New yellow/green s. gigantea

[Semillon]

Picked up a s. gigantea yesterday evening, it is fluro yellow under blue light, though I expect it to appear more green under normal lighting conditions later today.

A mere 30min after placing the anemone in the tank, our resident clownfish were ready to move in, managed to capture it on video:

 

[Winwood]

I get so excited everytime I see clowns experience the anemone you add to their tank for the first time. Good luck with the gig and thanks for sharing.

 

[Showme01]

awesome, that is really exciting!

 

[Semillon]

Grabbed a photo under normal (though dimmed) lighting:

Question for the experienced anemone keepers, how does it look?

 

[elegance coral]

The color and tentacle length looks pretty good. It does look a little "tight", or stressed, which is common for new anemones. The clowns probably are not helping with this. It does appear more relaxed than it was in the video though.

 

[Reef1589]

Looks nice where did you get it?

 

[tpdpercula]

Very nice!!!

 

[Semillon]

The color and tentacle length looks pretty good. It does look a little "tight", or stressed, which is common for new anemones. The clowns probably are not helping with this. It does appear more relaxed than it was in the video though.

A week on the tentacle length is better and it has spread out even more.

In the video it had literally only been in the water 30min

Thanks for the reply!

 

[Semillon]

Looks nice where did you get it?

I live in Australia, the anemone was collected in Queensland (Great Barrier Reef?) somewhere, I purchased it directly from the collector.

I doubt that many giganteas collected here would leave our shores, since we are unable to import marine invertibrates from asia or elsewhere, the prices for giganteas seems to be 5-10 times that seen in the US.

For example, a bright blue gigantea in Sydney will set you back around $2500 and will have a 3-6 month waiting list.

The success rate at keeping giganteas does seem to be higher here however, I think perhaps because the time between collection and arrival in the aquarium is significantly smaller.

 

[BonsaiNut]

For example, a bright blue gigantea in Sydney will set you back around $2500 and will have a 3-6 month waiting list.

!!!

Why won't they let you import invertebrates?

 

[Semillon]

Australian customs are very strict, the concern is introduced pests/diseases basically.

 

[elegance coral]

What I don't understand is that gigantea is reported to live off the north eastern coast of Australia (GBR area), so They don't have to be imported. They're native.

 

[Semillon]

What I don't understand is that gigantea is reported to live off the north eastern coast of Australia (GBR area), so They don't have to be imported. They're native.

Correct, but due to the fact we cannot import corals/anemones/etc, we have a small isolated market in Australia which is supplied by a limited number of collectors.

If we were importing s. giganteas out of say the south pacific or asia, we would probably pay a modestly higher price than you would in the USA and chances are the local collectors would not bother going out of their way to collect any at all. Most of them would probably die too...

 

[BonsaiNut]

Correct, but due to the fact we cannot import corals/anemones/etc, we have a small isolated market in Australia which is supplied by a limited number of collectors.

If we were importing s. giganteas out of say the south pacific or asia, we would probably pay a modestly higher price than you would in the USA and chances are the local collectors would not bother going out of their way to collect any at all. Most of them would probably die too...

Oh well, guess I can't move to Australia now

More than a little extreme, in my opinion. Kinda like telling me I can't import California junipers when I live in California. And then they would try to sell me a California juniper for $2500. Oh wait, that already happens, LOL!

 

[Semillon]

Just over 2 months on, the Gigantea is doing very well, colour has become richer and we are seeing some growth:

 

[LeLutinBanni]

Good luck with this beauty

 

[Semillon]

Over the last 48 hours I switched off the white channel on our LEDs to test a theory that it could suppress a dinoflagellate problem, I came home this evening to find that our S. gigantea has moved itself right under the rockwork. Logic suggests that it has been related to the change in the lighting spectrum, but I went ahead and tested water parameters anyhow:

Sg: 1.026
Alk: 8.0
Ca: 420
Mg: 2000
NO3: 3
PO4: 0.00

There are no other signs of stress with our corals or fish.

Obviously I have switched the white LED channel back on, however what to do now? Wait it out and see if the anemone re-emerges or remove the rockwork that it is currently hiding under to ensure it has sufficient light and flow?

 

[BonsaiNut]

The classic steps for controlling dinos:

(1) Run carbon to remove toxins as much as possible
(2) Run elevated levels ferric oxide to eliminate ALL phosphates - even if you can't measure phosphate in the tank
(3) Manually remove as many dinos as possible each day via siphoning
(4) Reduce lighting (helps but doesn't really solve the problem, IMHO)

(5) If you know what you are doing, drip calcium hydroxide. This will take care of the dinos by itself, but you have to be very cautious - overdosing calcium hydroxide is a good way to crash your tank (take it from someone who did this ONCE and will never make the same mistake)

 

[D-Nak]

(5) If you know what you are doing, drip calcium hydroxide. This will take care of the dinos by itself, but you have to be very cautious - overdosing calcium hydroxide is a good way to crash your tank (take it from someone who did this ONCE and will never make the same mistake)

+1. Be very careful. I think I accidentally killed my gigantea by dosing kalkwasser too quickly one night. I was in week three of my acclimation process, and while the gig was going through the classic inflate/deflate death march, it was also showing better color (more brown = zooxanthellae population coming back) and more expansion. After dosing kalk one night, I noticed the next morning that the gig looked terrible. It shot off tons of nematocysts, some falling on my lobo, almost killing it. This also told me that the nem was healthy enough to have powerful nematocysts.

I've spoken to a few people about this and we agree that gigs are especially sensitive to pH fluctuations. I didn't see your pH number, but the target should be 8.3 with a goal of keeping it as constant as possible. If you plan to dose kalk, do it VERY slowly.

 

[BonsaiNut]

+1. Be very careful. I think I accidentally killed my gigantea by dosing kalkwasser too quickly one night. I was in week three of my acclimation process, and while the gig was going through the classic inflate/deflate death march, it was also showing better color (more brown = zooxanthellae population coming back) and more expansion. After dosing kalk one night, I noticed the next morning that the gig looked terrible. It shot off tons of nematocysts, some falling on my lobo, almost killing it. This also told me that the nem was healthy enough to have powerful nematocysts.

I've spoken to a few people about this and we agree that gigs are especially sensitive to pH fluctuations. I didn't see your pH number, but the target should be 8.3 with a goal of keeping it as constant as possible. If you plan to dose kalk, do it VERY slowly.

D-Nak I KNOW I have killed a gigantea from a kalkwasser overdose... I had a small leak that kept my top-off water flowing into the tank. Killed the anemone and browned out all my SPS... but fish came through it ok. I will never make the same mistake again...