Enrofloxacin for Gigantea bacterial infection - looking for advice and I'll document recovery/experience here

[Smite]

I picked up a yellow Gigantea (I believe) from my LFS today. I've been on the hunt for a small one, it's not in the best shape but I didnt' want to pass it up. After talking with the owner and telling him I was able to rehab a blue 6 years ago he offered me some antibiotics with the anemone. He felt it would work similar to the cipro treatment I used before. It's Enrofloxacin in powder form. I've found a thread that references humblefish's dosage at 2.5-5mg for fish.

Has anyone used enrofloxacin to rehab an anemone before?
What should my dosage be?
5 hour Bath and back to display (sump in an acclimation box so it doesnt' get fried by light) ?
Or set up a small tank and run it as a QT similar to OrionN's thread I used in the past successfully?
If anyone has a reason to why I should use ciprofloxacin instead let me know too!

I'll document success and failure in this thread.

Symptoms at LFS (Still in bag getting ready to acclimate)
Light in color, close to bleached
Not attached to glass bottom
I saw no dischage but it's mouth had that slight gape to it
I asked the worker there and he said it was only slightly sticky towards the center when he grabbed it

A little display info:
48x24x15" tall lit by 3 - xr30 blues, G5
Sps dominant reef, about 1 year old but established rock and coral.
High flow and light
Tank is barebottom. I plan to build a structure with a foot hole for it, away from other rocks in long alternating pulse, medium high flow. I've cleared a section directly under my front xr30 blue.


Currently waiting on crystal dynamics for my 50x38x25" display. This display will have deep sand and be lit by 2 x 400w 14k hamilton lamps, supplemented by led (kessils). Their timeline was beginning to mid august but we will see.

I'll post a picture of the gigantea from my phone later.

Thanks for any input.

Matt
In bag, now acclimating

 

[Smite]

it’s just about drip acclimated. This was great to see. Found a piece of rubble I placed just incase it wanted to right itself. Mouth looks pretty good but I know that can be part of the cycle. Pretty cool looking I gotta say. It was under all blues and looked very false neon yellow. Under these warm whites it actually looks yellow

 

[Smite]

So tomorrow’s Disneyland for the family. Instead of stressing on a QT and not being here to monitor it for the first few days the gig is going to hang out in this acclimation box. It did completely grab the rock and has a strong hold. I didn’t touch it so not sure if it’s got grab to it. I’m going to keep it high on the front pane so it doesn’t get the full blast of my radions until I can see it react in person.
Here are a few close ups of it now.
Definitely bleached out a bit I think. Mouth has a slur to it.
very glad it’s got some reaction and grabbing with its foot. It was face down at the LFS.

 

[Hot2na]

smart idea ...just watch it for a few days to a week...maybe try to feed it something small...if it eats...I'd just keep it in a tank with strong light/flow and healthy it up there ..no treatment unless u see the tell-tale inflate/deflate...some do not need treatment -just good conditions will bring them around....just my 2 cents...

 

[Smite]

smart idea ...just watch it for a few days to a week...maybe try to feed it something small...if it eats...I'd just keep it in a tank with strong light/flow and healthy it up there ..no treatment unless u see the tell-tale inflate/deflate...some do not need treatment -just good conditions will bring them around....just my 2 cents...

Well we are loading up. I passed by the tank this am and it's face down again. It looks like part of its foot has released from the rock as well. What a bummer!

 

[Smite]

 

[DeniseAndy]

Ouch, that looks not so good. I really hope he pulls through for you. Do you have a reef friend that can help out while you are in Disneyland?

 

[Smite]

Ouch, that looks not so good. I really hope he pulls through for you. Do you have a reef friend that can help out while you are in Disneyland?

Unfortunately not close enough and I'm not sure what i'd ask him to do. Hopefully it can pull through one more day and I'll be able to start set up on QT, transfer and dose tonight.

 

[D-Nak]

Based on the last photo, the gig needs treatment ASAP.

I would QT using the same protocol as Cipro. This means you should use a separate QT tank. Temporary baths may not be affective because you run the risk of letting the pathogen back into the main tank, which can then re-infect the anemone.

 

[Smite]

Based on the last photo, the gig needs treatment ASAP.

I would QT using the same protocol as Cipro. This means you should use a separate QT tank. Temporary baths may not be affective because you run the risk of letting the pathogen back into the main tank, which can then re-infect the anemone.

