Haddoni/Gigantea hybrid

[OrionN]

The foot is in the sand. It also move around a little in the sand (6-9 inches)The sand is about 4-5 inches deep. The foot is much bigger than the one of Phil's Mertensii and is tan, not orange. I will try to take better pictures this weekend. The spots are very light and show much better in the picture than in life.

 

[marc price]

Time for my 2¢, i think it's S. haddoni. Although the exocoelic tentacles aren't longer, i have seen one of my haddoni's "deflate" tentacles for days sporting tentacles which were slightly longer and much thinner than usual in addition to a small amount of vibrating seemingly with the current.

From F&A (www.nhm.ku.edu/inverts/ebooks/ch1.html),

"Exocoelic tentacles usually white, MAY be up to twice as long as endocoelic, point outward in well expanded animals."

"Small, non-adhesive verrucae on uppermost column are SAME colour as column OR LIGHT rose to purple"

 

[Reefvette]

Gig

Gig

That is def not a mertens. Besides the white tentacles or the spots that typical mertens have that looks nothing like any mertens I have seen. I have owned 5 and seen doZens healthy and unhealthy. It looks like a gigantic to me. Just because an anemone attaches in our tAnks in a way we are not accustomed too we seek an explanation.

No one knows but I have seen haddons on rocks gigs in the sand

Also I have seen the longer tentacles on every mertens I have seen some are not pronounced but they are there.

 

[OrionN]

One reason I don't think this guy is a full Gigantea because of the length of the tentacles. This guy is under my care for the last 7 months. Very healthy, full sized, spawned regularly that is not stress induced. It have no tentacles longer the .75 inches. The tentacles are longer than those of usual Haddoni for sure but not anywhere near the length of a healthy Gigantea

 

[Reefvette]

Orion

Orion

I will send you a link to my photobucket, my old gigantea looked just like that color wise and tentacles wise for the first year. After it settled in, it got the longer tentacles of a gigantea.

Thats a mertens in my picture.

 

[elegance coral]

Big Bump...... Is this anemone still with us??? Any updated pic's????

 

[deangelr]

I have spoken to some collectors who swear they find hybrids once and a while.. The pics are hard to tell either way..

 

[OrionN]

Moved and no longer have this anemone with me. It was a very beautiful anemone. I still think that it could be a hybrid, with more characteristic of S. haddoni than S. gigantea

 

[ousnakebyte]

- A couple of ways to find out for sure - work out some of the genetics for the carpets (if they haven't been already) and see if there is a match.

- Get two different known species to release egg and sperm, cross them and see if they fertilize. Easier said than done, I know (the releasing of the spawn, not the crossing)...

All these little project ideas and not enough funding to actually do them.......

Cheers
Mike

 

[elegance coral]

I do have a female haddoni in spawning condition, and she's restocking eggs now. I also have a very large and healthy gigantea in the same tank. Unfortunately, I think the gigantea is female as well. The gigantea has dark areas developing in the column just like the haddoni. At the rate the dark areas are growing, they'll probably spawn in the next few months. It would be cool if the gigantea is male, but only time will tell.

 

[OrionN]

S. gigantea is an internal brooder. Thus if you have a female Gigantea, add a male Haddoni or Gigantea and you are in business. I believed that someone have raised sexually reproduced Gigantea and Malu in a closed system before. Both of these species are internal brooder and released formed tiny baby anemones.

 

[BonsaiNut]

Don't get me wrong, Minh - you know I'm a big fan But I don't see what makes that anemone look like anything other than S. gigantea(?)

 

[OrionN]

The length of the tentacles, the way the anemone hold it folds, the sand dwelling nature of the anemone. The tentacle does not vibrate at low current (when I do water change). The over all look of it. Like I said, looking at the anemone at first glance, without seen the spots, an experienced carpet anemone keeper would not even thought that it is anything but a S. haddoni.
I realized that a lot of the characteristic above cannot be capture by camera. You just got to take my word for it. I keep the anemone and look it day after days. The more I observed it, the more convince that it is an hybrid, it such thing even possible. We certain seen hybrid of marine animals. IMO, there is no reason that this can not be a hybrid.

 

[BonsaiNut]

Yeah but Minh consider this. These animals are broadcast spawners. Because they release sperm into the water, they are just as likely to encounter sperm from one species as the other (S. gigantea and S. haddoni). Their distribution overlaps in most places. Therefore if what you state is possible (cross-species hybridization) I would think that there would be far more examples of hybrids in nature (and in pet stores). Just my opinion...

 

[OrionN]

For the shake of argument, there certainly mary reason why they do not cross breed. If they cross breed often, then they would be a single species instead of two separate one. One of reason why they don't cross breed may be that the stimulation for spawning is different so that they don't spawn at the same time. Only in very rare instance, they may spawn at the same time.
We know that various angels, tangs, clown fish, what have you, can cross breed but do not do it often in the wild. This is because the cue for breeding are different in these species. They likely cross breed because sometime two set of fish breed at the same time.

 

[aidan0217]

Awesome

 

[Pamocanthus]

I dont know ifthis helps the debate at all or not but here is my gigantea. Ive had it for around 2 years now and its huge. Maybe this helps to get a large pic of the anemone. Either way, I love reading the threads and everyones opinions!!

Best Wishes Fishes....

 

[miniwhinny]

If they cross breed often, then they would be a single species instead of two separate one.

Not necessarily.

Take mules and hinny's. They are a hybrid cross from a horse and donkey and it's very, very rare to get one that's not sterile. You can keep 100 horses and donkeys together forever and they would remain pure horses and donkeys with sterile hybrid offspring.

Another thing to consider is which species is the male and which is the female in the cross breeding. In equines if you cross a male donkey with a female horse you get a mule. Characteristically they resemble the donkey more. Almost every breeding attempt works. Reverse the same cross - male horse to female donkey and you get the opposite - offspring resemble the horse more and breeding attempts seldom work (hinny's are quite rare) because the female donkeys internal reproductive tract is hostile to the horses sperm.

Sorry, a bit off topic but what the hybrid looks like may be a result of who is the male and female in the cross.

 

[OrionN]

Not necessarily.

Take mules and hinny's. They are a hybrid cross from a horse and donkey .....

Sorry, a bit off topic but what the hybrid looks like may be a result of who is the male and female in the cross.

We are talking about natural occurring hybrid here. There are all kinds of fertile hybrids that produced by man and this does not count.