New Stichodactyla Gigantea Anemone
 

I picked up my new Gigantea from Gold Aquariums on Saturday. I've been pretty nervous and have done everything I could to prepare for its arrival, including purchasing a Vortech.

I know flow is a HUGE factor in their survival, so I've made a short video to show what kind of flow it's getting now. If you think it needs more or less, please speak up! The Vortech is set on Reef Crest Random, so it's a modulating sort of random flow. It doesn't exactly show in the video, but the bottom part IS lifted off the bottom at times from the random flow.

In other news, my clown (the hosting whore that it is) has happily settled in.

http://i288.photobucket.com/albums/l...h_DSCN3417.jpg

that is seriously one big anemone!:biggrin: how wide is it across drew?...must look unbelievable under actinics!

Wow, what a monster! That thing is a serious GREEN!

Yeah, it IS a monster. Bigger than it was in the store, that's for sure! I'm guessing....at least 12" across. It's sort of attached against a vertical piece of rock, so we're not seeing it laying flat out...but it definitely lives up to its name.

I'm certainly no expert on the amount of flow in reef tanks so I can't help you there, but that is one good lookin piece of livestock.

I saw those anemones on Thursday, and they are so pretty. NIce choice, it looks great in your tank!

Wow that thing is huge!

If small neighborhood pets start to go missing we know where to look!

lol, no kidding.

BTW...it attached right away, and its tentacles are definitely "sticky" (ouch) and it was able to eat some mysis last night. The tentacles also move randomly on their own, regardless of flow.

As you can also see near the end of the video, its mouth is closed tightly...which I'm presuming is a good sign :)

It's a beaut, Drew. :)

All indications I can see seem positive. The flow seems good, your description is what I have sort of used as a suggestion to others regarding flow - ie, you want to see the "skirt lifted up" occasionally. Another way to think of it is, any slime or goo that comes to rest on the oral disk, should be washed away by the current rather than let it settle indefinitely on the anemone.

If you have any frozen cyclops-eeze, you should try shooting some towards the carpet with a turkey baster. At least mine react like crazy, really coming alive for it (looks like a bowl of spaghetti gone berserk). Although I would caution against feeding too much for the first couple of weeks, go gently and ramp up slowly. Although having said that if it's eaten mysis already, it could be ready to eat, you have to sort of observe and use your own judgment. It's just that too much food (right off the bat) is probably worse than not enough food, so it's a bit of a delicate balancing act. Observing carefully though does tell us whether they're ready for more or not .. you'll just know. I'm probably not making a whole lot of sense here .. sorry.. :redface:

Nice score Drew! That anemone is a really sexy creature!

Looking good Drew. Glad it is happy and i am glad you got the vortech working we'll. Mine has oddly moved back on the rock by about 3-4 inches and is now in less flow than what it was. I am going to assume it has a clue to what its doing. And to top it all off i am not there to see what its doing...lol
The stress of this hobby.:(

You're making perfect sense :) You'd better, anyway, since you're my local Gigantea expert (lol, no pressure).

Tell me about it! My clownfish certainly thinks so.

It *is* stressful, isn't it? It nearly ruined my entire weekend! And who knew getting a giant stinging anemone out of a plastic bag would be so hard? Holy crap...that thing attached to the bag like a mofo.

Wow
 

Saw that up at golds, amazing peice! Really wanted one of those blue ones but they got sold faster than Dennis can bag em.
Levi

I have 3 of them in my 140 yes they do take up alotta real estate. That is a fine green specimen you have there. I would be more concerned with water parameters than flow. I cut up a piece of frozen shrimp into 3 and feed them that once a week. They will eat any dumb fish that trys to use it for cover. I lost 3 neon gobies in 1 night. All I have for flow is a 1200 quiet one on a sqwd. They tend to wander. I have a big red one that likes to tour the tank and takes up 3rd of my tank when it decides to spread out. And if it goes for a walk and gets caught in your powerhead it will take out everything in your tank. Thats why I went to a sqwd. Other than that enjoy, truly amazing creatures.

Those sound a little like haddoni me. For one, I've never seen a red gigantea, that would be cool if they did exist though. The really bright red ones we see available occassionaly are haddonis. Haddonis are fish eaters for sure, they'll eat anything that blunders into them - fish, snails, etc. The 2 gigantea I keep haven't shown anywhere near that kind of superglue stickiness you get with haddonis and seem to be more interested in planktivore-sized food than anything larger. In fact I had a mandarin who would sleep underneath one of the carpets, never was an issue for him though.

Update
 

Well, I've had my Gigantea for 9 days so far. It has PRETTY much stayed put, except for moving up the rock a wee bit. It hasn't flattened out as I see other Giganteas have done, but it's still "sticky" and its tentacles seem to be longer now than they initially were. I may also be imagining things, but it seems to have darkened a bit, which is a good thing....right, Tony? Compare the two videos and let me know what you think!

