Mertensii Carpet Anemone Update.....

[justinky]

I'm not sure whats causing the confusion or concern. It's 100% a mertensii. And the color could be accurate, though the tips are probably not as bright of an orange as they appear in the photo. Mertensii typically have bright red verrucae that become red lines towards the foot, creating a bright red base. They're actually almost the opposite of gigs, where the verrucae fade towards the foot. It's unfortunate that the foot is typically the most colorful part of a mert, where the oral disk and tentacles are oftentimes drab brown or green. In terms of size, it looks like it's acclimating which mean it could feasibly double or even triple in size

Basically the confusion was from me not paying attention to the little details and just paying attention to a mixture of a bad photo depiction (imo), price tag and the sellers feedback score. So many people try to photo manipulate to get a higher price on their item, in this case the photo was taken under actinics to show the glow effect. So it was my fault for not fully paying attention to the anemone.

I do have a question though, what makes merts so rare in the hobby? Availability for harvest, rare in general or?

 

[Taipan]

That's a mert!


Taipan, does that mert have red spots or purple. The ones I've seen have red, but yours looks like he has purple spots.

The spots are more on the red all the way down to the foot. However; I have seen spots that are more towards the shade purple as well. As others have stated; lighting plays a big role on how your eyes will perceive colouration.

 

[D-Nak]

I do have a question though, what makes merts so rare in the hobby? Availability for harvest, rare in general or?

My understanding is that most are not collected because when placed side-by-side next to another carpet anemone, most mertensii are drab in comparison. Add to this that most merts found are over 24" and it doesn't make sense for a collector to try to remove it. From what I've seen they're quite hardy, and they ship a lot better than gigantea. I only know of one that died after it reached the LFS.

I found the photo of one that my LFS has a couple of years ago:

It was tiny. But the colors were cool.

 

[Greg 45]

When I had led,s over the mertens you can change the appearance or color of the anemone. Making the picture worth a million dollars. After talking to orionN and switching back to metal halides they look brown or a shade of green will get some photo's of them under the m/h lamps.

 

[deangelr]

Yet another misleading photo on ebay, thanks for a textbook example. With the white balance going on in that photo who knows what is actually looks like.

Exactly why I would love to see more pictures! :thumbsup: