Is this anemone a Ritteri or something else?

R

Ricks_Reef

New member
Hello,

I was working in Japan for the last 6 years and while I was there I had an 80gal reef tank with an Anemone that was sold to me as a Ritteri. It came to me about the size of my hand and by the end of the 6 years it was about the size of a trashcan lid. Now that I am state side I am putting a 125 gal together and I'd love to get one of these again as I just loved the thing and really built my tank around it. My only concern is whether or not this was really a ritteri or if it was something else. So Here are a couple of pics, I'd love your opinion because Id really like to have this type again vs getting something Im not used to.

The underside of the anemone was sort of a white/lavender color with purple spots which I believe it used to grab hold of the rocks. Thanks!


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This is not mine but I did a google image search of Ritteri and found this pic of the under side which is almost exactly like mine was. So maybe mine was a Ritteri. Its just that online a lot of the pics are of the balled up posture which mine pretty much never did unless it was stressed and it wasn't a dark purple or red color like many photos which is what makes me a little unsure. So if anyone else with a ritteri can easy my mind I'd appreciate it.

http://catalogue.tropicalmarinecentre.co.uk/Detail.aspx?sku=08640
 
By the time I had to piece out my tank.. which tore my heart out by the way. .. it took two grown men to carefully lift it into a large salt bucket which is looked a little squashed in. Not sure how much it weighed but after a couple tank moves I called it big bertha. I guess for size comparison the tank is the length of a US 70 gal so about half of a 70 gal in diameter. The fish in the pic are a full grown yellow tang and lytetail anthias.
 
this is me said:
That's a beautiful gigantea!!
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Started doing some searching on gigantea. So you think what I had was a large carpet? The tentacle length was about 2-2.5" on mine. So when the carpets get larger do they grow out like that? So far when I have seen them in shops they seem pretty short.
 
I agree that the anemone picture above is a S. gigantea.

Here are a few picture of my Magnifica (Ritteri)
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and a few of my Gigantea

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OrionN said:
I agree that the anemone picture above is a S. gigantea.

Do you have any preference after taking care one of each? In terms of demand of care or general looks? Looks like the Ritteri might be a little longer in tentacle length but not as spread out? Or are they pretty similar? I had really great success with the gigantea and from what I have heard they should be pretty close as far as difficulty goes. But then I haven't had anyone really compare the two.
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Ricks_Reef said:
OrionN said:
I agree that the anemone picture above is a S. gigantea.

Do you have any preference after taking care one of each? In terms of demand of care or general looks? Looks like the Ritteri might be a little longer in tentacle length but not as spread out? Or are they pretty similar? I had really great success with the gigantea and from what I have heard they should be pretty close as far as difficulty goes. But then I haven't had anyone really compare the two.
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They are by far the two most difficult anemones to care for. IMO, gigs slightly more difficult than mags. Mags also appear to respond much better to antibiotic treatment if sick.
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Well My wife just sealed the deal for me and said we were going to have the same type as before lol. When the boss makes up her mind! =)

You know I actually had a little trouble at first with my gig until I talked to this little old Japanese guy who ran a fish store near the beach. He had an anemone in his tank he had kept for nearly 25 years. I was pretty impressed and he basically scolded me when he found out I was skimming heavily. He said to turn off my skimmer and instead heavily scrub phosphates. Basically he said that the majority of what they eat is fish poop. So I put 5 clowns in my tank which hosted in it and did what he said kind of reluctantly. I figured Id try for a couple of weeks. The result was I had a little more issue with algae cleaning for my glass but my anemone actually perked up and started coloring up. It went from a tan to a nice rainbow color you see in the photo. Kind of a lavender on the outside with green in the middle. I also had it under a metal halide but replaced that with a radion pro mainly to save on my electric bill which is nuts over there. I believe it responded positively to that too as I think the halide was a little too intense where as I can warm the radion up and cool it down in terms of intensity and color spectrum. So anyways thats what worked for me, take it or leave it. I know for many people the thought of unplugging the skimmer is unthinkable but I swear by it now. That is only if you are running a good phosphate reactor anyways.

Thanks for your input everyone! They look pretty similar to me but I'm sure you are all right in terms of it's ID. Now I just need to find one that doesn't have a damaged foot.

Oh. I should also say I never really directly fed mine. If I felt it needed more food I just gave more food to my fish and it'd pick up the excess bits in the water and the increased bio load of course. Oh and finally you will notice the pulsing xenia in the photo. I found they work as a great natural fence to keep the thing in place. They didn't do any visible chemical warfare but the anemone didn't like to go over them so I found they made a nice control.
 
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They just need a lot of light and good current and stable tank parameters. It is difficult to get them healthy here in the US due to the extended shipping.
When you were living in Japan, it is much easier to a healthy specimen. That is 80% of keeping them successfully.
Once you have a healthy specimen, Magnifica like to be on top of a rather flat rock facing up with random current.
Gigantea like a crevice, possible near the sand rock inter-phase. Gigantea can tolerate lower flow better than Magnifica. Both need very bright light to be happy.
 
One of the sticky on this forum is a thread on how to treated compromised anemone especially Magnifica or Gigantea that I wrote. It is rare here in the US that Magnifica or Gigantic does not require treatment when they first arrive from over sea.
 
Man that's a huge Gigantea. Please tell us the story of how you can into contact with him. A lot of details please. What a beauty.
 
