Gig updates

[taylor t]

Wall to wall carpet.
No flow.


Flow on.


From left to right.
Blues




This purple looked like a haddoni it's tents were so short.






This one is like Pete's Goliath, more like a "Cousin It". In the middle, it's tents are 2.5-3" long, conservatively, but hard to get a good pic of.

[taylor t]

Then the 210, where a couple of these guys will eventually end up.

FTS


The babies all seem to anemone swap, going from one to another.




It's funny watching them in the mertens, it's like a little fish in a big pond. lost.

[OrionN]

taylor t
You are the king of anemones, at least King of Gigantea. I wish I can get colorful anemones like you. I just scavenge around for Petco brown anemones and hope that they will color up.

[OrionN]

Don't kid yourself. None of your Gigantea look even remotely like a hybrid.

[Breadman03]

Originally Posted by OrionN

taylor t
You are the king of anemones, at least King of Gigantea. I wish I can get colorful anemones like you. I just scavenge around for Petco brown anemones and hope that they will color up.

Here's a question for you. You've advocated for feeding a healthy tentacle to a bleached anemone in order to transplant zooxanthelae. Could such a method be used to bring new colors to an anemone? For example, would using a purple tentacle cause a green anemone to begin to turn purple?

[OrionN]

No.
Color is genetic. Bleached or not bleached (golden brown) is due to the zooxanthelae population which is the the microbial we wanted to replace in a bleached anemone. The transplant will not alter the color but will give the bleached anemone new zooxanthelae which he does not have. This will brown him up. Healthy anemone will be able to produce the pigments that they naturally have.

[Breadman03]

Thanks, Minh.

[justinky]

Taylor, as Minh said you are king of Gigantea. I am super jealous!

[taylor t]

Thanks guys. I don't feel like a king. But thanks... If my anemone's could talk, they would say, "he's not a king, he's a dictator! Tell him to FEED US!" BUT, I like keeping them small, so they don't get much. A little, but not much.... They do look better with tiny pieces frequently, I just dip Rod's food for the fish, they get the dust. Probably explains the cyno. I struggle just like everyone else at times, as one could tell by my cyno in the sand. An interesting thought about changing their colors. I thought about that in another thread. Maybe I try feeding a purple gig some green gig tents... but I like purple!

One of my purples has a green glow under actinics, I never noticed it when I first got it. I'm not sure if it's just returning to normal, or if it's picked up from the green gig. The green tint doesn't show up under daylights, but glows really well under blue lights. The camera doesn't pick it up.

I like pictures that are taken with white light, it shows real colors better.

[taylor t]

D-nak was telling chlorox in his thread about how gigs like to anchor, so I thought I'll show how a couple of mine anchor.

This one is attached to the back of the tank glass. Look at the white spot in the center of the photo, just below that, you can see the foot stretching up. This is right blue.


This is the left blue. It's attached to the rock on the left of it. Same, stretches.


"Cousin It" is the same way. Foot inside a "hole" so to speak, stretching out and up.


Here's a purple, above the highly prized aptasia. Same. All of mine seem to like the foot and column "protected" or surrounded by rock or structure.


The others are the same. Except, one of my purples was buried in the sand for a month or two. (maybe was disoriented from being cut? I kid....) Since it's moved, and copies the others in where it's anchored. Similar to a BTA, but not as dramatic. I think of them as being like a mushroom, and wanting to protect the column. And, boy can they retract fast when spooked!!! I've brushed up against them, just when cleaning, and I'm amazed that much water can be pushed out that fast.

[taylor t]

Here's feeding time. This is what they look like 30 seconds after food hits the water.






total collapse.


And this one gets more than the others because of the babies. It's growing a bit faster than the others because of it.
210 green


When they feed, it looks like you could take a pin to them and pop them like a balloon.

[clorox]

Wow!! Gigantea gardens.
This is truly impressive.