I think you’re right. I’m going to get on that when I get home today. I still need to figure out my dosage for the enrofloxacin. My LfS recommended the large reef flux scoop per 20g but I feel that’s kind of a guess on their part.

 

[Jekyl]

@Eagle_Steve

 

[Smite]

Boy Disney can kick your butt! I’m wiped out and just got back.
I didn’t get to see any reaction with lights on I was gone the whole photoperiod but it looks like it managed to attach it’s foot back for now.

QT is getting pushed until tomorrow AM. Wife won’t be happy but it’s been warm here so I’ll be setting it up in our bathroom so it’s climate controlled and hopefully as stable as possible. I believe I still have a scale somewhere and plan to measure out what a scoop weighs and hopefully get some input. Or at least be able to make measurable adjustments going forward.

 

[Eagle_Steve]

Enrofloxacin is a broad spectrum antibiotic. Looking at it and how cipro dosage was calculated, it looks likes 250 mg per 10 gallons is a good starting point for treatment. If no improvement after 2 days, then looks like it can also be moved to 500mg per 10 gallons for treatment.

I have never used it for nems, but it is very close to cipro. Outside of the renal issues it can cause in humans. So far, risk is low in dogs, cats and birds and fish have even been treats with it.

@Smite if you treat with this, please keep us updated. If it works, this may be another option for people to get. Especially since it is more easily prescribed by a vet for birds and fish.

 

[Smite]

Enrofloxacin is a broad spectrum antibiotic. Looking at it and how cipro dosage was calculated, it looks likes 250 mg per 10 gallons is a good starting point for treatment. If no improvement after 2 days, then looks like it can also be moved to 500mg per 10 gallons for treatment.

I have never used it for nems, but it is very close to cipro. Outside of the renal issues it can cause in humans. So far, risk is low in dogs, cats and birds and fish have even been treats with it.

@Smite if you treat with this, please keep us updated. If it works, this may be another option for people to get. Especially since it is more easily prescribed by a vet for birds and fish.

Thank you Eagle_Steve for the dosage starting point/guidelines. My current scale doesn't go long enough so I have one coming from amazon that should work.

Today I'm going to set up the QT. I normally use a bucket but I plan to set up a small bowfront tank I have so I can document with pictures along the treatment and get input from you all.

Here is the gig this morning just after lights on. Still attached, mouth even looks okay. Facing away from the light source though.

there is a UV sterilizer on the display so hopefully that will buy me a little time more time to set up

 

[Malcontent]

Can they absorb the drug from the water? Has anyone ever tried an injectable antibiotic?

 

[Eagle_Steve]

Can they absorb the drug from the water? Has anyone ever tried an injectable antibiotic?

Injectable antibiotic would not work. Anemones are mostly water. Injecting it in would either be an overdose or not enough once the nem cycled the water. This is why we treat the whole tank.

 

[Hot2na]

based on pic in post #6 i'd treat it..as for the antibiotic ,,,is there a reason you don't want to use cipro? If available -i would...simply because you know the protocol and that it works...hate to see you go through 7 days of w/c's and abx only to have it fail with an unknown..abx...

 

[Smite]

based on pic in post #6 i'd treat it..as for the antibiotic ,,,is there a reason you don't want to use cipro? If available -i would...simply because you know the protocol and that it works...hate to see you go through 7 days of w/c's and abx only to have it fail with an unknown..abx...

No reason at all, I've used cipro in the past from Ebay and it worked. This was readily available to me and would be in the future so I wanted to give it a go. It sounds like it's very similar to cipro and with it being in straight powder form, there shouldn't be any fillers like a pill would have.


My scale was due to arrive yesterday, but looks like it will be showing up this evening. I'll be starting treatment tonight. The anemone didn't end up deflating yesterday, not even at lights out. The mouth still is oddly open slightly. I held a small piece of shrimp to the anemone after lights out with tweezers. There was not grab or feed response at all. The foot is still attached to the rock at this point.

I'm assuming I can leave the anemone attached to the small rock during treatment? Or will this cause a small spike in the QT?

 

[Smite]

here it is this AM

 

[Eagle_Steve]

here it is this AM

Small rock should be fine as long as you do the water changes as scheduled. Most broad spectrum antibiotics do not affect nitrifying bacteria much, but that is while other can of worms lol.