Blue Carpets

[Sangogo]

My husband and I visited a great shop about an hour away from our home and found a huge blue carpet anemone (about 40cm fully inflated). They sold it as a gigantea, but judging by the shape, thin tentacles and size, I think it is actually a mertensii (giganteas in a way are a generic category for carpets here). It is still expanding in the tank, so it'll probably be a slightly lighter color when it fully inflates, but for now, I thought I'd share pics. I love the current deep blue color, especially in contrast to its smaller and lighter gigantea neighbor.

The neighbor for comparison:

For those in the Kanto region of Japan, I highly recommend CrownFish in Saitama for carpet anemones. Of all the carpet anemones I have kept, I have always had the best luck with CrownFish, though I also recommend Kazika in Kanagawa.

The front of the tank:

The lights are Aqua Illumination LEDs (3 units) set at only 55% for now, but will be dialed up to 65-70% eventually. All attempts to run the lights higher than 75% (doing so very gradually over many days) caused all anemones in the tank to shrink back and try to find lower ground.

 

[TinyMouse559]

Beautiful! How much do those run for?

 

[Ben_Im]

That anemone is stunning. Truly awesome.

 

[Sangogo]

I should probably preface this by saying that everything (especially groceries and rent) in Japan is expensive in comparison to much of the world, so the prices may seem rather high outside of Japan.

I got the very large one for 18,000 yen which is a steal considering the health, color and size. It was also harvested in "local waters", though I didn't inquire as to where that meant specifically. This was from CrownFish in Saitama. (They also have a great selection of rare angelfish for lower than market prices).

The smaller one I got for 13,000 yen from Kazika in Kanagawa. Kazika has a great selection of anemones (especially BTAs), as well as corals, but they aren't as selective regarding where their livestock is from. This anemone didn't have a location tag on it, meaning it was probably from Indonesia. In Japan, they will never fail to mention where the anemone is from, if there is a premium attached to it (the very local Okinawa being the best, Cebu and Vietnam being second/third). This one had a slightly open mouth when I bought it, but its health has improved since I bought it (though it deflates more often than my other nems do).

In comparison, one very tiny blue carpet (1/3 the size of my smaller carpet) went on auction (where deals are normally to be found) and sold at 31,000 yen. (Obviously, I did not buy this one!) So I generally feel like I got a great deal on my carpets, especially the large one.

 

[MDP]

I had the pleasure to see this big Carpet in person today. It really is in the peak of health and a wonderful deep blue, tentacles vibrating, no bleaching whatsoever etc. A very good find.

Thanks for sharing Sangogo.

Matt

 

[Fishy_Clown]

Defo a Gigantea and not mertensii. Lovely looking !! Good luck with it....

 

[elegance coral]

Defo a Gigantea and not mertensii. Lovely looking !! Good luck with it....

:thumbsup: 100% beautiful gigantea.

 

[t4zalews]

what lighting is it under..i'd love for my gig to get that dark

 

[Sangogo]

what lighting is it under..i'd love for my gig to get that dark

I mentioned the lighting in the first post, but I don't think the lighting really has much to do with the color in this case. After all, I do have a much lighter blue anemone in the same tank, and this was the color it was when I bought it. The last anemone I had purchased from the same store years ago was also a much lighter blue. Most blue giganteas in Japan I have seen tend to be of the lighter blue variety with proper lighting (though many stores will put them under darker lighting so that they look more blue). It's pretty rare to find a blue anemone this brilliantly blue here.

 

[TDesaulniers]

Not even close to a Meternsii. Beautiful blue Gigantea! Good luck with it.

 

[Greg 45]

How much is that in US dollars.

 

[2Addicted]

How much is that in US dollars.

A little over 200 dollars

 

[houser]

I love to visit shops when I travel abroad for work (In Japan - Tsukuba, Fukuoka, etc...) and thank you very much you have just given me 2 new places to consider visiting next time.

 

[milhous3er]

Beautiful dark blue color. Makes the orange in your clown really pop !! Definantely update these photos !!

 

[squaretankguy08]

I would agree, i would love to find one like that somewhere

 

[Sangogo]

Thanks for the opinion, guys! When I was reading my local anemone book, they characterized mertensii has having much thinner tentacles and being a larger, less perfectly circular shape, so I assumed it was mertensii. Their picture also looked similar to what I have. (The other giganteas I have are very thick tentacled.) How does one tell the two apart?

 

[Greg 45]

Gigs have small dots under the flap.

 

[marc price]

This will help:
www.nhm.ku.edu/inverts/ebooks/ch1.html

http://web.archive.org/web/20060819101447/wish.wodonga.tafe.edu.au/~kwaldon/hosts.htm

 

[Sangogo]

Hmm, I guess my book was wrong then! That's comforting, as I was wondering about potential mertsenii and gigantea chemical warfare issues. But seeing now that it's all gigantea on those rocks, no issue between them then. Good news.

 

[bues0022]

I've never kept gigs, so I'm a little unsure of their prices here in the US, but for a nem of that size, color, and health from a store - $200 doesn't seem that unreasonable. I've seen some smaller, sickly looking gigs (supposedly) priced at $120. Nice find!