On a side note, I am going out tomorrow looking for rubble. I knew exactly what it likes, but unfortunately, all the best crevices are already taken by some other anemone. I spent most of my day baby sitting the silly gig.
It would just detach from every spot, until I tried one last option on a rock that's in contact with sand. So far it stayed put, but it hasn't expanded yet, it's been semi contracted all afternoon, unhappy that I have been moving it so much

[Reefahholic]

What an awesome tank Taylor! Mail me that lil purple gig, he'll look real good on the edge of my reef. :-)


Minh, your gonna have to step up and pay for those blues and purples!!


Me too...I just got a new truck today though. :-) gotta get adapted to the note.

Note is only $219/mo and it's a black ford f-150 stx v8 w/ 44K.

What a sweet deal!

[clorox]

Originally Posted by Reefahholic

What an awesome tank Taylor! Mail me that lil purple gig, he'll look real good on the edge of my reef. :-)


Minh, your gonna have to step up and pay for those blues and purples!!


Me too...I just got a new truck today though. :-) gotta get adapted to the note.

Note is only $219/mo and it's a black ford f-150 stx v8 w/ 44K.

What a sweet deal!

Sweet, so when will you start doing gig and mag deliveries? I bet you can fit a few in there!

[Reefahholic]

Taylor, you and Minh could win an award for the most stable tanks with largest bubble algae.

Minh had one on his rock the size of a golf ball.

No seriously, I gave away a lot of my live rock not long ago to go with a minimal aquascape. That was a mistake.

I'm gonna have to drive over to minh's to grab some goodies to get my tank up to par again. :-)

[Reefahholic]

[taylor t]

Originally Posted by Reefahholic

What an awesome tank Taylor! Mail me that lil purple gig, he'll look real good on the edge of my reef. :-)


Minh, your gonna have to step up and pay for those blues and purples!!


Me too...I just got a new truck today though. :-) gotta get adapted to the note.

Note is only $219/mo and it's a black ford f-150 stx v8 w/ 44K.

What a sweet deal!

Congrats on your truck! It's always clearer in another's tank, but you still have to change the water..... you guys near the golf got it made, drive to fill up with the best water.... Now you have a truck for it too!

Shipping these guys, for me, has not panned out. I've ordered from every vendor in the past, with zero success. When I read guys having expectations of success, I just remember my experience and wish the best, but know what reality is with shipping. Paying through the nose, going to airports/taking days off, never worked for me, but those were the days before cipro. ALL of mine were local finds.

Originally Posted by Reefahholic

Taylor, you and Minh could win an award for the most stable tanks with largest bubble algae.

Minh had one on his rock the size of a golf ball.

No seriously, I gave away a lot of my live rock not long ago to go with a minimal aquascape. That was a mistake.

I'm gonna have to drive over to minh's to grab some goodies to get my tank up to par again. :-)

Yep, I've taken out some golf balls!


My tank overstocked with gigs, won't be easily duplicated. I really struggled in the beginning to get the original 3 to even stabilize. There's a thread on here somewhere. I let macro algae grow too much, didn't realize (I should have known better), but it was so thick it was decomposing under all the top growth. Having macro, IMO, is very helpful, but with every water change, I need to suck out as much crud as possible. I try to remove it ALL, but it's so embedded, I can't. I started out with a really deep sand bed. It grows cyno. With water changed, I suck off the top layer. It's pretty thin now. My tanks can go down the toilet just as fast as the next guys, but give me a week, I can snap it back with a few cleanings, a few large water changes, and make it look just as nice as some of the others I see. It involves WORK, time, and dedication.

Like I said, my tank won't be EASILY duplicated, but can be, to a dedicated individual. I have killed more gigs in trying, than I care to admit, but through it, I've learned to kind of "read" them. They really aren't as hard to keep once acclimated, in fact are pretty hearty and handle some swings better than corals. Acclimation is the toughest part, and may take many months. My first 3 I got from my good friend Peter. I had given up by then, but he caught the gig bug and kept buying them. Right at the time Minh posted about cipro, the missing link. Even with that, I struggled. Peter was about to toss my green (the one in my 210) in the trash, he had it for months and it wouldn't turn around, even though his others were doing well. Sometimes, them being individuals, don't respond well to a system, not the system's fault, not the guy's fault, IMO, it's the individual gig didn't like something in the system. I saw that guy deflated all the time, for the longest time, and didn't think it would make it either.

