Gigantea thread

[55semireef]

Anyone that has Giganteas, post your pictures. Only Giganteas...no Haddoni or Mertens. Here is mine:

BTW, my Gigantea is only over a week old in my tank. Tentacles right now are a little short but some are already getting longer.



For all those out there that love the site of a Gigantea, do LOTS of research and read up on the threads about Giganteas. Many of them die even in the seemingly "best" enviromental conditions and under experienced reefers. Giganteas require strong lighting (MH or T5s with ind. reflectors), strong alternating flow, very good water conditions, stability and most importantly, you have to buy a healty specimen to begin with. I would say its the hardest anemone to keep alive in captivity with the H. Maginifica right below it.

 

[55semireef]

bump

 

[phender]

Here's a little progression for you.
Just got it, a little bleached. ~3" across. Nov. 30th, 2005 under PC lights.

One month later, starting to color up. ~4" across. Still under PCs

Middle of April, 2006. Tentacles getting short, blue color almost gone, back down to ~3". Still under PCs.

Middle of May, 2006 about a month after putting it in a tank with 150 watt Phoenix 14K MH. ~5 across.

Today after changing to XM 10K bulbs for the last 2 months. ~7" across. (yes, its a big clown)

A "tidepool" shot.

 

[55semireef]

Very nice Phil. Keep the pics coming (even though not many of you have them).

 

[delphinus]

Here are some of my pics (many have been shown before, apologies for the repeats):

 

[delphinus]

 

[delphinus]

Hmmm, I'm not really happy with the pictures of the two together. I'll see if I can do better ... they don't photograph well on account of the size and shape of the tank they're in. (They're doing really well in it, and it looks good in person, but it just doesn't photograph well for some reason..)

I'm having trouble getting a good "tidepool" shot (as Phil calls them ) because my current tank is a bit shallow. If I use my "acrylic camera boat" that I usually use for clam shots, the camera ends up less than 6" away from the anemone, which gives you only an extreme macro closeup shot. To get the whole anemone in the picture means I have to back up about a foot or two even at the widest angle, and I get reflection from the halide so all you see is one really bright hotspot. I'll keep trying, if I get anything worthy I'll add it to the pot.

 

[55semireef]

Very nice pictures. I love your giganteas.

 

[NewSchool04]

delphinus, have you had a problem with your chocolate chip starfish and your anemones? I've read a ton of threads ending with my chocolate chip starfish ate my anemone.

 

[55semireef]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8889653#post8889653 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by NewSchool04
delphinus, have you had a problem with your chocolate chip starfish and your anemones? I've read a ton of threads ending with my chocolate chip starfish ate my anemone.

I can't envision a starfish size eating a Gigantea of that size.

 

[NewSchool04]

all he needs to do is eat a little of it to kill it.

 

[illcssd]

iirc that question has been asked before and he said that they behave as model citizen's in there... I may be wrong and remember wrong, but thats what i think.

 

[delphinus]

Hi, yeah, they don't seem to eat anything except the nori that I feed them. I did order some snails before Christmas that arrived DOA (shipping mishap), they ate the dead ones so I guess carrion is on the menu. The reason I have them is that others had luck with them keeping myrionema hydroids under control so I gave them a try, but they didn't eat any. In fact I had fantasies that I could use them to keep my plague mushrooms under control but they don't touch those either.

I don't know, maybe this is naive of me, but I try to extend the benefit of the doubt. If something becomes a problem I try to deal with it then, otherwise I hope for the best. Sometimes you might get burned that way, but not always.

In this case I do think the stars have more to worry about from the carpets. The stars would have to get at the base, otherwise the tentacles would completely envelop them.

I've had the brown carpet 2.5 years (almost 3 now, a few more months), the green carpet about 1.5 (almost 2). The stars only about a year or so. I'll probably give them new homes at some point, this is more of a temporary arrangement.

 

[delphinus]

PS. Thanks for the kind words 55semireef. I think your pictures tend to work out better than mine but I'm trying to get better on the tank pictures.

 

[55semireef]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8891763#post8891763 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by delphinus
PS. Thanks for the kind words 55semireef. I think your pictures tend to work out better than mine but I'm trying to get better on the tank pictures.

I can't wait till I setup a 40 gallon cube just for a Gigantea.

 

[ricordiaking]

Bump

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

 

[ricordiaking]

Wow, now that what I'm talking about, thanks for that Gary.

 

[ricordiaking]

 

[a4twenty]

mine from last week pretending to be a mushroom