Is it worth it? The quest for Gigantae

kris4647

New member
So I've been around this Forum for some time. Going back five years or so there has been a shared quest amongst we anemone enthusiasts to find, buy and keep a Gigantae.

Recently there has been an influx of them and I'm wondering if we can keep track of the success stories associated with the influx we are seeing. I would say you need two months with a healthy specimen before I would even consider it viable long term.

I bought an excellent specimen last month. Nice firm body with deep folds. Dark Blue in color with no signs of bleaching. Sticky enough to be hugely frustrating to place. Alternating current. plenty of par. It went into a 400g reef with near pristine water quality. Tested via a lab and not yours truly. Sweet picture right? Lasted three weeks and out.

This is a common theme in my many years of attempts.

No offense but lets try to keep this discussion focused on either success stories or some pertinent facts from those of you who have observed them in the wild.

Please don't ask for advice here because to be honest no one knows for sure and there are one thousand threads in this forum with anecdotal evidence or just regurgitated advice about Gigantaes.

Here's an old thread from years ago. Maybe I can get Bonsai to appear by linking it :p.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showt...37&perpage=25&highlight=gigantae&pagenumber=1
 
I don't think the track record for the influx we are seeing now will be very good. They are beautiful blue or purple, but they all seem to be bleached. At the beginning of the month there was a large shipment of small green Giganteas. I purchased one of them on 6-2-08. So far it has done nothing but improve.
Here it is on 6-3-08
sn852602editedgh1.jpg

Here it is on 6-29-08
sn853048editedvy0.jpg

It was 3 or 4 inches when I first got it and now it's 4.75 inches. It hasn't made it for the two months you specify, but with the track record so far, I don't think it will have a problem reaching 2 months.
 
Well, this one is over 3 months old. I too have killed my fair share of giganteas. I have even tried antibiotics when one started to fail. I had one for over a year before it died mysteriously. I think it might have been a bad silverside. From now on anything bigger than mysis has to be human grade food.
I kept one for about 3 months under PC lights and moderate current. I did OK for awhile. When it started to get smaller I moved it to a shallow tank with 150watt DE metal halides and a surging current. It made all the difference in the world. I tripled in size and live another 10 months before the silverside incident.
To answer your question is it worth waiting for a good one. I don't think so. I have learned to be veeeeeery picky when it comes to gigantea. It has to be beyond perfect before I even give them a second look anymore.

When I first got mine 3/22/08
GigaTeal32208.jpg


After 1.5 months. 5/3/08 (It is even bigger now)
Giga50308.jpg
 
Last year I bought one from my LFS. He had recieved a shipment of 30, and 28 were still alive after a week. The one that I bought, and most in his holding tank, looked perfect .... no bleaching, long tentancles, and tight mouth. It has been with me for almost a year. It hasn't deflated the whole time that I have owned it! In retrospect, I should have bought the whole lot!!!

Two weeks ago I bought another ... one of the blue ones that recently came in. It was slightly bleached, and lacking in tentacle density, but still the best specimen that I have seen since my last purchase. It is dead as of this morning.

I have promised myself that I will only buy perfect specimens from her on out. But i think that my first experience provides hope that there is a proper way for these animals to be imported.

 
Last edited:
I'm going on 5+ weeks now for my bleached blue gigantea. So far, so good. It's starting to get the "vibrating" tentacles as of last week. It's also starting to get brown/pink back to the disk. It's gone from this:
P5250032.jpg


to this:
P6300050.jpg

Time will tell. I'm still holding my breath, and now I think I'M turning blue...There's still a long road ahead to recovery...
 
I too purchased one of these blue ones and it only lasted 2 weeks before its demise. It was the best looking one the LFS had so i went for it, It looked just like Taylor's when i bought it. It never got settled ate the first week and seemed to be going well then it went down hill fast alive one day dead 24hrs later.
 
