gigantea experiences?

krak256

Member
im thinking about getting a gigantea but i would like to know peoples experiences with them. have people had fish eaten by theirs?

in the 1 month that ive had my haddoni in my tank, its eaten 1 leopard wrasse and 2 orange-lined cardinals. i dont want something similar to happen again.

i have 2 black saddleback clowns, so im trying to decide between a smallish gigantea, a colorful sebae (purple?), or maybe stick with a bubble tip. any suggestions?

thanks in advance!
 
I don't have an nem but have been researching them quite a bit in anticipation of getting one. It does seem that gigs are not regarded as the fish eaters that haddonis are but would venture that they would still attempt to eat a fish if the opportunity presented itself.

I have been rethinking my plan to get a haddoni and going with a BTA but still want a sand dwelling nem so the BTA just won't work for me. The haddoni or malu is where I am headed but I am also content with just having the 2 clowns in my tank so hopefully I will be safe from any fish getting eaten. Would love a gig myself but I would prefer to start with something a bit less difficult.

Assume you have read up on gigs and their lighting/flow needs? I believe the key to success with a gig is finding a healthy one to start with. HTH
 
i bought mine prom petco bleached as could be its been a few months ago(may) and its starting to get shades of neon green to it. Long road but its a hefty eater and and incredible piece to my aquarium... my true percs wont host to it for the life of me though... Mine is in a tank with 2 true percs, a blue hippo tang, yellow tang and 2 blue damsels.. it hasn't eaten any of its tank mates. i've heard horror stories about them eating anything they can grab but i havent experienced it. they're one of the most beautiful species out there. dont know if my posting helps in your decision but best of luck to you! BTW sometimes it takes time for replies on these boards. but when you get them they're usually very very helpful this forum has some incredibly helpful and supportive members
 
I have had one for 3+ years, got it from a LFS. It was about 6" and bleached when I brought it home. After a lot of reading and research, I found out they like a lot of flow and light, and like to settle on rocks.

I set up rock work with smooth rocks and lots of crevices directly under a 150w 10k MH, with a vortech blowing lots of current directly at it. It settled in nicely and hosts a pair of ocellaris clowns. It quickly colored up and is now about 16" inches across when fully open. I have moved it once to a larger tank, and made sure there was enough rock for it to bury it's foot in the crevices. I now have LEDs and it is doing well after 2 months, and am about to switch to an Aquailluminations Sol to add more PAR for my SPS and gigantea.

IMO, they need lots of flow and PAR, and the appropriate rocks to bury its foot. Best of luck!
 
One more thing, it has not eaten any of my fish...I have a six line, tail spot blenny and a sunrise dotty. It has eaten a sea hare though, gobbled it right up.
 
When I had a haddoni, livestock in the tank often went missing. Granted, I never actually saw it happen, but there were always a load of empty shells in front of it. My shrimp population also would go extinct very quickly.

With the giganteas I have kept, there are much fewer empty shells and fewer missing fish. I've even managed to maintain a small shrimp population (for now). However, stuff does go missing once in a while, and I'm never sure who is to blame.

I never direct feed my anemones these days though. When I feed the fish their usual mixture of food, the anemones always manage to catch some of it. I have one bleached blue gigantea (light blue at the tips, but the base of the anemone is white instead of brown) in my tank which has managed to gain back much of its brown color, but given that it deflates and inflates to extremes worse than Jekyll and Hyde, I am surprised that it even managed to live longer than a week, much less gain back any color. It does inflate larger and larger with each day, but the deflating issue has not improved at all. If you do get a gigantea, be sure that your first one has all the proper vital signs. I really liked the color of this particular anemone (and generally trust the store I bought it from), so despite my better judgment, I decided to take the risk and attempt to raise it back to health. I wouldn't take that risk though, if I wasn't prepared to lose the bet. Many of the giganteas in store here in Japan are locally hand-harvested, so they're in better shape than many of the specimens that travel across the Pacific ocean, but even then, many aquarists here consider them very difficult to keep.

My other gigantea are in great shape and deflate slightly at night, but none of this Jekyl/Hyde business of the bleached one. It's so extreme that on some days I'm positive it only has hours left. Thankfully, I've been wrong so far, but like I said, no guarantees.
 
thanks for the responses all. seems like people are having mixed experiences. would definitely like to hear more!
 
I've had one for a few months now and seems to be doing good. All I have to say is that you should get a good specimen to begin with. I think I've had 2 go south on me, but my latest one seemed healthy as can be and has been doing great, with the exception that it did eat my flame angel, but that was probably due to the fact that the flame angel wanted to hoard my female occ. Other than that, my fairy wrasse has stayed away, and the nem has been doing great still.
 
I would definitely try to steer you away from getting a gigantea. There are a lot of very experienced anemone keepers that have a difficult time keeping them for more than a couple years (many only a few months).

I would highly recommend a nice purple sebae (H. crispa) for your saddlebacks.
 
hm. thanks for the input all. i think i will stay away from a gigantea until i get a larger tank where i dont have to worry as much about fish wandering into it.

i'll be on the lookout for a nice sebae, crispa or malu.
 
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