains why he seldom attached to things. And avoids flow mostly. I cut the bottom of a Dixie cup off and placed him in that. That's how I transport him tank to tank.

D-Nak, I can barely notice his siphonoglyphs.

1)The mouth isn't closed but it's not gaping either.
2) I have a 30w hyger light over the tank now. It doesn't hit full spectrum but it does provide ok Par, about 160 where the gig is.
3)he avoids flow, but I do believe cause he won't set his foot.

Attached is a pic of his foot when he's flipped over. It looks like it's dissolving and fibrous.

 

[MikeyA]

When I had a gig that wasn't responding to cipro alone well = I added in amoxicillin at the same rate ... helped turn things around ...As far as smz goes: I have it on hand along with doxycycline -but have yet to try either of them on any species of nem. HTH

Hot, I have some amox on hand I can try as well, cipro/amox cocktail. I'm unsure of his foot though. It doesn't look good and explains a few things for sure.

 

[OrionN]

I am not sure what you can do other than to provide the best care you can and hope for the best

 

[MikeyA]

I am not sure what you can do other than to provide the best care you can and hope for the best

Thats pretty much my thoughts as well.

Have you heard of a gig repair/heal their foot after damage? I know bta's can but never heard of a mag or gig doing such.

 

[MikeyA]

Yeah after I saw his foot I felt pretty defeated. I'm going to keep trying and possibly start another antibiotic schedule in case his foot is infected. Maybe they'll reverse the damage

 

[D-Nak]

Sorry to hear about the damaged foot -- that definitely adds a new wrinkle. It's unfortunate because in my experience, once I see mesenterial filaments, it typically means the gig will die.

I think antibiotics is a good call -- you've got nothing to lose and it will--as you mentioned--help or prevent the foot from getting infected.

 

[MikeyA]

I don't intend to move him between tanks anymore but I'll still do a full cipro dosing regiment (maybe add amox) to the dosing

 

[OrionN]

Is he doing better?

 

[MikeyA]

He's hanging in there. If I had to say I would say he's the slightest bit better. I did move him to a 10 gallon (2 days ago) so I could upgrade his lighting. I'm very slowly acclimating him to the new lighting.

 

[MikeyA]

I'm doing about a 2 gallon water change every night just to ensure any discharge is removed from the tank.