Gigantea Year Two Under t5s
- Thread starter Cheebs
- Start date
ocellaris123
Active member
Very nice, probably the healthiest gigantea I have ever seen in captivity.
this is me
Active member
The best gig I've seen in captivity as well. Nice job!
Blitzburggirl
Member
I'm jealous. 
Seriously, it is beautiful!! And I love your clowns!!
Seriously, it is beautiful!! And I love your clowns!!
Cheebs
Member
I'm jealous.
Seriously, it is beautiful!! And I love your clowns!!
Thank you very much for the kind comments and help with the ID!
Not that I know of!
Cheebs
Member
I can certainly post a video soon of the anemone. It will be very poor quality, as my camera doesn't take the best videos, but at least you'l be able to see the flow.
In terms of equipment:
The tank is sumpless. I run a sligtly modded coralife HOB skimmer. No reactors, no carbon. Aside from the skimmer, I have some powerheads, my heaters, the lights and the tank.
I dose iodine every day, and calcium when needed. I do a 25% water change every 3-4 weeks with regular instant ocean salt. The lights are on a 12 hour cycle with 2 hours being actinics only.
If there are any other questons, let me know!
BonsaiNut
Premium Member
When I look at this anemone it makes me think of morphological differences between individuals due to light intensity.
I'd love to see this anemone gradually brought up to brighter light to see how it changes appearance. I would expect the tentacles would shorten and the purple pigmentation would darken and spread.
But clearly he is staying alive under the lower light. It helps that the tank is shallow. You even have a healthy tridacnid in there!
I'd love to see this anemone gradually brought up to brighter light to see how it changes appearance. I would expect the tentacles would shorten and the purple pigmentation would darken and spread.
But clearly he is staying alive under the lower light. It helps that the tank is shallow. You even have a healthy tridacnid in there!
Cheebs
Member
I does straight up Kent Marine Iodine. I dose the recommended daily amount per gallon, which ends up being about 6 drops a day I believe.
Cheebs
Member
Something to think about for sure. One thing to note though is that I have, since my move from the 75, increased the light by a lot on the anemone. The resulting effect seems to have been the tentacles growing even longer. The 6 bulb T5 light on this shallow tank seems pretty extreme... to the point where I have difficulty keeping certain lower light mushrooms and dendros, because I can't find any spots with low enough light. I'm not quite sure I'd like to blast the tank with anything more extreme like an 8 bulb fixture, it may be overkill. But again, an interesting thing to note is that the tentacles were stubbier in my deeper 75 with only 4 T5s on it. The 2 SPS pieces in the tank I have, one high in the tank, and one low, are spreading rapidly and have nice color. Thoughts?
And thanks for the comments again!
BonsaiNut
Premium Member
Hi Phil; I don't know for sure, which is why I would love to see how it would change
I've keep giganteae 12" under a 175 MH, and they still had long tentacles, but the purple color was more intense and covered more of the tentacles. Additionally there was some flourescent green pigmentation on the oral disk (particularly the mouth).In the case of BTA's, the lower the light they are kept under, the longer their tentacles get. Under bright light, their tentacles are short and compact. Additionally, under low light they tend to lie out in the open, while under bright light they hunker down into cracks and crevasses.
There is also a big difference between PAR and UVR. Under bright PAR, an anemone will respond one way, while under UVR it will respond very differently. There has been research that shows that some pigments in Actinia species block UVR, and that under higher levels of UVR (ie shallower water in the wild, or UVR lighting in captivity) pigmentation darkens and spreads. So whereas UVR lighting in captivity might not benefit an anemone directly, it may cause it to "color up" so that an aquarist has a more vibrantly colored individual. You can see this quite often with SPS corals where their pigmentation darkens or lightens and changes color depending on the light under which they are kept.
Here's an interesting article on Photo acclimatization mechanisms - on corallimorphs versus anemones. I am not aware of any studies on anemones, and certainly nothing specific on S. gigantea.
You could be a world first
BonsaiNut
Premium Member
It should probably be said that humans color up under UVR too UVR is harmful to critters, which is why they have developed different mechanisms to protect themselves from it. There has been a lot of research around photo-acclimatization lately under the general theme of coral bleaching.
I don't really know, but I also assume there is a tipping point with PAR where once you hit a certain intensity, any more is not helpful, and may even be harmful. Perhaps anemones develop more pigmentation to block excessive PAR similar to blocking UVR(?) I have no idea since these are conditions that would not be experienced in the wild (where PAR and UVR are linked).
Here is a photo of the intensely colored gigantea I refer to above. You can see the green around the mouth and the base of some of the tentacles. There is almost no brown to be seen. I assume this is due to the fact that the anemone was being washed in brilliant light, and was blocking a lot of it. I believe that your anemone is the same color morph as this one. Perhaps under more intense lighting it would darken up like this? You wouldn't be able to do this in your current tank - you would fry your mushrooms.
UVR is harmful to critters, which is why they have developed different mechanisms to protect themselves from it. There has been a lot of research around photo-acclimatization lately under the general theme of coral bleaching.I don't really know, but I also assume there is a tipping point with PAR where once you hit a certain intensity, any more is not helpful, and may even be harmful. Perhaps anemones develop more pigmentation to block excessive PAR similar to blocking UVR(?) I have no idea since these are conditions that would not be experienced in the wild (where PAR and UVR are linked).
Here is a photo of the intensely colored gigantea I refer to above. You can see the green around the mouth and the base of some of the tentacles. There is almost no brown to be seen. I assume this is due to the fact that the anemone was being washed in brilliant light, and was blocking a lot of it. I believe that your anemone is the same color morph as this one. Perhaps under more intense lighting it would darken up like this? You wouldn't be able to do this in your current tank - you would fry your mushrooms.
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aday2remmbr
New member
this is a ritteri anemone correct? i thought i saw someone say it was a carpet. but anyways i love the ritteris, i just as well happen to have a couple in my 125. yours looks very healthy as well. how do you make it like that i have had mine a little over ten months yet his tentacles are still a little short and kind of tapered
