Small Gigantea, safe to add clowns?

[wfournier]

I have a small bleached Gigantea that has been in my tank for a bit over a month now. When I say small I am talking 6" MAX fully inflated. The anemone seems to be reasonably heathy, other than being pretty badly bleached. I'm feeding it every 1 to 2 days and it is eating eagerly. as a sidebar, any suggestions on food? I am currently feeding PE mysis and chopped raw shrimp. Anything else that would help it recover more quickly I'll definitely look into.

Here is a pic from about 2 weeks ago, it has improved some since then:


IMG_1021 by wfournier, on Flickr

My question here is will it be safe for me to add my pair of false percs to the tank? or are they likely to cause too much stress to the anemone? The female is maybe a little over 2" and the male is about 1.5".

I have read that clowns can help with the acclimation of gigantea's but as the anemone seems to be doing well at the moment I don't want to screw things up.

 

[ryanrid]

i usually feed mine krill, the clowns should not bother the nem.

 

[Samcro]

i wouldnt toss in large clowns, but a nice small juvi pair. thrn all 3 can grow together.

 

[papa_dog]

I have a Hadoni and a couple of RBTA's and I alternate between feeding them Krill, Scallops, table Shrimp, PE Mysis and whatever else they capture from the water stream (brine shrimp, flakes, pellets, etc.).

I personally would try adding your pair of percs (they sound fairly small), but be ready to remove them or separate them with a barrier if they are too rough with it (assuming they find it - they may find it right away or it could take them weeks/months).

 

[wfournier]

I decided to go ahead and drop them in the middle of last week. Clowns were added shortly before lights out, and I found the female in the anemone in the morning (These clowns have been in BTA's and NEVER hosted). So far the reaction from the anemone seems to be very positive. The "shape" seems better, more folds and the tentacles are becoming longer and denser. The anemone might not be inflating quite as large (like maybe 5-10% smaller) but it certainly looks healthy to me (other than the fact that it is still bleached, I think it is slowly picking up colors though).

 

[Jamie1210]

sounds like a promising update ...can you post pics of the improvement?

 

[wfournier]

Sorry for the slow response, I had to wait til I could move some stuff around and get a clear shot of the nem. This is today, sorry for the not great pics I was in a hurry and didn't get to adjust things enough.


IMG_1166 by wfournier, on Flickr


IMG_1162 by wfournier, on Flickr

 

[BonsaiNut]

It still is almost completely bleached, but the key is "almost". I believe I see brown color coming back.

 

[wfournier]

Seems to me it has really been taking off lately, it may be in my head but it has gotten noticeably bigger in the last week or so:


IMG_1174 by wfournier, on Flickr


IMG_1176 by wfournier, on Flickr

 

[Ethan_W]

it looks like it's coloring up nicely

 

[trueblackpercula]

feed whole shrimp no tail soaked in vitchem or selcon before feeding it to your Gigantea. By the wat congrats on getting one.

 

[phender]

feed whole shrimp no tail soaked in vitchem or selcon before feeding it to your Gigantea. By the wat congrats on getting one.

IME, feeding whole large food is a bad idea. It might work for a while, but eventually you are going to get a piece that doesn't get digested before it fouls inside your anemone.

 

[trueblackpercula]

IME, feeding whole large food is a bad idea. It might work for a while, but eventually you are going to get a piece that doesn't get digested before it fouls inside your anemone.

Can please tell us more about the correct food? I never knew that thanks for the info. I never had any problems with my advice but live and learn.

 

[SkullV]

Can please tell us more about the correct food? I never knew that thanks for the info. I never had any problems with my advice but live and learn.

Chopped shrimp, krill, fish flesh, or Mysis is the way to go. The smaller the pieces the faster your anemone will be able to digest them. When you feed a large piece of food it will often start to rot in the anemone's stomach causing bacterial issues with the anemone and often death.

From Divers Den website:

This anemone is fully quarantined, and is feeding well on a mix of PE Mysis and finely chopped raw shrimp.

 

[phender]

Can please tell us more about the correct food? I never knew that thanks for the info. I never had any problems with my advice but live and learn.

What SkullV posted above.

Haddoni seem to be able to deal with large pieces of food fairly well and regularly catch and eat large fish in our aquariums. IME, and the experiences of several other seasoned anemone keepers on this board, giganteas have been lost after being fed large meals, presumably for the reasons mentioned by SkullV.

Since healthy, established anemones can do just fine without being target fed at all, it makes no sense to me to temp disaster.

 

[trueblackpercula]

What SkullV posted above.

Haddoni seem to be able to deal with large pieces of food fairly well and regularly catch and eat large fish in our aquariums. IME, and the experiences of several other seasoned anemone keepers on this board, giganteas have been lost after being fed large meals, presumably for the reasons mentioned by SkullV.

Since healthy, established anemones can do just fine without being target fed at all, it makes no sense to me to temp disaster.

This is amazing information does anyone have any papers written on this aa i would love to read more on it.
Thanks

 

[phender]

This is amazing information does anyone have any papers written on this aa i would love to read more on it.
Thanks

Its not anything new. I don't know of any papers (that doesn't mean they don't exist). My opinions are based on my 30 years of keeping anemones and 20+ years of correspondence with other anemone keepers.

 

[trueblackpercula]

Its not anything new. I don't know of any papers (that doesn't mean they don't exist). My opinions are based on my 30 years of keeping anemones and 20+ years of correspondence with other anemone keepers.

Oh its not something that has been shown to be true? So this is based on your personal experiances? ok

 

[Rod Buehler]

Oh its not something that has been shown to be true? So this is based on your personal experiances? ok

I dont have the links, but I have read articles that stated that when studied, the gut contents of S. gigantea, show mainly tiny copepods. My 17 + years of keeping gigantea can confirm that smaller particles are indeed best for them. An occasional large piece of meat wont kill them, but it does take more energy to digest, than the energy they gain from such a large piece. I rarely directly feen mine, but it does get some food almost every day (whatever small particles make it past the fish)

 

[Conrad25]

Feeding small pieces of food to a anemone is the way to go. I have had a gig for the last 6 months that colored up great and now a recovering Mag for the last month and a half. They can digest smaller pieces way quicker than large chunks of food. Just take it as how we eat our food. We can't swallow a whole steak, so why make another creature do that when its wasting its strength and harder on its system to take it all down. Also soaking it in selcon will help dramatically with coloring up