Stichodactyla gigantea, Brown gigant carpet anemone
- Thread starter Cope
- Start date
Clones don't wage war with each other, outside of that one large delicate anemone is enough in a single system.
Good luck with it, you have a rare opportunity to keep a species most of us will not be able to find in healthy condition.
Gary Majchrzak
Team RC
traveller7 is right.
You are very lucky to have what appears to be a healthy gigantea carpet anemone. Perhaps you don't realize what you have. Many people would pay several hundreds of dollars for that particular anemone.
Stichodactyla gigantea is perhaps the most challenging fish host anemone species to maintain. (Make sure to read the Anemone FAQ at the top of this forum.)
Don't mess around with a Condylactis in the same aquarium. In fact, I wouldn't recommend doing anything that might jeopardize the health of your gigantea. If you have questions regarding a gigantea anemone I would seek the advice of those that successfully maintain one- I see too many replies from people that don't know what they're talking about to start refuting bad information.
IME lack of brisk water motion and lack of intense lighting are reasons many gigantea fail to thrive in captivity. The number one cause of death in this species of anemone is most likely caused by the stresses incurred from collection, importation and acclimation. If you have a healthy gigantea in your aquarium you're a very fortunate reekeeper
Up date
Well here it is last night right before lights out. Looking great
Heres a decent pick of the blue spots on its underside, just for fun.
It closes up at night, and thought folks might like to see.
And Today? It has removed it's foot from the rock? Hummmmm....
I'm pretty sure this is not a good thing? I will let you all know how it turns out.
Thanks for looking
Cope
Well here it is last night right before lights out. Looking great
Heres a decent pick of the blue spots on its underside, just for fun.
It closes up at night, and thought folks might like to see.
And Today? It has removed it's foot from the rock? Hummmmm....
I'm pretty sure this is not a good thing? I will let you all know how it turns out.
Thanks for looking
Cope
Fairly classic S. gigantea positioning, don't panic it appears firmly attached.
IMHO, nice shot of the column under the oral disk, purple spots like that confirm the ID.
Perhaps you've mentioned earlier in the thread, but if you aren't running activated carbon continuously (small quantity of carbon and change out weekly--ala Anthony Calfo for allelopathy minimization strategy) and skimming heavily I suggest you do so as long as the condy is in the tank (and always) along with good husbandry in general.
allelopathy minimization strategy
Could you explain this to me?
I googled it and got some strange hits.
I will be returning the condy to day. It's said bucuse I got it all bleached and shriveled, now it is a nice healthy brown and fat.
Oh well what ever it takes to keep the carpet happy.
To remove the condy is going to require some re aqua scaping, I hope this wont be to bad for the carpet? I had heard about touching the anemone base with an icecube to get it to release? any one done this, dose it work?
Thanks
Cope
Could you explain this to me?
I googled it and got some strange hits.
I will be returning the condy to day. It's said bucuse I got it all bleached and shriveled, now it is a nice healthy brown and fat.
Oh well what ever it takes to keep the carpet happy.
To remove the condy is going to require some re aqua scaping, I hope this wont be to bad for the carpet? I had heard about touching the anemone base with an icecube to get it to release? any one done this, dose it work?
Thanks
Cope
Gary Majchrzak
Team RC
I'm glad you took my advice regarding removing the Condylactis.
I would strongly recommend not removing gigantea from the rock it's attached to. This can be a life or death decision. Leave the anemone attached to the rock. If necessary, move the entire rock along with the anemone or don't move the anemone at all.
I would strongly recommend not removing gigantea from the rock it's attached to. This can be a life or death decision. Leave the anemone attached to the rock. If necessary, move the entire rock along with the anemone or don't move the anemone at all.
Many of as never get as lucky as him with S. gigantea anemone .Well not looking so good right now.
Heres some background on the day. Woke up to it moving it's footing, inflated to looking really good. I figured I would try to feed it some silver side, I cut one up and feed the anemone the meaty sections out of the middle of the fish. Heres the pick.