I think this idea has merit, but I would consider death in less than 10 days due to capture and transport stress, and success as more than one year. My experience has been if it makes the first two weeks it will make the next two years. - Mark
 
My experience has been if it makes the first two weeks it will make the next two years. - Mark

Can you share the gigantae's you have owned that follow this rule? Pictures would be great so we can see the characteristics you saw that made you buy them.

Phender that was a great pick. I'd have taken that one too.

EJ Beautiful tank with the gigantea as the center piece. Does it always receive diffuse lighting like in the video?

Taylor I'd have called you a fool for buying that one.....But thats the frustration here. Now it looks pretty damn good. The tentacles appear to be elongating and its gaining more deep body folds.

Mine was even more darkly colored than that. In your picture do you see the way it is almost climbing the rock? I noticed that in the days prior to losing my last two. And obviously that hasn't happened to you. Not outta the woods yet but a good start.
 
I bought one of the bright yellow/greenish Giganteas on June 1, 2008 and picked it up from the LFS on June 7. That means I've seen it in captivity for 30 days, and in my care for 23 days. It has been "sticky" from day one, and has also had the crazy wiggly tentacles from day one (without flow). The mouth has always been tight, and it's eaten mysis several times. As well, it has never shrunken in on itself (except for a little at night, which I understand is fairly normal). It has not moved, either.

Also worth noting: it's under 8x39w HO T5 bulbs and flow is provided by a Vortech (with wireless driver) and a Hydor Koralia 3.

Here are four videos I've taken:

1) June 8, 2008


2) June 16, 2008


3) June 20, 2008


4) June 30, 2008
 
I'd call myself a fool too...If I chose it! Had I seen what I was getting, I wouldn't have wanted it. It was an online purchase.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12853129#post12853129 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by kris4647
Can you share the gigantae's you have owned that follow this rule? Pictures would be great so we can see the characteristics you saw that made you buy them.

Phender that was a great pick. I'd have taken that one too.

EJ Beautiful tank with the gigantea as the center piece. Does it always receive diffuse lighting like in the video?

Taylor I'd have called you a fool for buying that one.....But thats the frustration here. Now it looks pretty damn good. The tentacles appear to be elongating and its gaining more deep body folds.

Mine was even more darkly colored than that. In your picture do you see the way it is almost climbing the rock? I noticed that in the days prior to losing my last two. And obviously that hasn't happened to you. Not outta the woods yet but a good start.

Now it is in my 48" long tank lit by 2x175w and 1x250w halide. The 250w is almost directly above the anemone, and I stagger the lights so ever evening it is under diffuse light.
 
Taylor-Rereading that it sounded kinda severe, I hope you took it better than it sounded. you after all have a living gigantae and I dont :). I'm hopeful for your continued success.

Chef that thing is huge. I gotta be honest with you though if you look a the environment in which these animals are endemic, I wouldnt try them under T5 lighting. Even if it works, you wonder what the upside could be in a more intensely lit tank.

So what can we garner from the success stories? Frankly I don't see anything that ties these animals together. I do see tentacle elongation on the survivors. Am I missing anything?

How about Greens. I don't see as many Greens as other colors. I've never come across one.

Could those of you so inclined, throw your best links in this thread to Gigantae articles etc. I used to have all my stuff archived at home and my HD blew up.
 
You people must live in larger markets than I do, I have had to take what I can find locally or roll the dice and have one shipped, I have had two one green and one blue each live for over two years, I am not sure how many died in shipping, soon after shipping, or within a couple of weeks of purchase. Maybe four to six failures for two long term success stories. Not counting two recent attempts one failure and one still in progress. I have had reef tanks for quite a long time and have always kept one large carpet as a center piece, mostly green haddoni as these were easier to find. Most of this was long before the age of the internet information sharing and digital cameras. - Mark
 
My gigantea is under t-5s

My gigantea is under t-5s

30 gallong breeder tank.

The tank is 12 inches high so the anemone is like 4 inches away from 200 watts of t-5 for two months.

Its doubled in size.

I dont think my tank is a model for this since not many tanks are 12 inches high.
 
