Gigantea update and a few observations

Monti-Man · #1 06-15-2008, 12:55 AM

Good evening.

We'll we are almost at the 2 week mark and so far all is good. Foot firmly attached,sticky and eats like a champ.Only deflats about a day after eating to expell waste and gets a little smaller when the lights are off and appears to be getting back some Zooenthelle.

But i have observed some interesting things that i am not sure what to think of.

This anemone has 2 mouths. I have attched pics. In the first pic you can see the little mouth below the large one and in the second pic the clown is feeding it.
What does anybody think of this....TONY?????

And he also has some tentacles growing out the back coloumn. Pic 3.

Otherwise all is we'll.

Keri · #2 06-15-2008, 01:04 AM

Awesome pictures, maybe it's getting ready to split? I've heard carpets split less but does that mean they don't split at all?

Monti-Man · #3 06-15-2008, 01:08 AM

After all the reading i have done i have yet to see anything about Gigantea's splitting. So i am unsure of what is going on.
Whatever it is it doesn't seem to be affecting it in any other way other than getting some extra food

Delphinus · #4 06-15-2008, 01:10 AM

Carpets (at least neither haddoni nor gigangtea) don't really split *per se*. I suspect they might split as a result of trauma. Occasionally (but rarely) they do also bud off or have two mouths. I've never heard of either case amounting to anything though in captivity. In this case you seem to have both budding and two mouths. Very interesting, and I suspect somewhat one of a kind! For now I would not assume it means anything either good or bad, just continue the course and see what comes of it. Maybe you'll grow a new anemone

But equally likely it could just stay that way.

Two weeks is a first milestone. I sort of look at these things as "made it the first week" .. "made it the first two weeks" .. "made it the first month." Very good news!!

Monti-Man · #5 06-15-2008, 01:24 AM

I figured he was just "Special"...lol

I don't really care just as long as it makes it another 2 weeks. And yes it just gives me something interesting to keep an eye on and see how it progresses or if like you said Tony it does anything at all.

Just happy that it has settled in a spot and seems happy.

Do yours Tony shrink up abit at night? Not alot but it does get a little smaller.

Delphinus · #6 06-15-2008, 05:53 AM

Mine do shrink up a bit after lights-out. I liken it to more like they expand more during the day to get more surface area available for photosynthesis, and once it's night they relax a little (rather than thinking of it as shrinkage).

Monti-Man · #7 06-15-2008, 06:28 AM

Okay good one less thing to stress about

Now how come when i look at your pics of your new one

and you old ones there tentacles seem so long compared to mine. Someone on RC mentioned that awhile back as we'll. Should i try to feed him more? More flow?
I added more flow and his mouth seemed to open more and he moved about an inch back to less turbulent flow...He is still getting a fair amount but not as much as i truly think he needs...It is blowing up the oral disk occasionally and moving his tentacles at all times...

Would the flow contribute to tentacle length or no?

a4twenty · #8 06-15-2008, 02:05 PM

wow, the nem is looking great.

that would be awesome if he was splitting, just out of curiosity how much and often are you feeding??

Monti-Man · #9 06-15-2008, 02:14 PM

Uhmm i guess i have feed it twice in the 2 weeks...The first time was a couple of small krill and this last time i i bought a bag of some organic tiger prawns and i just cut one in half and soaked it over night with some selcon.

That disappeared mighty quickly i might add

I am pleased that he looks so good...We'll see i guess what happens with the "mouths" Would be cool if he decided to do something like that. I did read on RC months ago about a guy who's carpet split. Not sure what kind but it took a few months i agree and he documented it all. I am going to try and search RC for it today to see what kind it was.

Der_Iron_Chef · #10 06-15-2008, 04:53 PM

Excellent. Glad to see another of the same "batch" is doing well

Just a question regarding the feeding. Have you observed your anemone catching anything in its tentacles far away from its mouth and then somehow eating it? Or is anything you feed pretty much dropped right into its mouth? The reason I ask is because mine has caught a few pieces of stray mysis (it's very "sticky"), but I haven't observed it actually moving it to its mouth....if that makes sense?

It's interesting, because I was just reading a thread on RC about asexual reproduction of carpet anemones, and saw some pictures of a Gigantea "budding", similar to what seems to be happening in your third pic.