Pink gigantea?

[AkoAung]

Part I: Identification
I got this small anemone. I think it's a pink gigantea but I'd like your thoughts on what it is. This is the best overhead I can do to avoid the light reflection:

bottom of the anemone, taken with iphone:

a close up shot of the mouth:

and hopefully a better view of the tentacles:

Going by liveaquaria, "The True Carpet Anemone can be distinguished from Stichodactyla haddoni by the rows of spots on the underside of the oral disc which stop at the column." I think that's what I have here.

Part II: Care

I understand it likes to be at the place between sand and rocks. High intensity light. Could I mix it in with SPS corals - they will be up high while (I hope) this one won't climb the rocks and touch SPS (can't see it doing that and being a relative of carpet don't think it will). wiki and liveaquaria both says true carpet likes "strong current". like how much? will it move to where it likes?

currently I have it in a basket with a nemo. I will place it in a dedicated clown tank being set up atm. I understand that it requires a mature aquarium. I plan to use liverock and livesand from my current tanks and plumb it to my current display setup. Then eventually I may take it offline and run them independently. Pros and cons? Thanks for your thoughts!

 

[Reefvette]

I'm Gonna go with heteractis crispa

 

[AkoAung]

I've seen tons of Heteractis crispa, different shades types colours. this doesn't look like them at all.

 

[Postal]

i'm gonna go with heteractis crispa

+1

 

[taylor t]

i'm gonna go with heteractis crispa

+2

 

[Reefvette]

It's def a healthy Crispa. But I have seen them confused with magnifica and gigantea before.

Just get it down to your sand ex by where the rock and sand meet and it will be happy

 

[AkoAung]

it's got much shorter and smaller tentacles than crispa. Crispa has longer and fatter tentacles relative to its size.

Gig or crispa?

1)

2)

3)

4)

5)

 

[AkoAung]

what makes it a crispa and not a gig?

 

[Postal]

what makes it a crispa and not a gig?

Multiple things, but the most obvious are the verrucae. On a gig they would be shaped differently and a color other than white (most often blue/purple)

And even if it isn't the gigantea you hoped for, a nice purple crispa is nothing to complain about.

 

[AkoAung]

Multiple things, but the most obvious are the verrucae. On a gig they would be shaped differently and a color other than white (most often blue/purple)

And even if it isn't the gigantea you hoped for, a nice purple crispa is nothing to complain about.

THAT's how responses should be. Yup, it is a crispa. and it's a nice one. thanks! nemo is happy as a clam.

now here's the thing with crispas. some of them are like this. Others have long big fat tentacles.

 

[Postal]

Given time and good parameters it will have the typical long tentacles. It's just stressed right now.

 

[D-Nak]

#2 and #5 of the photos above are gigs, though the color is off in both photos. There's only one gig in captivity that some believe is a true red gigantea, but the jury is still out. That said, it's pretty much safe to say that they don't exist. If you were to come across a nem that appears to be a red gig, it's most likely a bleached purple. Many times under natural light, they appear magenta (definitely not a blood red purple). If you see a very red carpet, it would be a haddoni -- which are common, but expensive.

 

[OrionN]

That anemone can also be a H. malu. Small Crispa looks very much like a Malu.

 

[AkoAung]

Given time and good parameters it will have the typical long tentacles. It's just stressed right now.

Postal, i don't think this one will gain the long fat tentacles. This one came from Sri Lanka. It was right next to crispas from same shipment (Sebae anemones) of the same size. the crispas it came with looks just like picture #4. white tentacles with blue or purple tips. tentacles are MUCH longer, thick and fat. I would tend to think if they belong to the same "species" they'd have to be of different sub-species.

Physical characteristics are just too different. So despite the much prevalence of these anemones in the trade, not much science work has been done on them.

 

[AkoAung]

That anemone can also be a H. malu. Small Crispa looks very much like a Malu.

hmmm didn't think about that. I thought Malus look just like the other "sebae" anemones. this Malu that Minh has looks just like mine except it's purple:

http://www.reefs.org/forums/topic132442.html

should I get another like this so that they can spawn? I'd love to see that.

 

[OrionN]

iDestroya,
That is a typical picture of a stressed H. crispa pr H. malu. Just because the two sit right next to each other does not mean that they are all have the same stress level.
If you provide the optimal care for him, he most likely going to end up looking similar to #3 above.
You though that this anemone is a Gigantea means, to me, that you are obviously inexperience in keeping and ID Gigantea, Crispa or Malu. It is OK to be inexperience, we were all there at sometime. Listen to postal, reefvette and some other reefers that have been here for a long time. They won't steer you wrong.

 

[OrionN]

MY purple Malu that you pictured look just like your's when I bought it, except it was only 1.5 inches in diameter.

 

[AkoAung]

yeah I recently became interested in anemones because of the aforementioned dedicated clown tank. And I began looking for anemones after that.

how long did it take it to get to the 7" size? mine is about 3" in diameter. how often did you feed it?

 

[OrionN]

If I want my anemone to grow I feed every other, or every third days. It really take an anemone, IME, more than 30 hrs to digest a small meal and longer for larger meals. anemone are mostly water so the biomass of a 6 inces anemone is about the size of a 2 inch fish or so. Keep that in mind when you feed your anemone. Caloric need of a 6 inch anemone is not anywhere near that of a 6 inch fish. In addition to this they are photosynthetic. In my tank, no direct feeding means that anemone stay more or less the same size. Any direct feeding will result in growth, more feeding result in more growth. I ususally feed a 4 inch anemone one or two pencil eraser size piece of seafood every other day.

 

[AkoAung]

thanks for giving me info on feeding regime. I know from my understanding the crispa, malu, gigs and haddonis don't walk around a lot (unlike the BTAs) and tends to like the bottom part of the tank. In your experience are they going to be ok with SPS?

I have two small (2-3") BTAs in a nano with zoas and LPS and haven't had any issues except one time one of them decided to like the skeleton of my prized scoly and was stinging the flesh of the scoly. I got it to move. otherwise, my BTAs didn't bother any other coral.