Dyed gigantea?

[tufacody]

I received this anemone two days ago from Reef Hot Spot. I have always found them to be a great online dealer. I purchased this gig because of its small size in the hopes that it would ship better.

It was very sticky when I received it and attached quickly. The mouth is tight and so far it has acted good.

However, in just two days it has turned from a brighter green to a duller yellow, and is already looking bleached. I have it under an Outer Orbit 250 watt de with T5 actinics. I have two eggcrates and two screens over the top to help with acclimation. Do you guys think this is a normal coloration? If it is not dyed, do you think it is bleaching from a green to yellow color? I dunno, maybe the MH bulb is just making it look more yellow, but this doesn't seem like a color I have seen gigs.

 

[Reefvette]

Base

Base

Is the base Purple?


Not to alarm you but last year during the summer alot of them were coming in with a purple base and some freak yellowish tentacle colors.

The one i bought died after a week, ive never seen a purple base gigantea or a yellow one. I thought mine was dyed.

It faded lighter and lighter over that month and finallly melted away.

My 16 inch green gigantea never had colors like that, tan base and green tentacles.

 

[wicked_NaCl_h2o]

I am very sure it wasn't dyed. Looks like it bleached.

 

[OrionN]

It is not dyed. How is it? Is it deflated at all? It looks great to me, maybe a little bleach but if well should recover quickly. I have read that yellow carpets are green ones that bleached so I think your likely bleached a little from green to somewhat yellow. if everything else is well, it would likely recover quickly.

 

[tufacody]

Well thats reassuring. Reef Hot Spot has always been a great source for me, and treated me very well in the past. Its seems to be doing real well as far as keeping a tight mouth and staying inflated. The base has a bluish tint that didn't come through in the pic. You can kinda see it in the bottom right of the stalk.

What's the verdict these days on when to start feeding?

 

[adtravels]

now start with a cube of mysis and feed every other day as it grow it well require more food. Somtimes I feed polychete worms or grated shrimp/scallop as an alternative.

Mine went from this

to this in less than five months on that regime. its now 8-10 inches across,I believe that when small they need alot of additional food to recover and grow quickly

 

[tufacody]

sometimes i think posting on this site about your new nem dooms it, lol. My nem mouth is still nice and tight but it seems to have shrunk itself up. Not really limp, just kinda sucked its tentacles in a little and shrunk. Never had a gig before, so not familiar with their behaviour. Maybe its telling me its had enough light for the day?

 

[tufacody]

Interesting, when the lights went off it went right back to normal. Perhaps its just struggling with the lighting acclimation.

 

[Toddrtrex]

Are you shading the lights at all? Does that Outer Orbit still have the 10K MH bulbs? If so, I would suggest using some layers of window screening. Might be overkill, but it sure isn't going to hurt and will only help.

My old fixture (( 2*250 MH + 2*54 T5 )) had the Phoenix bulbs, when I got my Outer Orbit (( with the 10K bulbs )), my existing corals (( and 2 Haddonis )) started to bleach until I put 3 layers of window screening b/t the lights and the tank.

I am sure that Gig wasn't at Reef Hot Spot all that long, so sure it has been a while since it was under real lights (( and the sun )).

 

[taylor t]

I ordered 2 green ones from them too, and got them a few days before you did. 1 came green. 1 came yellow. Both melted in a day. I would have been better going to the casino instead... One was completely inside out when I opened the box. Never inflated well. The other inflated a couple times, then broke apart and floated away. I can't load my camera software to my computer to show them or you, (I hate computers, mostly viruses), but I don't think they were dyed either. The yellow one looked the same as the green when it shrank to a small dough ball. Once they turned inside out, they both looked the same in pieces. They didn't look dyed to me.

I hope you have better luck with yours.

 

[tufacody]

So sorry to hear that Taylor. Mine had a little "bubble-mouth" when it was in the bag, but quickly sucked it in when placed in the tank. Except for the bleaching, it appears to be doing pretty well.

Todd, I am using two layers of offset eggrate and two strips of screen. Were you eventually able to use the Outer Orbit w/o the screen? I am just surprised at how fast it has started bleaching. The bulb is the standard current bulb. However this is my second unit. The first one failed and was replaced. Interestingly, the bulb that came with this unit is much bluer (and nicer) than the one that came with the first unit, which was very yellow. It really has me wondering if they switched to 14k bulbs.

 

[Toddrtrex]

Yea, mine is now screen free --- it took 3 weeks, I used 3 layers. I was shocked too, it took about a day and a half for the bleaching to start.

Hmm, they may have switched. Mine is whitish, with a tiny bit of yellow. I am really starting to like it, which is odd since my 58 has Radiums, and my 33 has a Phoenix.

The colors of the corals are a bit washed out in this picture. (( white balance, and a stray voltage issue, which caused more bleaching )). But, the color of the bulbs are pretty close.

 

[tufacody]

Figured I would just turn this into a chronicle and hope that anyone who cares to offer advice or suggestions will.

I have two layers of screen on top of eggcrate, and the fixture is raised up as high as I have it mounted. Based on Todd's, I'm going to lower the light a 1/5 inch every few days, then remove a screen weekly.

So far the mouth has stayed night and tight. There is a little deflation at times, but mouth stays tight and it always seem "puffed" with water.

I tried squirting a few mysis at her today. Tentacles seemed sticky enough, but no feeding response. After about 4 minutes the mysis blew off the tentacles. Hopefully this will change soon, and this chronicle will last more than a week or two, lol.

Heres a pic at day 5:

 

[JDS]

Ive never had a carpet survived for more than a week from them. Ive tried 6 or 7 times. I would like to no if it's just me or is it a trend.

 

[OrionN]

I saw this small anemone also. I spend too much money order Gigantea on line in the past have given up on it. I hope your will do much better. They still have two small green Gigantea if anybody want to try their luck.

 

[tufacody]

I can tell its gonna be a hard ride. It deflated last night, although mouth is still tight, and hasn't reinflated yet. When it deflates it doesn't get droopy, but rather kinda sucks itself in like a pincussion. I was hoping when the lights came back on it would reinflate, but so far no luck.

If this one fails, I won't order another one online either.

 

[tufacody]

Here it is day 6, hopefully will inflate soon[

IMG]http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj45/rmlevasseur/051009.jpg[/IMG]

 

[tufacody]

 

[tufacody]

Well the poor guy just won't reinflate. Its really strange, I've never see an nem stay deflated for 48 hours and have such a tight mouth -almost like its puckering. I just unplugged a powerhead to see if it wasn't liking the flow.

 

[synofreak]

Well my EXP is too limited, but I suggest placing new Gigs where they can shade and control flow for themselves. If they attatch, are sticky with tight mouths, you should be winning the battle. I placed my GiG (bleached) in a spot to where 1, it could shade itself and 2, where it could take more/less flow. So far, so good. I'll update my thread with a pic.
Wish you good luck, but it doesn't look good.