Original Video [June 8, 2008]:
http://i288.photobucket.com/albums/l...h_DSCN3417.jpg

New Video [June 16, 2008]:
http://i288.photobucket.com/albums/l...h_DSCN3444.jpg

Looks like it's doing wonderfully:)

The darkening is the same as mine as we'll. I think they will be much darker than they were when we bought them.


Longer tentacles are better as we'll so i read:)
Mine are getting a little longer as we'll.

All looks wonderfull.

The clown definitely likes it by the looks of things! But who wouldn't!! haha

Very nice!

I think it does look darker. Awesome!

They do tend to fold up like that, that's normal. :)

So big and nice =D

I hear that all the time.

Update:

My Gigantea apparently LOVES the wavemaker/pulse setting on my Vortech. It had retracted somewhat, I thought perhaps due to the flow. So I have tried a few different settings and wow....it's opened up again fully and beautifully. It also continues to darken. I'll get a video later....if anyone's still interested, lol.

Sorry, not owning a Vortech I get confused with the setting names all the time. So before it was on "Reef Crest Random" and now it's "Wavemaker Pulse" ? Does that imply a more woosh-pause-woosh-pause-woosh-pause type effect whereas before it was just "zip zap wooshity woosh"?

Can't wait to see the new pics/vids :)

LOL. Tony, I always appreciate your descriptives :p But yes...more of a "woosh-pause-woosh-pause-woosh-pause" instead of "zip zap wooshity woosh"!

New Video....I hope everyone likes Radiohead:

http://i288.photobucket.com/albums/l...h_DSCN3448.jpg

Seems like it's darkening up more? It looks almost green now? Or is that just how it picked up in the camera?

Update: the Gigantea moved during the night! Not a lot...only a matter of 2 inches or so. But strange, perhaps? Its new position places it in less of a folded up position and more open like lots of the other Giganteas I've seen. Perhaps I'll try to get a video later.

They do shift around from time to time, 2" is just making itself comfortable if you ask me. :)

I do hope so, Tony. It's definitely doing something different, though. It retracted QUITE a bit during the night....and it's bunched up quite tightly.

Question: how much do you feed your gigantea? How often, what and how much? I haven't been feeding mine very much, but have fed it sporadically. The clownfish also grabs chunks of mysis and shoves it into the anemone sometimes during feeding time. I don't observe if the anemone actually ingests it, though.

Now I'm stressed!!!

I feed mine a squirt of mysis every day or two. Like maybe 12-20 actual individual mysids. I have to feed mysis every day for my CBB since that's the only food he eats and I'd prefer him not to starve. So I take a package of PE mysis, lay it out on a glass cutting board, and slice and dice until the whole thing is in 1cm squares or thereabouts. I then take one of these 1cm cubes and that's the daily mysis allotment for all my tanks, with about half reserved for the CBB (he knows that when I come with the turkey baster that I've got something for him - he has a spot he goes to and waits for me to shoot a couple mysids at a time for him). But yeah, basically, unless I run out the gigantea's get at least one squirt of mysis per day.

I've kind of held the view (in general, not just with these things) that smaller feedings more often is probably mimics the natural cycle a little better than one generous feeding less often. YMMV of course :)

so yours is doing ok in a bare bottom tank?

Yes Drews i believe are in a barebottom. Mine might as we'll be as both of them are perched on the top of rocks.

Drew Is it pooping maybe? I have been feeding mine every other day or so. I just purchased some organic tiger prawns from Safeway and cut a chunk off the size of there mouths and then soak it in selcon for the afternoon in the fridge and give it to them just before lights out.
after talking with Tony i may ramp up the feeding on the Yellow one to daily untill i see an improvement with his stuby tentacles.Maybe your guy is just trully hungry.

Yeah...mine has seemed quite happy on the bottom! Until during the night sometime last night. Also, as I left for work, I think it was on the move again. Not sure....definitely makes me nervous.

And I think you may be right--I probably need to feed more. I'll try the shrimp!

Time of death: sometime between August 1-2, 2008. :cry:

Sorry to hear, I thought everything was going fine.


What happened?

that sucks, sorry to hear of your loss :cry:

It moved around a bit in the last week or so, and appeared to have lost some biomass. It was eating, however. I went away for 4 days, and when I came back, it was definitely dead. Fish sitter reported it alive and kicking as late as July 31.

I'm really sorry to hear that.

i am truly sorry for your loss :(

So Sorry

Oh, that so SUCKS and I am very sorry to hear this. You have my sympathy, Drew. What a total drag.