In this pick it had not taken the silver side yet. Once that chunk of fish touched the anemones mouth it was gone in about 2 or 3 seconds. Heres the pick after eating.
The anemone was so sticky, about 3 or 4 tentacles touched the stick and they were stuck instantly.
Well I fed it in the afternoon, and about an half hour ago it rejected the half digested chunk of fish. Now it looks like this.
It almost looks like it's getting better in the last pick. I hope it is just changing out it's watter and not on the way out? It is still waving it's arms about so that is a good thing.
Man I'm scared to go to bed with this potential bomb in my tank, I hope it makes it.
Heres some background on the day. Woke up to it moving it's footing, inflated to looking really good. I figured I would try to feed it some silver side, I cut one up and feed the anemone the meaty sections out of the middle of the fish. Heres the pick.
In this pick it had not taken the silver side yet. Once that chunk of fish touched the anemones mouth it was gone in about 2 or 3 seconds. Heres the pick after eating.
The anemone was so sticky, about 3 or 4 tentacles touched the stick and they were stuck instantly.
Well I fed it in the afternoon, and about an half hour ago it rejected the half digested chunk of fish. Now it looks like this.
It almost looks like it's getting better in the last pick. I hope it is just changing out it's watter and not on the way out? It is still waving it's arms about so that is a good thing.
Man I'm scared to go to bed with this potential bomb in my tank, I hope it makes it.
delphinus
New member
I would stay away from silversides for at least a month after acclimation, maybe even more .. maybe even never feed silversides, actually - heard too many horror stories of a bad silverside fed to an anemone and the anemone is dead within a week. Doesn't happen often but it happens.
I feed my gigantea carpets a tiny bit of mysis every day or two. I feed mysis daily for my copperbanded butterfly (who won't touch flake or pellet), so there is a little bit of mysis every day that they catch. You'd be surprised how little I target feed actually. If they get 2-3 mysis shrimp in a day, I'd consider that enough. It's easy to overdo feeding and the consequences of overfeeding are far worse than underfeeding. And besides, they are very adept at catching stray leftover food intended for the fish. Be it flake, pellets, or mysis (just not silversides .. I haven't fed a silverside to anemone in years now. I even had a few close calls with silversides so I feel it's just not worth the risk).
Good luck. You should know by now that the first month is going to be very dicey for you. If it lives beyond a month, it will likely be a very strong and undemanding creature from that point forward .. but getting there is the real trick of luck. So many perish without warning during that first month and it's all due to the fact that they come to us in very compromised condition from the collection/wholesale/retail process.
I feed my gigantea carpets a tiny bit of mysis every day or two. I feed mysis daily for my copperbanded butterfly (who won't touch flake or pellet), so there is a little bit of mysis every day that they catch. You'd be surprised how little I target feed actually. If they get 2-3 mysis shrimp in a day, I'd consider that enough. It's easy to overdo feeding and the consequences of overfeeding are far worse than underfeeding. And besides, they are very adept at catching stray leftover food intended for the fish. Be it flake, pellets, or mysis (just not silversides .. I haven't fed a silverside to anemone in years now. I even had a few close calls with silversides so I feel it's just not worth the risk).
Good luck. You should know by now that the first month is going to be very dicey for you. If it lives beyond a month, it will likely be a very strong and undemanding creature from that point forward .. but getting there is the real trick of luck. So many perish without warning during that first month and it's all due to the fact that they come to us in very compromised condition from the collection/wholesale/retail process.
Rod Buehler
New member
I agree.
I very rarely target feed my giganteas (4-5 times in a whole lot of years), but I do feed my clowns heavily enough so there is small pieces of food in the water column that the anemones get. I have never feed a silverside to m,y giganteas
Regardless of what you are going to feed it, let it settle in first. An anemone that size can easily go a month without being target fed anything.
What are you feeding the rest of the tank and what else is in the tank? From the pictures it looks lightly stocked.
What are you feeding the rest of the tank and what else is in the tank? From the pictures it looks lightly stocked.
