Reproduction of S. gigantea

[OrionN]

Anybody consider breeding S. gigantea in captivity, especially a reasonably size aquarium? Of course one need to be able to keep these beautiful anemone in the first place. To those who have keep these in aquarium, have you ever consider keeping opposite sex Gigantea in aquarium? Here is a quote from Delbeek regarding reproduction of S. gigantea in captivity. To me, it seen that this is one host anemone species that we can reproduce in captivity (Sexually reproduce at that)
The following is the quote from Delbeek:

As an aside, Stichodactyla gigantea is also dioecious in nature with the females ingesting the sperm and fertilizing their embryos internally. However, unlike E. quadricolor, the embryos are internally brooded, developing into miniature copies of the adult. These juveniles are then egested from the mouth where they then drift in the current till they settle onto the substratum (L. Sharon, pers. comm., 1999). We were lucky to receive four of these juveniles in October 1999 from a coral farm in Belau (Palau); two green ones and two brown ones with an average oral disc diameter of approximately 4 cm (1.6 inches). These were placed in floating baskets in outdoor holding tanks in direct sunlight. Within the following three years one of the brown ones developed blue tentacles and all four had grown such that they had to be separated into individual baskets. At the present time (August 2002) the oral disk diameters of all four average approximately 30 cm (12 inches) when fully expanded. That means that there has been an almost eight fold increase in diameter in three years. I am confident that if the anemones had been directly feed on a regular basis they would have grown even larger (and perhaps faster) in those three years.

Here is the article I took the quote from:
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/nov2002/feature.htm

 

[phender]

I know that BonsaiNut was considering it and even had some confidential information on how to go about it.

I don't know how far along in the project he is. I thought about maybe trying to do it in a greenhouse with fiberglass tanks, but that is a long way off. Maybe when I retire.

 

[Rod Buehler]

I have 2 giganteas, My oldest/largest is surely a male, and I am really hoping that my other is a female. I keep them in the same system, but not in the same tank. I hope to be around if/when my male spawns again so I can manually siphon all of the water/spawn from the tank that the male is in through the tank that he other gigantea is in. If I am not around, I am hoping that enough of the male spawn will make it through to the tank with the other.

Does anyone know how to distinguish between male and females. I have seen my male gigantea spawn, but not my purple so I have no clue..

 

[OrionN]

Rod,
Keep us update if your Gigantea spawn. I would love to hear from you regarding this. I keep my finger cross hoping that your purple is a female.

 

[phender]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10556619#post10556619 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Rod Buehler
Does anyone know how to distinguish between male and females. I have seen my male gigantea spawn, but not my purple so I have no clue..

Since the females brood internally, it may be difficult to ID them since they are not releasing eggs.

I heard/read somewhere, I don't know if it was BonsaiNut or what, but it said that too much sperm in the water seems to be counter productive to fertilization. Having your "female" in another tank but in the same system where a lot of the sperm can get filtered out before it gets to the female, might be just the way to go.

 

[OrionN]

Many invertebrates do not have mechanism to block more than one sperm from enter the egg. When this happened, the egg got polyspermia and will not develop.

 

[55semireef]

So the idea here is to have a male and female linked together in the same system but in seperate tanks and a fairly large protein skimmer?

 

[Rod Buehler]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10560598#post10560598 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by 55semireef
So the idea here is to have a male and female linked together in the same system but in seperate tanks and a fairly large protein skimmer?

Well Ok Then, I am set. . I just need a few candles and some romantic music then :lol:

 

[delphinus]

See, here is my difficulty with this subject. If we accept that gigantea's are not hermaphrodites, and also that females are internal brooders, how do we determine that an absence of male spawn indicates female, or merely indicates an absence of spawning? I wish there was a better way to know. I know that Bonsainut had some ideas for inducing spawning but like Phil mentioned, he's keeping the info confidential. As I mentioned in other threads, I have some ideas as to how to induce spawning in H.mag (or at least my H.mag that is - which I've had in captivity since 2001 so I've had some time to make some repeated observations), but the same variables do not seem to provoke any reaction in my 2 gigantea's. If I could convince myself that they are female by some other determination it would help but AFAIK there is no method that is not invasive to the anemone.

