S. Gigantea Carpet Anemone Tank

nemoboy1

New member
Ok guys we all know how lovely anemones are and how delicate they can get. There are many types/species of anemones out there but I am going to be talking about my favorite anemone the Gigantea Carpet.

These guys are pretty poor shippers like many other delicate anemones are not recommended for beginners... There are several other anemones I recommend for beginners like Bubble Tip Anemone (BTA), H. Crispa (sebae anemone) and the cousins to the Gigantea, S. Haddoni. Haddonis are much more forgive-able to WP than Gigantea. Before you try any anemone make sure your WP are pretty dead on to 0ppm and salinity (SG) 1.023-1.025. Tank has been cycle for atleast 6months top the more the better. Yes, I know there are other exceptions to doing things so take my experience with a grain of salt. No two tanks are the same.

Back to Giganteas... Ever since I was a child I was always intrigue with breeding fish...starting out with Betta aka siamese fighting fish then to south american cichlids... moving up to lake tanganyika cichlids then finally saltwater (clownfish so far) but now I want to try to see if I can duplicate Giganteas environment and hoping this will induce them to spawn in captivity as I have not heard of any real results.

Talking to Minh (orionN) he told me that no one really knows how to sex these carpets but was told that female carries their eggs along the columns... although no one has hard evidence to prove it... so I am not going to say this is or isn't a way to sex giganteas.

This takes me to thinking that I would need to gather as many as possible to ensure there are males and females and thus here goes my built thread.

A LFS was moving and had some 4x4x12"h glass tanks for sale .... I thought this would be a starting point to a gig only tank. so I picked one up. Here are the materials/equipment that I am using 4x4 tank with heavy duty metal stand, 250 watts 14k bulb pendent, 4 hydor 1600 and 2 hydor evo for now until I can upgrade to MP40, 500 watt heater, 36 square sump, no substrate or skimmer as I will be using mangroves to help remove nitrate and also be doing a 10% water change every 3-5 days. I found in my early years of breeding cichlids that this induce them to spawn quicker.

Pix of tanks are old and tank has been cycle for several several months. Old Photos

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My first gig was a rescued nem from petco... it was bleached and now its green. second gig was a blue one but died weeks after. third gig is a purple one from LFS. They are all nice and healthy now except for the doa blue gig.

I wanted to grab more and each week I would go LFS hopping and hoping to find the jewel but no luck... so finally I acquired some from a LFS who found some for me... I bought 8 gigantea and today it came in.

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more pictures

I decided to separate them into 2 tanks group of 4...

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cipro administered.... see the difference already and it has only been 3 hrs... Thanks to Minh for bringing cipro to RC Family. Without it, I wouldn't have the confidence to do what I am doing now.

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this is where they will end up...

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I am hoping this can shed some light on this magnificent anemone and by doing so we can all understand the nature of the beast and help agriculture instead of harvesting them in the wild.
 
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Good luck on this, how much are gigs running for cost nowdays? I would like to get a blue/purple when I set my new system up
 
They look good for new arrival Gigantea. Good luck with them. Take individual pictures of the anemone, I would love to see them. All seem to be very beautiful color. I hope you will be able to keep them all alive for the next few weeks
 
Very cool. Hopefully you'll get them to spawn -- I would love to see baby gigs all over that tank. Good luck!
 
I wanted to do the same thing with Gigantea and Malu also, but it is hard to breed without the parents :). I was not able to get any Gigantea and keep them alive until last year.
 
Man (i assume you are a male) you are one gig fanatic !!! but then whose not once you know about this animal. I just hope that someone whose reading this thread dont go out and buy them without knowing they need some very serious reading before taking a dive...... or they just gonna kill more of these unfortunate creatures....

back to your setup, it is very nice! If money no object, you can get those MP40s, but i think you will be far ahead with 4 or 6 Evo at less than $50 each and hook them up with the Oceans Wavemaker and that should get your tank ALOT of current/flow.....

Also i see you have no sump, and not enough live rock. if i were you i would have a sump with more live rock and a deep sand bed (in the sump) to remove any nitrate to prevent un-wanted algea bloom down the road.... just my 2cents.
 
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There is a sump. Overflow in at the corner and he has a cube sump I think. Mangroves also I assume for the sump. I am sure there will be serious nitrate processing capacity with 10 or 11 gig. Feeding to promote breeding.
I would recommend only one male in the group. One is enough to produce some serious amount of sperms in an enclose environment like this. Plus less load on the system every time he spawn. Female do not spawn in this species but release live babies, with zooxanthellae.
 
Thank you guys for all the kind words and support.

I didn't take pictures of the sump but there is one along with 100lbs of live rock and mangroves. I personally don't like sand bed. Plus I will be doing lots of WC so I don't anticipate the nitrate/ammonia to sky rocket but we shall see I might add a skimmer if it does.
7 am tiday these guys looks pretty perky... Doesn't look like they deflate/inflate at all. I will take pix later on when I get home from work and do a 2 dosage of cipro.

I was hoping they would all be females with one male but beggers can't be choosers. Once I start observing them more I can eliminate a few by parting out males if it comes to it.
 
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This is a great thread, and I am totally jealous... I always thought it would be real cool to have a show tank (short like yours but large) with some rock and a whole bunch of gigs... various colors, and clowns...

Good luck with the breeding and keep us posted.
 
Food wise would be table shrimp, krill, mysis, salmon, squid, prawn eggs, frozen cyclop-eeze... Nothing really special.
 
Very, very cool. Wishing you much success with this endeavor. And I'm with Minh, when you get a chance, could you post mug shots of each animal?
 
Still thinking about this project. I would urge you to rethink the no skimmer idea. They remove more than just nitrate precursors: macro gunk bits, bacteria, lipids, etc.

A second thought is to add a simulated moon to induce and/or synchronise spawning. I don't think the cichlid experience holds for marine animals. Cichlids, even those of the African rift lakes, experience seasons through temperature and freshwater alterations due to rain or lack thereof. Tropical oceans are much, much more stable and pretty much everything I have ever researched are somehow tied to lunar cycles. Witness the GBR mega spawns. In my prior tank that I was noodling around with breeding on purpose, the molluscs (turbos, tridacna) and fish (yellow watchman, a. melanopus) were tied to my simulated moon.

Good success.
 
Still thinking about this project. I would urge you to rethink the no skimmer idea. They remove more than just nitrate precursors: macro gunk bits, bacteria, lipids, etc.

A second thought is to add a simulated moon to induce and/or synchronise spawning. I don't think the cichlid experience holds for marine animals. Cichlids, even those of the African rift lakes, experience seasons through temperature and freshwater alterations due to rain or lack thereof. Tropical oceans are much, much more stable and pretty much everything I have ever researched are somehow tied to lunar cycles. Witness the GBR mega spawns. In my prior tank that I was noodling around with breeding on purpose, the molluscs (turbos, tridacna) and fish (yellow watchman, a. melanopus) were tied to my simulated moon.


Good success.

I see your point but I am going with my first initial thought and then go from there. Cichlids not all cichlids breed without tying to lunar but I do have them and are emplimenting them... I just forgot to post them in the first thread.

I am always open to ideas and recommendations as I am no expert here... So more heads are better than one.

Thanks
 
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Good luck to you with this. I'm looking forward to seeing you post your results positive or negative. Willl definitely be tagging along for this ride.
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Thanks ...

here are a few pix update... second treatment of cipro tonight.

7pm tonight shot with iphone
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clean up time...look at those poop
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mug shot with mark2
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