My Blue Gig Experience

[Acropora52]

Hi,

Been out of the game for a while but have kept gigs and ritteri succesfully in the past. Really missed my purple gig, which did great until I went out of town and found it in an mp60 several years ago. My clowns have been living in a colony of RBTAs so I thought I'd get them a present.

In my experience and I think many people's experience, getting a good specimen is key.

I tried to find one locally to no avail and thanks to the forum, got one from one of our members.

Bright blue, small and treated and then kept for several months.

Came perfectly packaged and after some drip acclimation (and finding out that my apex salinity probe was off), settled in nicely on a rock with a good amount of flow. Doing great now 5 days out, hoping it'll continue to thrive and grow. A few pics and video.

Right when it came in:

Yesterday, started to get to full size

Little video, pardon the audio commentary from my kids.

I apologize for my terrible photo skills. Need to brush up. The blue is brighter in person.

Big shout out to @Asagi. He is the gig whisperer. So many nice gigs available and definitely has a way with a difficult species. I was torn between this one and really nice green and purple specimens that he had.

 

[OrionN]

Very nice. IMO, you got the flow level perfectly also. This seem to be most difficult for most people. Best of luck.

 

[Asagi]

Thanks for the mention Roni! I really like the placement on the rock work. Feed that baby!

 

[Acropora52]

Very nice. IMO, you got the flow level perfectly also. This seem to be most difficult for most people. Best of luck.

Thanks, used a couple of your videos to get the right amount so appreciate it. Really enjoy your pics/videos

Thanks for the mention Roni! I really like the placement on the rock work. Feed that baby!

Thank you for the great gig! If/when I upgrade might need to grab the other colors to make a gig island!

 

[Acropora52]

One week update. Seemed lonely so I got a friend

 

[D-Nak]

Looking good! I'm so happy to see folks with healthy gigs.

 

[Acropora52]

So, a little concerned but wanted other people's input. I've seen the gig somewhat contracted when the lights are off and the mouth isn't perfectly tight but when lights are on everything looks good. Thoughts?

 

[Acropora52]

And now, just an hour later it's looking bigger and mouth is tighter. I've experienced some of this in the past when I've had a gig and it did fine but an n of 1 could just be an aberration.

 

[Hot2na]

what's ur lighting , Roni ?

 

[Acropora52]

Its an 8 bulb ati powermodule with full intensity for 7 hours. The gig is coming from metal halide lighting

 

[Hot2na]

wow , nice to know they can do well under t5's ..

 

[Acropora52]

Continues to adjust. Green is starting to settle in now

 

[Acropora52]

So, the gig looks great most of the time but does have some periods where it goes from

To this:
The green gig is much more constant.

The tentacles aren't sticky either. At the same time it's also had periods where it looks really great. A friend of mine who saw the pics is a little concerned too but was hoping to get other opinions about if I need to pull out into hospital tank. It'll be a little challenging with it attached to rock and both on the same rock and the tank is obviously a more stable environment.

Thoughts?

@Orion obviously anyone else as well

 

[OrionN]

If it deflates I would take it out to treat

 

[Hot2na]

leads me to believe that every time one of these is shipped it is suspect to infection..ALL should go in an observation tank for a week ,regardless of whether they were treated prior to shipping it to YOU...

 

[Acropora52]

Thanks, the green isn't deflating and I'd rather not stress it as well. Thinking to chip away the rock at the base of the blue to remove since I didn't have the foresight to have a removable base and then treat. I also assume that if I took the whole rock the dieoff from the spike in nutrients after treated with abx would be an issue? Thoughts?

 

[Hot2na]

I did something like that not long ago..used a chisel..the gig was very stressed but pulled together in a day or so..hope it works out

 

[Acropora52]

So, had to pull the blue gig to treat. While it showed periods of looking better and periods of looking worse, the trend wasn't great. Was still sticky when I pulled it. Currently on day 6 of cipro treatment. I think it started turning the corner on day 3 when the shape improved.

Not able to watch it during the day a lot due to work but my wife was nice enough to snap a pic. color is better in person but under full spectrum LED right now.

In the meantime, was able to pick up another nice gig that I couldn't pass up. It's settled in nicely since it didn't have to ship and was kept in a local reefers tank for 2 years.

Really appreciate the advice from @Asagi @OrionN @Hot2na among others.

My plan is to treat for 7 days total and then observe for another 1-2 days. Assuming it looks good, was going to add back into the system and place just a little behind where the lime green gig is now. I don't have a good place to put it elsewhere since the larger new "gig" island has absorbed my available sand area.

The only other place I could put is in my 24 gallon zoa tank, which is attached via the same system. It has a hydra26 and lower flow, though I could put a little tunze aimed at the gig in that tank if it makes sense to not have them together initially. Any thoughts?

 

[Taylor t]

My .02. The best you could do, is provide 5k led spot and higher than normal flow, when they show signs of trouble. These 2 things buy you time when you don’t figure out what’s wrong, when water chemistry or bio issues occur, and they do... It’s served me well to provide these 2 critical things.

 

[gig 'em]

Doesn’t hurt that you’re treating it. Mine have done this trend from time to time too and long term I have not seen any issues. I’ve just waited it out with no losses. One time they looked abnormally bad and the purple didn’t make it, but I treated my blue and saved it.

Picture for reference to help identify a pretty bad sign for gigs IME.