I think 100% water changes, new salt water aged 24 hours, aerated, heated, in the first few days makes a HUGE difference. THEN, use DT water while in QT to see how it reacts to it. Also, for me, my gigs only get ONE deflate. If it deflates again, I take action, whether it's change water, change flow, change lights, etc. I've never seen my DT gigs deflate. Never. IF they do, it's so fast, so infrequent, I miss it. IMO, fresh imports have so much crappy water, they need a good purging, which can only happen with TONS of water changes. We can't wash them out in the slop sink. THEY have to do it, and can only happen if the water we give them is ALWAYS fresh, in the beginning, IMO, lack of is the biggest mistake made. I don't temp acclimate my anemone's. If it's close, it works... I think about them being out of water, baking in the sun, then getting hit with cold ocean water... daily... I haven't noticed they are that sensitive to temp change. They ARE very sensitive to PH. I struggled in the beginning too, with figuring out the difference in how my tanks consume carbonate, or bicarbonate (seachem's buffer, or reef builder). I use them both. In my tanks, I use one to raise the PH AND KH (buffer), but too much of that, they get mad. Then I use builder to raise KH, without affecting PH. It's a balancing act, tough to find the happy medium sometimes.

Night time, every time I look. Like I say, INFLATED 100% of the time, NOT 100% inflated, but 100% of the time ALWAYS looks good, just smaller in the dark. Never limp. Here's this morning.


And the other green in the 210.


These are some of my struggles I deal with, I hope someone can learn from some of my mistakes.

I'm hoping for some more baby gigs floating in the system, the first few I saw never took. I'm not sure if they require special care, or what, but I saw several right after I introduced one of my purples. One I planted on a rock, a couple hours later it released never to be seen again. One I put inside an API test tube. It melted the next day, I'm guessing because of lack of flow or lack of food. I was hurt at the time, so I couldn't spend any time with them. Haven't seen any in a couple months though I haven't looked lately. I can't help but think my odds of having both male and female in this tank are pretty high. I always forget to look for babies when I'm sucking all the algae out. I got rid of my peppermint shrimps, I saw them eating gig at night, and figured, maybe that's where the little ones go. Now, the aptasia have taken off. This hobby is a never ending battle at times!

[OrionN]

This is how I take care of Bubble algae.
This rock from my holding tank was full of bubble algae. In my DT where the condition is better for coralline algae, the coralline algae just overgrowth and cover up the bubble algae and that is the end of the bubbles

[OrionN]

I never have any luck getting anemone MO either. All my anemone, other than the Blue Haddoni, are local find. I tried one Mag from AquaSD, did not make it even with Cipro. When I get the Blue Haddoni, he was just 3 inches baby.

Taylor, did you actually got your gig to spawned? Wish you documented that and got pictures of the babies.

For aptasia, try a Copper-band Butterfly. I always have good result with this.

[OrionN]

I really looking for a Green Gig. My only Green Gig is a hybrid.

[taylor t]

That's what happens to my bubble algae too! Coralline takes over. Then LR has a new bump added to it's size.

I tried to take pictures, but they were slightly bigger than a grain of rice. I did not see spawn, I think they were already inside, it happened within days of introducing. My wife saw to confirm I wan't seeing things, they all looked the same. I only tried one in the test tube. After it turned to blob, I didn't try the test tube again. I wanted to remove to my QT, but too injured to mess with them at the time to prepare properly. Several were planted on rocks, I just left one I saw flowing in the current in hopes it would settle on it's own, but haven't seen any settle within the macro. Pictures are so blurry trying to capture small ones like this. They were fully inflated, blue column with purple disk, tiny tiny tents. No mistake. All of them, don't remember,4-5, were just floating in the water column, all looked the same, maybe 3-4 day timeline between them. No spawn was seen, water always clear. I think it came with babies inside already. My gut tells me they need still water in the beginning, which my tank has no still spots for them to settle. If I see more, I have QT cycled and waiting with dimmable LED lights I'm confident work well with gigs.