AM up date.
This guy is an emotional roller coaster, First I find out it's possibly one of the hardest hosting anemones to maintain, Then I find out It could possibly be worth much more than I paid for it. Then It shrinks up, Now it's back to normal.
About the money thing, I'm not looking to sell it, but the fact that it may be worth money, well after I saw that,...I'm like "Great now it's gonna die for sure!"
Tank stock, Most specks in my sig. but here is current stock.
Fish
A pair of small clowns, @ 2.0", 1 Yellow watchman goby, @2.5", 1 stary bleny, @2.5- 3.0", 1 Zebra bar goby, @4.0", 1 Manderian dragonet (male) @ 3.5".
My Little Blue hippo tang (1.5")in is QT still.
2 PJ cardinals in qt, but I have decided to return them to the LFS.(will not be returning to my tank)
I do have some "softies" Shrooms are.. Red, Blue,Blue and Green stripe, and Harry. Some Zoas, and GSP.
Inverts A few Brittle stars, around 10 or less Naz snails ( one black whelk looking one)
Cleaner shrimp 3.5"
I think the cleaner has eaten all my peperments? When I moved rock yesterday to get the condy, I saw none, so I think I may remove them from my sig.
To the folks who responded that they are keeping gigantea, Would you post some picks of yours, I would love to have some others to look at.
Thanks for everyones time and input.
Cope
This guy is an emotional roller coaster, First I find out it's possibly one of the hardest hosting anemones to maintain, Then I find out It could possibly be worth much more than I paid for it. Then It shrinks up, Now it's back to normal.
About the money thing, I'm not looking to sell it, but the fact that it may be worth money, well after I saw that,...I'm like "Great now it's gonna die for sure!"
Tank stock, Most specks in my sig. but here is current stock.
Fish
A pair of small clowns, @ 2.0", 1 Yellow watchman goby, @2.5", 1 stary bleny, @2.5- 3.0", 1 Zebra bar goby, @4.0", 1 Manderian dragonet (male) @ 3.5".
My Little Blue hippo tang (1.5")in is QT still.
2 PJ cardinals in qt, but I have decided to return them to the LFS.(will not be returning to my tank)
I do have some "softies" Shrooms are.. Red, Blue,Blue and Green stripe, and Harry. Some Zoas, and GSP.
Inverts A few Brittle stars, around 10 or less Naz snails ( one black whelk looking one)
Cleaner shrimp 3.5"
I think the cleaner has eaten all my peperments? When I moved rock yesterday to get the condy, I saw none, so I think I may remove them from my sig.
To the folks who responded that they are keeping gigantea, Would you post some picks of yours, I would love to have some others to look at.
Thanks for everyones time and input.
Cope
delphinus
New member
I don't have the greatest pictures, sorry. Here are some of my better attempts:
Here is the brown carpet when I first bought it. A mere 4" in size.. it was like a large mushroom.
One month after purchase:
Here is the green one when I first bought it:
I would consider having surging flow from different directions to be the most important factor with this species. I just use powerheads on a wavemaker and have their flows converge on a focal point nearby to the anemones, so that there is a "wash" of water in one direction, followed by a "wash" of water in a different direction, and so on. I would love to one day try some surge tanks for them. Rod B. has had some success with surge tanks. His website has some really neat videos of the effect (I think it's still online, I haven't seen Rod's webpage in a little while .. think I'll go check it out right now!)
Here is the brown carpet when I first bought it. A mere 4" in size.. it was like a large mushroom.
One month after purchase:
Here is the green one when I first bought it:
I would consider having surging flow from different directions to be the most important factor with this species. I just use powerheads on a wavemaker and have their flows converge on a focal point nearby to the anemones, so that there is a "wash" of water in one direction, followed by a "wash" of water in a different direction, and so on. I would love to one day try some surge tanks for them. Rod B. has had some success with surge tanks. His website has some really neat videos of the effect (I think it's still online, I haven't seen Rod's webpage in a little while .. think I'll go check it out right now!
)
