gigantea spawn (again)

Rod Buehler

Rod Buehler

New member
Well, this is the 3rd time that I have seen my 14+ year old brown male gigantea spawn. Last time that I seen it was when my other purple gigantea was still rather small. That is not the case anymore, so as the anemone was spawning, I was using a turkey baster to suck the sperm from the male gigantea (no wise cracks :eek1: ) and squirt it into the tank that holds my purple. Hopefully...

Most anemones are broadcast spawners .. Male releases sperm, and the female releases eggs with hopes of them setteling out. From what I understand, The female gigantea actually captures sperm to fertilize the eggs that she holds, and then releases tiny lil giganteas. So aghain.. HOPEFULLY.....


I am not very well known for documenting anything but if I remember correctly, it has always been around this time of year that my old male has spawned.. so gigantea owners.. please keep your eyes open.

I am uncertain of the sex of my purple. Hopefully it is a she! I thought that if it was a male, that the spawn from my brown male might have triggered a spawn from the purple. That didnt happen. The purple did seem to get a little larger as if it were trying to increase surface area, but that could simply mean that it is looking for more o2. (shrug). I am hoping that its a way of sperm capture (shrug)

As the brown male was spawning, the tentacle vibration was much more intense.. More like spasms

I did snap a few pics, but the tank glass is a mess. Not sure how they will turn out, but Ill try to get them posted within a day or 2.

Anyone with any recommendations?
 
I hope you keep us posted.

A Lot of anemones are internal brooders. It's my understanding that gigantea can be rather abundant in localized areas. This is common with brooding species. The more developed the larvae/offspring at the time of release, the shorter the distance they have to travel before settling. This can create rather abundant populations in some areas.

I hope you can keep an eye on the purple one, especially in the evenings. If it does begin to release offspring, do you have a way to isolate them so they don't get sucked into overflows or power heads?
 
Wish I would have read this before one of mine Haddonis spawned, I would have tried the turkey baster trick.

Should be interesting to see if anything comes from this.
 
The only info I have to help in this situation is from Dr Shimek (sp? ) He said that overfertilization was a problem and you should only add a tiny bit of sperm to the hopefully female tank. Think of the likely dilution in the ocean. I guess the eggs are not protected from two sperm getting in in the same way a mammal's are so too much sperm in the water is an issue. (This is all from memory so don't blame Ron if I am getting it all wrong.
 
It would be great if you can get some baby Gigantea out of this. Remember me if you ever come up with some babies.
There is documentation that female S. gigantea take in the sperms and release fully developed small anemones.
 
that's awesome! I don't know much about anemone reproductive cycle, but I would imagine it would be similar to other cnidarians that release eggs and sperm in the water at the same time and fertilize externally. Who knows for sure, coral spawning is still widely undocumented so anemone spawning is even less understood. But good luck and please keep us posted.
 
what does this carpet sperm look like?

I have noticed that my haddoni has been ejecting a mucus like substance the past week. I had guessed it was just the digested mysis it caught on its own. I have not feed it directly in over a month so I am now wondering .........

maybe I could send you a sample and you could start your own carpet sperm bank - sorry :D - if it is in fact sperm

Pics would be great
 
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/nov2002/feature.htm

A quote from the link above.
"As an aside, Stichodactyla gigantea is also dioecious in nature with the females ingesting the sperm and fertilizing their embryos internally. However, unlike E. quadricolor, the embryos are internally brooded, developing into miniature copies of the adult. These juveniles are then egested from the mouth where they then drift in the current till they settle onto the substratum (L. Sharon, pers. comm., 1999). "

I see no reason why this can't take place in captivity. It's probably unheard of simply because very few people have two gigantea's that are sexually mature and healthy enough for reproduction. Even if this has taken place in captivity, the likelihood of the offspring avoiding the filtration or power heads is rather slim. Steps will need to be taken to protect the offspring from these dangers.

I'm working on a similar project with elegance corals. They are internal brooders as well. The hard part for me is getting the larvae to survive through settlement and metamorphoses. If S. gigantea produce offspring that are "miniature copies of the adult", this should not be a problem. Simply providing the offspring with the proper lighting, water quality, and lack of predators/dangers should be enough.
 
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There are also photos of haddonis releasing eggs and I have a photo of a haddoni releasing fully formed babies, so it is possible that they do both or do diffferent things in different conditions.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14910613#post14910613 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Flighty
There are also photos of haddonis releasing eggs and I have a photo of a haddoni releasing fully formed babies,
Click to expand...

Sounds like cool photos..may we see?
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14910613#post14910613 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Flighty
There are also photos of haddonis releasing eggs and I have a photo of a haddoni releasing fully formed babies, so it is possible that they do both or do diffferent things in different conditions.
Click to expand...

I personally don't believe that any anemone species is capable of both internal brooding and broadcast spawning. I believe that one species will have one method of sexual reproduction. I know of no species, coral or anemone, that has been proven to utilize both methods.

If haddoni has been observed releasing brooded, fully developed offspring and others of the same species has been observed releasing eggs, I would assume the eggs were aborted. The anemone version of a miscarriage. Anemones will sometimes release eggs in shipping bags. IMHO, this is brought on by stress and not a sign that the species is a broadcast spawner.

This is just my opinion based on the fact that, with all my studying, I have not encountered an animal species that is capable of two completely different modes of sexual reproduction.
 
elegance coral,
Aphids reproduce asexually until winter come then they reproduce sexually.
I would not consider anything in life science as an absolute when we consider the spctrum of all the species
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14915136#post14915136 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by OrionN
elegance coral,
Aphids reproduce asexually until winter come then they reproduce sexually.
I would not consider anything in life science as an absolute when we consider the spctrum of all the species
Click to expand...

There are many many many species that reproduce both sexually and asexually. Some even have multiple forms of asexual reproduction. Sexual reproduction on the other hand requires the mixing of genetic material. Which means there needs to be two individuals involved. If they aren't on the same page, so to speak, fertilization would be much harder. Broadcast spawners typically release very buoyant gammits. The gammits float to the surface or upper water levels where fertilization takes place. If a male anemone releases very buoyant gammets and a female is brooding hers, the likelihood of fertilization is very slim. For successful sexual reproduction both parties must be performing their part of the same form of sexual reproduction. Having two different forms of sexual reproduction in the same species would reduce the odds of fertilization. Not increase it. I find it HIGHLY unlikely that one species would evolve two methods of sexual reproduction.

Like you said though, no one can be sure. There may be 30 million species on this planet. That leaves alot of possibilities. The likelyhood is still very very low.
 
Rod who? :lol:

Good job Rod! Wouldn't it be nice if the anemones worked on our schedules, so they'd spawn right after we cleaned the tank glass? :D

Kevin
 
sorry for the delayed update, but nothing really ever transpired. Well, at least not that I ever saw.

Here are to long over due pics. The glass was filthy, and the photography isnt the best.

First the male during spawn stretching upward. Not a common trait.



stretch.jpg



spew.jpg


and the turkey baster


sucking.jpg
 
And squirting it into the other tank


squirt.jpg



cloud.jpg



I never seeen anything released, nor did I ever find anything that has settled out.

There is a good chance that something would have settled in my systems because I dont use any powerheads. the only impeller is that of a dart pump that feeds multiple surge tanks. The only water flow is surges that have a good lag in between to allow something to settle.

I have just purchased another gigantea that seems to be doing great. I will be searching for more to increase the chances of success here

If anyone wants to see better pics of all 3 giganteas..

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1679496

and almost all of my others at
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1603392

Thanks for looking
 
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