Sebae or Ritteri? I've been told both?

sonofgaladriel

sonofgaladriel

Shiny!
Can you guys with experience tell if this is a sebae or a ritteri? My first impression was it is a sebae, but I was told it was a ritteri.
Whichever it is, does it show signs of bleaching or could this be its normal coloration? Would you assume this is a healthy specimen?
Thanks
2ftsebae.jpg
 
that is a heteractis magnifica. from the looks of it, fairly healthy, but bleached. and massive.

what does the base look like? a light faded color or fairly rich in color? i do seem to recall photographs of wild magnificas with similar coloration, however. but i bet it will color up nicely with some bright lights and some good feedings.
 
That is a very beautiful H. magnifica aka Ritteri and other names. The column should have nice color. It is dificul to find a H. magnifica with blue tip like that. Is it for sale online?
H. magnifica is not easy to keep. It need great water movement, very bright light and very clean water condition. Very aggresive and will or can kill all the coral around it. If it is not happy, it can have a wide path of distruction when it move. When stress, it have been know to wipe out all fish in a tank, other than the clowns.
If it is anywhere close to me, 2-3 hr drive, I would drove and buy this one as it is difficult to find one with blue tip like this one.
 
Something is strange about the photo... what is going on on the left hand side of the basket, coming into the anemome?

Just curious.
 
That is one massive H. magnifica. I've seen ones like that in Australia (Great Barrier Reef), they look bleached but apparently healthy. (These were out on the reef, not collected specimens.) However that said, I'd be a bit leery about how one so white would fare in captivity but if it lives, over time it would likely grow more zooxanthellae to compensate for the change in conditions. Hopefully retain some of that blue/purple coloration but have more colour in other places.

I'd be very concerned about shipping an anemone that size! That thing just looks gargantuan. I thought my H. mag looked big but it just looks tiny in comparison.
 
Would I be stupid to buy this and have it shipped from the West coast? I can make space for it in my 240 but would soon move it to a 150 (48"x 30"x 24" tall) that it would have all to itself.
I'd love to have it, but I really don't want to throw away a few hundred dollars either. You guys honestly tell me if the risk is too great and I'll look for a smaller one.
Thanks and I am truly grateful for all of the help and advice so far and you patience with all of my hadonni and ritteri questions.
I really like this forum and hope to be around a while.
Sean
 
To be honest, even though I have one myself so that makes me a bit of a hypocrite to say this, I'd steer away from this species. "If I knew then what I know know" I wouldn't have bought it 5 years ago. It's not really a good candidate for captivity because of the large size for one. If it wanders around the tank it can be a hassle. If stressed it can release "invisible death" (slime or nematocysts) that can wipe out a tank of non-clownfish fish within hours. I've had three tank complete wipeouts and one partial wipeout on top of that anytime I've had to move it. I don't mean to be such a downer, sorry, but it's been my experience so I have to share it. Lots of people have this species and some have reported that phenomenon as well whereas others haven't so it's a bit of luck (or unluck) of the draw.

Last but not least I would be very perssimistic about the outcome of shipping such a large anemone. I guess it can be done, it got to the wholesaler after all, but I wouldn't hold my breath. I would say it would have to be *extremely quick* shipping otherwise I just wouldn't chance it. I'd be worried about overnight, even, possibly being too long. Just me though, I have no experience with shipping them so I could be off base here.

It is a remarkably nice specimen.
 
Big bucks you going to spend on either of the anemones. Anemones MO is iffy, especially large ones. I don't have enough experience to advice you either way. I ordered 4 S. gigantea, all did not lasted more than 10 days in my tank. Set me back by quite a small fortune.
Don't be too greedy. One or the other, I would not recommend both.
 
IME the majority of people attempting to keep a Mag anemone either kill the anemone or get rid of it after a year or two due to it's large size and destructive nature.
 
Thanks guys! I really do appreciate all the advice and honest opinions. As much as I'd love to have this big guy, I agree that it would not be wise. Its so easy to think with my 'eyes' on this one and not the brain ;)
But, having said that, I really want a nice display anemone that gets somewhat large and has long flowing white/ish tentacles with some nice coloration. I don't like the LTAs but do like the ritteri and sebae. Do I run into the same problems with a medium to large sebae? I know from the info on the FAQs they are almost as difficult as the ritteri.
 
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