Stichodactyla gigantea, Brown gigant carpet anemone
- Thread starter Cope
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shane 1111
Premium Member
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12116015#post12116015 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Gary Majchrzak
very nice.
You're not out of the woods just yet, though- your anemone is still acclimating.
Compare the length of your anemones tentacles with those of the other gigantea pictured in this thread. Healthy gigantea should look like a shag carpet.
so if its tentacles r like that its a good sign of health?
mine has started to fully extend it seem that if u find a healthy one and have a good set up the can survive. it seems a lot of people have them.
they r the nicest looking carpet i think
shane 1111
Premium Member
no but i posted about one that looked like mine
elegance coral
They call me EC
Dude, you have done such an awesome job with this anemone!!!!:thumbsup: It is beautiful!
skyrne_isk
Member
A few posts back, someone (maybe gary) mentioned that sometimes they go south after a year or two. I have had my gigantea for several years and it has been irritated for the better part of two weeks and never, never has done something like this to me before. Not to hijack, but other than carbon addition to reduce some allelopathy anything else to do? I run a reactor, pH is around 8 (7.8-8.2), alk is 9-10, SG is 1.025-1.026, nitrates 0, phosphate nothing detectable....but I am sure it is there. I dose vodka and bac......will post a pic of it tonight. It just seems to not want to fully inflate. And Gary is right about the long tentacles getting longer after a month or so of acclimation. This thing is driving me absolutely nuts. It is so disppointing. Any other ideas from those of you who have kept them long-term would be appreciated. Again, sorry for the hijack.
Rod Buehler
New member
I forget if it was Gary or Phil, but one of them helped me realize how important Magnesium levels are with giganteas. Maybe... (shrug)
delphinus
New member
Off the top of my head the two possibilities are 1) something food related, or 2) something predatory.
In the fall I lost my brown, over the course of its decline it would look like it was irritated, then it would get better, then irritated again and got better, but eventually starting receding and stopped feeding and that was it - once they stop eating I don't think there's any turnaround. I never really knew why it suddenly stopped doing well after 5 years.
Recently the same thing started up with my green, which I've had for 4 years. This time I noticed something strange, the side that was irritated was actually wounded (I have pictures of what it looked like but I can't find the thread atm - I'll post back when I find it). I surmised that something in the tank was picking on it. I had a cowry in the tank .. I would never see it since it's nocturnal mostly, but I decided to remove it to the sump once I found it (took some doing, but I did find it). And then I decided to start feeding it daily once the flesh didn't look torn. It has been at least a month now and it is finally starting to show signs of recovery. It seems that even if the flesh isn't still torn, it must take an enormous amount of energy to heal internally because it really shrank down at first (down to 50% of its former size, despite the daily feedings). It is only now starting to show signs of growing once again.
So there's my story to support my theory of predation. It can be the strangest things .. I wouldn't have guessed a small cowry could take down a carpet but who knows. Then again, who knows, maybe it's something else still too. I guess the lesson learned is that even if you've had them for a while, something can happen and you can lose them all of a sudden.
The other thing I've heard about (mainly on here in the amemone forum on RC) is people who think it was feeding them a bad silverside or something. Guess we need to be careful about the foods we offer too then.
In the fall I lost my brown, over the course of its decline it would look like it was irritated, then it would get better, then irritated again and got better, but eventually starting receding and stopped feeding and that was it - once they stop eating I don't think there's any turnaround. I never really knew why it suddenly stopped doing well after 5 years.
Recently the same thing started up with my green, which I've had for 4 years. This time I noticed something strange, the side that was irritated was actually wounded (I have pictures of what it looked like but I can't find the thread atm - I'll post back when I find it). I surmised that something in the tank was picking on it. I had a cowry in the tank .. I would never see it since it's nocturnal mostly, but I decided to remove it to the sump once I found it (took some doing, but I did find it). And then I decided to start feeding it daily once the flesh didn't look torn. It has been at least a month now and it is finally starting to show signs of recovery. It seems that even if the flesh isn't still torn, it must take an enormous amount of energy to heal internally because it really shrank down at first (down to 50% of its former size, despite the daily feedings). It is only now starting to show signs of growing once again.
So there's my story to support my theory of predation. It can be the strangest things .. I wouldn't have guessed a small cowry could take down a carpet but who knows. Then again, who knows, maybe it's something else still too. I guess the lesson learned is that even if you've had them for a while, something can happen and you can lose them all of a sudden.
The other thing I've heard about (mainly on here in the amemone forum on RC) is people who think it was feeding them a bad silverside or something. Guess we need to be careful about the foods we offer too then.
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delphinus
New member
Now that is interesting. Because as a sidebar to my story above, one issue I've been battling is low Mg. It turns out the salt I was using was testing out at Mg=825. I had gotten complacent about testing Mg because it's a so-called premium brand of salt and felt that "surely the Magnesium levels in this salt are good because I paid more for it." I tested it at random chance a couple weeks ago and had my rude awakening, but not before I had done lots of water changes in the tanks which brought down the Mg levels. I've now been pushing Mg back up and it makes me wonder if at least part of the green's recovery is due to the restored Mg levels.
Lesson learned,don't get complacent with Mg testing .. I guess.. thanks for the heads-up!
skyrne_isk
Member
ughhh, now i feel sick. last week i dosed some Mg with epsom salts and got some faomage - which I chalked up to sulfate or just some ionic change. But if my elos kit is off and I OD'd on Mg, this may explain why it is not wanting to fully open. Good news is that the mouth is closed and it is turgid, but not "open". I got a pic on my iphone, but cant figure out how to get in posted here from work. I will post it tonight and would LOVE to hear what you all think it looks like is going on. But the Mg thing has me worried - I never mention things like that so as not to make others suggestible to what I am already thinking. But for you to pull it out of the air.....worrisome
Some photos about a year ago.
Some photos about a year ago.
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