Been around a week since I've had my purple gigantea. It was looking good when I bought it but not so good as of last night. It's in the same tank as a rbta and I have a feeling that might be the problem. Anyway the purple gigantea was attached to a rock that blocks it from the light and last night I moved it to another area of the tank with more light. Not sure if that was the best thing to do but I don't feel like it was getting enough light. Anxious to see how it looks tonight. Maybe I should stop feeding silversides too....
 
I have two specimens from the recent influx, very recent to my tank at 3 weeks and 1 week. I'm documenting their progress in another thread.

I have two others, one now at 4 years and one at 3 years. I had no reason to expect that they would be any different from the horror stories we hear here on RC but honestly they were bulletproof from day 1. Personally, I'm a bit perplexed. What am I doing different? Nothing, so far as I know. Just dumb luck? Maybe? Honestly they are the least troublesome reef-dwelling creature I've ever taken care of. I totally agree with the sentiment that if they make it past 2 weeks that they'll likely do fine for the next 2 years. I'd probably say more like at least one month instead of 2 weeks but for the most part I would agree with the sentiment. I think the reason for failure has to be something profound that we're overlooking, something in the collection or transport or retail process .. or something about the way we have our tanks setup ... In all mine so far I noticed that they really don't appreciate steady state flow. Alternating surging flow punctuated with slack periods have always been on the menu with mine. Anytime I've just had steady-state flow, they have retreated. Could that be a factor?
 
WRT flow, in my old system I had direct blasts or 3000gph seperated by 1 min. On my new system, I use 2 vortechs (7200gph) in reef crest at full thrpttle. One of the vortechs is 6 inches away from the anemone .... lol.

Bulletproof is certainly the correct word. When I switched tanks this month I decided to leave the anemone attached to its rock. My plan was to drain water until the clowns left the anemone, and then quickly switch tanks. The clowns wouldn't leave even after exposure to air. I franticley grabbed the rock with the anemone, the clowns and a rather large clutch of eggs and proceeded to rush across my apartment to try and drop them in the new tank as quick as possible. Well I dropped the rock :eek2: I ended up puncturing the oral disk in three places. From all three punctures, messentrial filaments were exposed for 3 days. After which the wounds closed up and every thing has been fine since.........

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12863156#post12863156 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by delphinus
I have two specimens from the recent influx, very recent to my tank at 3 weeks and 1 week. I'm documenting their progress in another thread.

I have two others, one now at 4 years and one at 3 years. I had no reason to expect that they would be any different from the horror stories we hear here on RC but honestly they were bulletproof from day 1. Personally, I'm a bit perplexed. What am I doing different? Nothing, so far as I know. Just dumb luck? Maybe? Honestly they are the least troublesome reef-dwelling creature I've ever taken care of. I totally agree with the sentiment that if they make it past 2 weeks that they'll likely do fine for the next 2 years. I'd probably say more like at least one month instead of 2 weeks but for the most part I would agree with the sentiment. I think the reason for failure has to be something profound that we're overlooking, something in the collection or transport or retail process .. or something about the way we have our tanks setup ... In all mine so far I noticed that they really don't appreciate steady state flow. Alternating surging flow punctuated with slack periods have always been on the menu with mine. Anytime I've just had steady-state flow, they have retreated. Could that be a factor?
:eek2:
 
My two older gigantea's are in a 40g shallow frag that also housed an RBTA and a BTA for about 2 years. One has always been in a tank with the BTA's, the other was in a tank for about a year with a H. magnifica. The reason I pulled them apart was that the tank in particular was too small for the magnifica so I setup a new tank just for it and moved the carpet into the same tank with the other.

Honestly though - I would sleep a little better if they all had their own tanks. Things have been OK so far but I keep wondering if the other shoe is about to drop, so to speak.

The magnifica in particular is a behemoth that needs its own space. Having 2 gigantea's in its tank is hardly ideal and I'm working as we speak on a project to correct this. :)
 
Back
Top