Blue gigantea

[Phanman]

sorry to hear that Tony... my friends yellow died about 2 weeks ago too
He bought it about 2-3 weeks after you did.

[EmilyB]

Aw crap Tony, I hope it wasn't dead in there for a week?..

[Monti-Man]

Tony i'm sorry you lost that one

Although i think it was a trend from the begginning. They all seemed to be from the same shipment and they all seemed to go out the same way?Mine and yours had issues feeding and myselfs and Drews just kinda lost its mass over a week period or so. Not sure if yours did the lossing mass thing.

How is the purple one? Mine is remakably we'll. Seemed to have a couple hick ups the last week or so but i think it was a flow issue. Maybe the purple guys are from a different collecting?

[Delphinus]

Purple is hanging on still and eats mysis so I worry less about it. (I still worry a little, but at least it stays put and eats, which is a good sign. It doesn't grow much though..) The blue was really starting to lose biomass towards the end despite efforts to keep it fed. It was really starting to wander badly before I had to go away so I was pretty worried about it, and am sort of not really surprised to find it MIA now that I'm back. Still rather frustrating and I wonder if I had maybe tried moving it sooner would I have had a little better luck. Although when I heard both yours and Drews had already checked out I was pretty sure this was going to be the outcome as well.

[Nate]

I have had mine for 4 months, under 8 54 watt t5s surrounded by a bunch of bubble tips which he over powers no problem. I have fed him mysis shrimp once in these four months, and he has not lost colour or moved around. I think the key to keeping this species for me is that my false percs feed him all the time. He is now at the point where he does not even mind eating pellets from the clowns...

Basically, when I feed, the clowns are trying to feed him and about 15 bubble tips aruond them. One thing I have noticed is that they have started breeding more frequently since the introduction of the carpet

Just my 2 cents

[Delphinus]

IMO, the key with this species is to start with a strong specimen to begin with. I knew going into this that the odds were not good because the blue was so incredibly bleached. The lack of a strong feeding response also concerned me from the get go. I tried this specimen nonetheless, just to see if I could turn it around and I had always wanted a blue one, so thought it was worth a try.

A lot of people think clowns make a difference ... I am not one of those though. . Not saying they "can't" make a difference (they may well), but the mere presence of clowns does not guarantee success by any means - in fact, it can hinder success in some cases because they can beat up a weakened anemone pretty badly. Also if the anemone has no feeding response, then it likely pretty much doesn't matter much if it's you doing the attempted feedings or the fish.

So again for me it really comes down to the starting point and how healthy and strong it is to begin with. You take an assessment as best you can, and then you decide to run with it or not.

I still have 3 others, the two you sold me (one in 2004 and one in 2005), and one other from the recent imports, in particular to two older ones were strong from day one and continue to be. They even eat cyclops-eeze, you'd think this be an unlikely food on account of the size, but they react quite vigorously to cyclops in the water. I find that, once established, they are incredibly resilient creatures. The real question is getting them to that point of establishment...

[Nate]

As a note, I think that the clowns make no difference as per the being in the aquarium and in the anemone, but to make it so my lazy *** doesn't have to feed the anemone as much!

Also, the day after the clown eggs hatch, the anemone seems to be large and in charge, so feeding on them may occur as well, as they always hatch at night.

I am in the process of setting up a new tank that will have a bigger dedication to anemones 36 inch cube