Bristle_Worm said:
Thats a beautiful Gigantea! Hardest in the world to keep.

Please...I need full details of where and how you came into contact with this beauty. :-) What tank he was in, how much $$, etc.. I look for these on a weekly basis!

These things are super rare and you got a healthy one at that.

Good luck with him!
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I was living and working in Japan at the time. It was purchased from a local fish store in Northern Japan by a US Navy guy. He was getting relocated so I purchased it from him. At the time he had kept it for about 8 months and was about the size of a salad plate and kind of a tan color. Most of the livestock in Japan comes in through Tokyo from Indonesia just like the USA stuff. I feel I was fortunate because he had been alive already for 8 mo and was already anchored to a rock. I built a toilet shape liverock bowl for him and put his base rock in it. He really didn't move around too much. When I first got it, you could touch it with no issue etc.. whiich isnt a good thing. After 5.5 years with me I accidentally got my hand too close and it grabbed me. I had a nice red tentacle rash for about 2-3 months which in a sick way I was kind of proud of because he was so healthy lol. Around this time also 5.5 years with me he reached one side up into one of my ecotech wave makers and got some of his side chopped up and pulled the wave maker off the wall. Thought he was going to be dead for sure. I got the wave maker off and in a month you couldn't even tell he had an accident so he was pretty healthy.

Like my post said I think the secret is providing a natural bio load for them to eat and a good source of light. I liked the radions because I could play with the settings till he was happy. You just dont have that kind of control with halides and I think the idea that they just need the sun 3 feet from them has led to more deaths than anything. Also, the fish stores say they need to be fed every couple days with silver sides etc.. I dont know who started that but its wrong. I think it also is a reason for their poor survival rate. Kind of like a venus fly trap if you over feed it you will kill it. If you think about it in nature the clown fish will usually scare away in potential prey so the anemone are actually getting most of their nutirtion from particles in the water, poop from the clowns and light. Sorry I dont have a source for you on where it came from. Im looking for one myself now lol.
 
Oh one more thing before I forget is when these anemone came into the fish store there they treated them different than what I said above to get them healthy. Theyd fasten a plastic basket to the rim that is deep enought o hold it but keep it fairly close to the surface. Theyd put a peice of smooth flat live rock in the bottom of the basket for it hopefully to anchor to. That and theyd keep them under heavy actinic light only for. i think at least a few weeks at least until they colored up a bit before transfering them to more intense whites. Kind of like how you'd treat a bleached coral if you got one. So imho if you got a stressed one of these and immediately started stuffing food in its throat and baking it under a halide you have a good chance of killing the thing. You have to bounce back the zooanthelli (spelling?) before putting it in more optimal reef setting. The nice thing about the basket is if yiu are willing to sacrifice the basket you can cut around the anemone foot if it didnt fuse totally to the live rock. You have to treat the foot like its the most fragile thing in the world. Im not sure about medicating them though that doesnt surprise me. The worst part of the Usa is the speed of our mail in country. In japan everything is overnight, literally. Here overnight means a few days later and curse you if you ship before a weekend.

As to my food I mixed up cyclopeeze powder, reef roids, frozen baby brine shrimp, goniopower and then refroze it in mini ice cube trays. I fed that to my fish / tank which made my corals and anemone happy. Dont get lazy about not doing a weekely water change and dont be shy about dosing copepods etc.. to your refugium or sump. Thats the extent of my wisdom =) Hope it helps someone. Id also feed cycolpeeze flakes later in the day to my fish.
 
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I used to have MH too but change all my light to Radions I use combination of G2 and G3 pro. I love the G3 Pro but my pocket does not allow it. I upgrade all my G1 to G3 Pro but my G2 is OK so I leave it as is.
There is a thread I started about some Gigantea I got from a local Petco. I got a total of 6 Petco Gigatnea. They did great with treatment. Go from tan to rainbow and green under my care.
I don't feed my Gigantea if I dont want him to grow. If I want mine to grow, I feed them every other day. It is really easy to get Magnifica and Gigantea to grow. In the wild Gigantea eat fish, that is why they got such potent and strong sting. I have lost a few fish to my carpets over time. There are things you can do to keep fish a little safer. Certain species of fish is more prone to been eaten than other.
I don't feed Siverside. In fact I never feed any Aquarium frozen food to my tank other than Plankton and Mysis. Silverside are expensive and not anywhere near the quality of human seafood food I can get at the local groceries. If the food is smelly (spoiled), which is often the case with Siverside, they don't got into my tank.

I have keep a few Magnifica and Gigantea. Each have its own beauty. With minimal observation, I am sure your won't be saying

"...They look pretty similar to me but I'm sure you are all right in terms of it's ID....."
 
Great info on the feeding for accelerated growth. Something Ill keep in mind for sure. Yeah I wish the radion prices would come down too. Great lights though so far. Also, I appreciate knowing that petco has some good species. Did you get them all from a local store or ever buy any from their website? Id be curious if you had as good of luck with an internet order as my local petcos only carry half dead sabae types. I really like the upright look of the ritteri and the base colors etc.. but my wife wants me to get a gig again so no luck for me lol. I did like the ruffled look of the gig too so Im not too bummed though.
 
I got the Gigantea at a local Petco. I had poor luck with MO Gigantea until lately. I recently got a small green Gigantea online. He was great and really doing well for the last month growing a lot
 
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