 

[bluerug]

Just tagging along to find out some good information.

 

[55semireef]

I read from Dr. Ron Shimek's book that you don't necessarily have to keep both Giganteas in the same tank. You could keep them in two seperate tanks. When one spawns you can take some of the water out of the tank that the Gigantea spawned in and put it in the other tank with the other Gigantea. Then this Gigantea would spawn. So it is kind of like a reaction. When one of the Giganteas spawn the other spawns with it. I guess having two giganteas in seperate tanks would be more of a controlled experiment so to speak. I did read for encouragment of spawning you have to feed you Giganteas a good amount.

 

[maxxII]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10560846#post10560846 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Rod Buehler
Well Ok Then, I am set. . I just need a few candles and some romantic music then :lol:

Go w/ Barry White...cant miss with that...

55semi reef, that kinda contradicts what Phender posted up earlier....

Nick

 

[Noise]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10563404#post10563404 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by delphinus
See, here is my difficulty with this subject. If we accept that gigantea's are not hermaphrodites, and also that females are internal brooders, how do we determine that an absence of male spawn indicates female, or merely indicates an absence of spawning? I wish there was a better way to know. I know that Bonsainut had some ideas for inducing spawning but like Phil mentioned, he's keeping the info confidential. As I mentioned in other threads, I have some ideas as to how to induce spawning in H.mag (or at least my H.mag that is - which I've had in captivity since 2001 so I've had some time to make some repeated observations), but the same variables do not seem to provoke any reaction in my 2 gigantea's. If I could convince myself that they are female by some other determination it would help but AFAIK there is no method that is not invasive to the anemone.

Would you mind sharing how to get your H.mag to spawn? I am curious about all this and will follow along.

Did BonsaiNut get the info from a pro breeder or is there another reason for secrecy? (I am dying to know!)

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

professional gigantea breeders. I wonder if any exist

FWIW H. magnifica has been "split" in captivity many times.
Sexual reproduction presently takes a distant back seat when it comes to reproducing anemones in captivity.

 

[vaporize]

anybody actively working on this in the industry or the hobby?

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

I believe many more people are cutting anemones in half than reproducing them sexually

 

[vaporize]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11157415#post11157415 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Gary Majchrzak
I believe many more people are cutting anemones in half than reproducing them sexually

For gigantea? I have not read much about cutting in half type of propagation for gigantea if they are not already hard enough to keep alive.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11157434#post11157434 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by vaporize
For gigantea? I have not read much about cutting in half type of propagation for gigantea if they are not already hard enough to keep alive.

true.
It takes a brave (and wealthy!) reefkeeper to slice and dice gigantea.
There's only a very few people that I know of "working" on sexually reproducing gigantea. It's not a business venture. It's more in the experimental stages.

 

[vaporize]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11157470#post11157470 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Gary Majchrzak
true.
It takes a brave (and wealthy!) reefkeeper to slice and dice gigantea.
There's only a very few people that I know of "working" on sexually reproducing gigantea. It's not a business venture. It's more in the experimental stages.

I thought gigantea is more or less the same price as a RBTA, of course survival rate I heard is not as good.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11157544#post11157544 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by vaporize
I thought gigantea is more or less the same price as a RBTA, of course survival rate I heard is not as good.

price depends on the market and the specimen.
gigantea survival rate is definitely not as good as RBTA.

I wish that I could add something really meaningful to this thread (reproducing S. gigantea) but I can't- at least not yet.
I can comment that keeping gigantea healthy in captivity is a challenge in itself.
I've had a haddoni spawn in my system but I've yet to see my gigantea spawn.