I didn't bring it up, I know nay sayer's need pics, and I don't have any in focus.

[OrionN]

That sounds right. The female take in sperms from the water column. Fertilized internally and eggs brooded inside the mother. Babies then egresses though the mouth.
From what you wrote, I am sure that the spawn occurred before she come to your tank. She just release the babies. Which ever anemone you added, that was the female.
So which anemone was it?

Can you tell us how big she was, so we can have an idea of what size they need to reach to be able to spawn.

[OrionN]

Information like this are few and far in between. I hope you don't mind me picking your brain about it.

[taylor t]

Originally Posted by OrionN

I really looking for a Green Gig. My only Green Gig is a hybrid.

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Your gigs are very beautiful, shape and tents all look super healthy! Your pictures show good coloration, for those of us that can't see in person. I've seen many blue or purples that look "under par" for what they should be, or could be, many photo's are over saturated in blue bulbs and out of focus. A healthy anemone, to me, is more beautiful, than any particular color. I just happened to stumble upon these colors from the LFS, ironically, no browns to choose from. I personally enjoy an in focus, clear, white photo of a healthy BTA over an over saturated, blue, unhealthy gig any day.

Years ago, my uncle had a brown gig, really healthy. A true stunner. It was a dark brown, I haven't seen one like it since. It was a real beauty, it was two toned brown. Dark tips with typical light brown base. I wish I had a camera phone back then, now all phones are camera's. His was under T5 lighting,which was new at the time, not super intense, could be the reason it was darker brown than I see.

Also, I've heard over time, some browns have turned blue, so maybe one of those petco gigs is young, and could turn? I haven't seen this personally, but reputable people have told me they have seen this occur. I have also read this. True or not, I'm not sure, and I'm hesitant to believe until I see with my own eyes, or someone has pics to back up. So far just rumor.

[taylor t]

Originally Posted by OrionN

That sounds right. The female take in sperms from the water column. Fertilized internally and eggs brooded inside the mother. Babies then egresses though the mouth.
From what you wrote, I am sure that the spawn occurred before she come to your tank. She just release the babies. Which ever anemone you added, that was the female.
So which anemone was it?

Can you tell us how big she was, so we can have an idea of what size they need to reach to be able to spawn.

Believe it or not, it was one of the two purples, the babies looked fully formed and color took after the purples, blue column and purple disk. 4-5" size, both were cuts, but the one I think it came from was the haddoni looking one, but I'm not positive, I didn't see it release. Pics are above. I'm not sure which one it was, one was shaggy when I brought it home, one looked like a haddoni. Both cut, both looked very different, both came in together to the LFS, and were treated the same way. ALL went through cipro too. Both looked different though. The haddoni looking one was more healed, held itself more tightly than the shaggy looking one, mouth wasn't centered, but had healed reasonably well before I got it. The shaggy looking one's mouth was literally THE edge of the disk, looked like a fresh cut from the day before, but the LFS said he didn't cut it. I posted a pic on another thread. I'm not sure which one released, it could be either one. The haddoni one looked to be more intact as an anemone, but the shaggy one always was more inflated, which I'd expect the babies need room inside in order to survive. The latest gig additions I got, NEVER deflated or looked bad that I can recall.

Originally Posted by OrionN

Information like this are few and far in between. I hope you don't mind me picking your brain about it.

You can pick away, what ever's left! I know my mertens spawned, so it's a male, and I added some tank water between the two systems, in hopes, maybe we could have a more stable, less finicky, gigtensi. doubt it, but worth a dream....

I wish I had more useful info, but I'm still learning...