where to find a Merten's?

D

DrDNA

New member
Hi all,

While my tank (and me) are still not quite ready to try a Merten's carpet, where would you even go about finding one? My tank is 8' long so I could definitely have the room for one someday. Our LFS around here don't ever seem to have them, most of them only ID anemones as "carpets" and are usually haddonis. Did those of you who have one get it from a LFS or did you have to mail order it from a place like Divers Den (Liveaquaria)?

Thanks! -Jeff
 
From my tank lol.
No really though, its really a hit and miss thing. You have to know what your looking for first. And be prepared to wait a long time. I stumbled upon mine in a lfs that had it labeled as a carpet, but as soon as i saw it i knew what it was. Besides phender i don't know of any one keeping a merten's. He has too and i believe he found those at wholesaler's in l.a.
I have never seen one on divers den also. Good luck in your search, i wish you luck. I will keep my eye out and keep ya in mind if i find one.
 
yeah hopefully one of these days I will come across one that is also healthy. whenever I go into a LFS I check their "carpets" to see if they have something rare in there that they didn't notice or misidentified. too bad haddonis don't get that big, although mine has already several fish that had issues.
 
Mertensii

Mertensii

I have been seeing red/pink S.Mertensii coming in. Most dealers ID these guys as carpet or S. Haddoni( I did that , too). They are not as sticky as S. Haddoni, very similar to S. gigantea in appearance and behavior and I have been calling it Mertgantea:)

These are very large anemones, almost two feet wide. The verrucaes are much darker than the green /brown S. Mertensii I have. Here is a pic: http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r111/shutiny/TwofootREDcarpet014.jpg
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r111/shutiny/TwofootREDcarpet017.jpg

I think I saw another one on line(can't be 100% sure is Mertensii from the pic), pm me for the site URL if you would like to check it out.
 
Yes, it seems they are also hard to locate because, as you said, a lot of dealers call them, haddonis, and giganteas "carpets". I wonder if they do indeed hybridize? It has always amazed me how little we actually know about the natural life history and taxonomies of many of the organisms we keep...
 
Not so sure those pictures you posted are of mertenssi sp. Look at the verrucue on mine. Nothing like the red one you posted.
They are pretty unique and alot denser and go down the entire foot of the anemone. I think that red is haddoni.
underside3.jpg

underside2.jpg

underside.jpg

And just for fun for the thread here is a fullpic of it.
anemone.jpg
 
No, I am not 100% sure it is Mertensii or gigantea but I am pretty sure they are not "pure S. Haddoni". When you see all of them together in same tank ( I got a few), you could see the major cheracteristic differences.

About two years ago, I got a first shipment of "red carpet". These are text book S. Haddoni looking animals. I think there is a pic of it on page 4 or 5 of my pic gallery:
http://s142.photobucket.com/albums/r111/shutiny/?start=40
Go down to the bottom of page, in a white bowl, I belive.

Last June, I got a Mertensii form the East Coast and it had orange/brown verrucaes all the way down to the base of its foot.
Oral disc is floppy, and long tentacles surounding the mouth.
But, today the same Mertensii only has got cerrucaes left on upper portion of its oral disc. Some lines at the base of its foot, but no verrucae that I could be seen in between.

The red and pink ones I got, only has verrucae on top portion of its oral discs, very folppy oral disc like the brown/green Mertensii, and large and long tentacle surrounding its mouth. I'll try to get some pic and add to my site later.

Further more, its tetacles vibrates like Gigantea. Now, I am more confused. Where are the experts when we needed them:)
 
We always use the orange/red or purple spots going down to the foot as one of the characteristics in IDing a mertens, but I don't really know if "all" mertens show the spots or just most of them. I have not seen all the color varieties of mertens and even Fautin and Allen have only seen a small percentage of the population. We know their book is wrong about mertens on at least a couple other counts.

I am no more an expert than you guys. I just happen to have kept a couple. I know Shutiny has a mertens (besides the red one in question) and so has a pretty good idea of the other unique characteristics. I might add that I had a blue haddoni that was very mertens-like. Other than the lack of spots, the thing that finally conviced me 100% was the strength and thickness of the column. Although the mertens' food can be very large, its column is whimpy. On my 24" mertens the column was only about 4" in diameter. A haddoni of that size would have a column in the neighhood of 8" across.

I would like to see a picture of the complete animal before I have an opinion and a picture with the skirt flipped up if possible.

Here is a pic of the blue haddoni that had me second guessing myself. It also chose to live in the rocks rather than in the sand.
BlueCarpet.jpg
 
Very nice Haddoni, Phil. Your blue Haddoni looks very much like my large teal green one. I was wondering if it was a mix breed of Haddoni and Mertensii.

My Mertensii has lost a lot of verrucaes at the mid section of its trunk, and here is a recent pic: http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r111/shutiny/Feb.jpg

The pink one in question just looks different from mine Haddoni, gigantea and mertensii. The foot is now deep into the rock and hope it will change position so I could get a picture of its trunk.
Here is a pic of the same anemone:
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r111/shutiny/Carpetanemones002.jpg
 
From the last pic, I think that the trunk is way to substantial to be a mertens. I am leaning towards haddoni.
I do agree with you that there seem to be some "in between" anemones that show characteristics of more than one species.
 
Thanks Phil. I do see it has very large trunk, unlike the Merttensii in the same tank. May be the two new red ones are from different region/area than the old ones.
 
that is the same one from my LFS? It had so many verrucaes... Click thumbnail for more pics
<table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/Flighty/SMartensiiAtLFS/photo#4951276323569926162"><img src="http://lh4.google.com/image/Flighty/RLZ3lVMwABI/AAAAAAAAAFI/Jr8Fo2__hDA/s288/dsc09677.jpg"></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:66%; text-align:right">From <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/Flighty/SMartensiiAtLFS">S.martensii a...</a></td></tr></table>
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9392298#post9392298 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Flighty
that is the same one from my LFS? It had so many verrucaes... Click thumbnail for more pics
<table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/Flighty/SMartensiiAtLFS/photo#4951276323569926162"><img src="http://lh4.google.com/image/Flighty/RLZ3lVMwABI/AAAAAAAAAFI/Jr8Fo2__hDA/s288/dsc09677.jpg"></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:66%; text-align:right">From <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/Flighty/SMartensiiAtLFS">S.martensii a...</a></td></tr></table>
Click to expand...

Cindy,

I still got the one from your area LFS but the color has changed to brown/green with purple under tone. Most of the verrucaes are gone from the mid section, although some verrucaes do reappear at different times. It has grown a lot since you have seen it. There are new pictures at my photobucket pages.
The base of its foot has lines that made of verrucaes but not individual dots, but continuos line.

My questions were about two new red ones that look a lot like Mertensii/Gigantea/Haddoni.
Thanks and hope all is well with you

Shu Tin
 
This is all very interesting about IDing these different species. It does make one wonder if the haddoni and mertens anemones do hybridize, or perhaps there are additional species that look intermediate to these two. A haddoni that I have seems to like to attach to rocks and doesn't really seem interested in being buried in the sand. But, it does not have any colored verrucae and does have the typical reddish mouth of a haddoni.

I am just going to keep my eyes open at the LFS and maybe someday will run across one.

Also, do any of you who have merten's also have a wavebox in your tank? The haddonis I have (and have had) generally don't seem to like the back-and-forth wave motion, I have had to put them in a really sheltered location.
 
My mertenssi starts moving around and does not like alot of flow. I had to cut the flow Way down to get it to be happy and stay put.
 
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