S. mertensii carpet, anyone have one?

[Mr Stomato]

Hello all. I am looking for anyone who has a mertensii carpet or has experiences successfully keeping one. I recently rescued one which is almost 3 ft in diameter. Very large. I've provided ample rockwork and a stable environment for it. It has footed into the rockwork and is very happy at the moment. Of course I would like to keep it that way. My questions are based mostly on flow and lighting. Initially what is ideal. I have 400w HQI halide pendants and flow is moderate in a trough system. It is placed 45 degrees from the pendant center to lower the initial intensity.

Most places online have little knowledge on the mertensii in the aquaria. This specimen was ordered by my LFS as a haddoni, but a haddoni it is not. The LFS was unable to provide the proper enviornment so I rescued it.

Any help would be greatly appreciated and I'll post some pics soon. Thanks!

 

[reefman13]

They have very similar tolerances to magnifica anemones, as far as I know. They light intense lighting, pretty strong random flow. And the number one thing is that you make sure that your water parameters stay a stable as humanly possible.

Hopefully someone else can chime in with some real advice

 

[wicked_NaCl_h2o]

Soon? when is soon? I have got to see this anemone..I bet it is simply gorgeous I think Phender will know the answer to your questions.

 

[GSMguy]

Must post pictures....

 

[Mr Stomato]

I will post pics of him tomorrow. I just missed the light cycle so he has begun deflating a little since the lights went off.

I did measure him today and is 34" expanded... Unreal.

 

[Mr Stomato]

Ok here is an initial pic of him off the photo period. To get a top down photo with enough of him in frame I had to stand on a ladder. Please excuse the lack of a full anemone shot. I will post a photo tomorrow with lights on when he is fully open.

 

[garygb]

Looks healthy. All I can tell you is from the book Clownfishes: "it eats fish flesh and reportedly rejects crustaceans and mollusks." They host many species of clown, including ocellaris and clarks.

 

[phender]

Mine was fairly undemanding. It grew from ~16" to 24" in the 4 years I had it.
I kept it about 12" under 4-65 watt CP lights with enough current to move the tentacles but not lift the disk very often. It wasn't picky about food.

Your conditions sound more than adequate. They do like a depression(not really a crevice) in the rock work to put their foot and space to spread their oral disk over the rocks.

They will pretty much host any clown species. If you don't already have clowns, I really liked the way my orange skunks "surfed" the anemone.

If you have any other more specific questions, feel free to ask. I actually think they are one of the easier anemones. They are just too big!!!!

 

[Mr Stomato]

Thanks for the awesome replys. Sounds very promising. Along the clown topic: Given this anemones size, how many clowns and of what species can peacefully host it? I know that the skunk is fairly peaceful in groups, but only have experience with GSM and percs. I would like to have more than a pair in it if possible since a few average size clowns get lost in it.

Thanks again

 

[garygb]

Probably the most peaceful clown aside from skunks would be ocellaris--if you want a natural symbiont. I wouldn't be surprised if percula would also be hosted by your anemone, just they aren't a natural combo. A pair of skunks or ocellaris would make for a very nice display. In the wild, it's not unusual for the dominant female, her male mate, and several smaller intermediate males to live in the same anemone. So, you could have several ocellaris living in an anemone of that size.