billysprout
Well-Known Member
Hi everyone,
Starting a thread to document my journey attempting to collect & keep stichodactyla gigantea carpet anemones. I've seen a lot of gig issues & losses reported on this site so I thought I should share the success I've had so far.
My goal for this endeavor is to collect 4-5 colors of gigantea and keep them throughout my adult life. Also learned today that I want to attempt to spawn them.
The moral of this thread is that keeping these noodly blankets is plausible even for a lazy reefer like myself. If you can find them.
Gig 2 glam shot. This light causes phyto blooms every month or so, hence the extra green tinge.
Butt first, some numbers!
Salinity: 30.5 ppt / 1.023 sg
Temp: 81 F
Tank: 15 gallon display w/ HOB skimmer. plumbed into 120 gallon system
Light: Halo TGS LED flood light (120W equivalent, warm white spectrum, currently on 1500 lumen setting due to phyto bloom)
Flow: Hygger mini wavemaker set to nutrient transfer
Clownfish: Female C-Quest Onyx Picasso, Male wild-caught true perc
Sources: Amazing Aquariums and Reefs (local pickup), Corals Anonymous (local pickup), Pasadena Tropical Fish (local pickup), Harry's Marine Life (local pickup)
And some documentation of my methods:
Specimen Health Assessment
I can't find my original source thread for this, does this sound familiar to anyone? It was a thread ranking the health of anemones based on their symptoms.
Gig 1: Sad beginnings
Ali from AAR got in a blue gigantea, but it was terminally infected before he even received it. Zero out of five health checks. I bought it (despite his warnings) and attempted to resuscitate.
I didn't succeed. I don't think I even have pictures because it was a limp salty donut from day 1. Even with advanced image search that'd be difficult to pull up on my phone.
I'm only sharing my failure in the interest of transparency. I bullied Ali into selling me it and I'm sure his supplier shipped it healthy too. I think I could have saved it if I knew what I know now, but that's the life of a gig farmer.
Gig 2: Happy Seconds
I promise it's all good news from here! Next up was a brown anemone with a green foot (sold as "Wintermint") from Corals Anonymous. I drove a couple hours to pick it up to avoid the shipping gamble, and it was very healthy from day 1. kudos to CoralsAnon for the great specimen!
Brown is probably the least desirable color for a gigantea, but the way this anemone shines in the fake sun is awe-inspiring. Like the other colors, there's a distinct gradient on the tentacles between the base color and a lighter, almost iridescent tip.
Gig 2 in treatment tank showing off its foot
Gig 2 in the display, somewhat showing off the tentacle gradients. Mama perc doesn't trust my camera
Gig 3: Weird Thirds
This one is from Pasadena Tropical Fish, another local pickup. It was completely white except for a blue foot, and has very light verucae. It's always had very strong footing, but it had a loose mouth for the first few days of treatment. It still does not have a feeding/sting response but is slowly extending its tentacles. I almost lost it to a weird microbe or something in the quarantine tank that was staining the water a dark brown. I started a fresh quarantine tank and triggered a small deflate before resetting the treatment timer and it's now healthy and looking better every day.
During treatment it started to exhibit a green or yellow tint to the mouth and inner tentacles. I haven't heard of white gigantea existing in the wild, so I'm betting it will continue to color up after continued care.
Coloration and tentacle extension was much more progressed before the weird brown water issues.
Gig 3 looking 'bald' and bleached after finishing its second round of treatment and moving to display
blue foot pics from when i moved it from a mug to a crappy deli cup. tentacles have extended further since this photo
Withdrawn after the suspected stinging event, but still with longer tentacles. yellow/green coloration is very subtle under white lights.
The weird thing is I think I just missed Gigs 2 and 3 stinging each other? They were nearly touching yesterday morning, but when I came back to the tank a few minutes later to move them, both nems had retracted from where the point of contact would be. Gig 2 is now roaming around on its tubing and Gig 3 is a bit more withdrawn than usual.
I'm going to test out this theory again next week once everyone is settled down. Given the blue foot and the shorter tentacles, gig 3 might be a haddoni/gig hybrid. Not sure if that would explain a sting reaction, though.
Gig 4: Once more, with color!
Harry's Marine Life got in two green gigantea from Sri Lanka. It's currently in treatment and improving quickly after a rough start. It passed all health checks in the shop except the mouth check, it was nestled up to its companion in the shop and I believe I checked the wrong mouth.
It quickly deteriorated in the bag to the point where I couldn't distinguish its mouth from its foot through the plastic. Upon acclimation, it only passed two of the five health checks: sting response on the outer tentacles and a weak grip on the foot. It deteriorated from there until I caught it mid-deflate as I mentioned above. Either my timing or the general course of the treatment paid off; it's now doing great and is only struggling to close its mouth.
After acclimation. See how the tentacles also look weird around the mouth? No sting response from the inner tentacles as of this photo.
Horrible picture of the worst deflate, I was panicking so I didn't re-take it.
Looked great after the bad deflate, but it was still very sick.
Second deflate, it had also detached its foot and fallen mouth-down. Very gross.
State as of last night with a bit of expelled medication (maybe?) around the mouth. I haven't caught another deflate, but it's still failing the mouth check more often than not. Cautiously optimistic!
Next Steps
I need to aquascape this display tank, it's boring af.
I want a blue s. gigantea once the green is done with treatment. Anyone selling one?
I might not pursue spawning until I have some more attractive color variants besides my green. Maybe Gig 3 is actually a gig and it can pair with Gig 4? Time will tell
Bonus pic of the tank in the middle of an algae bloom. The male clownfish hides in Gig 3 when his wife gets violent. He thinks he can fix her.
Starting a thread to document my journey attempting to collect & keep stichodactyla gigantea carpet anemones. I've seen a lot of gig issues & losses reported on this site so I thought I should share the success I've had so far.
My goal for this endeavor is to collect 4-5 colors of gigantea and keep them throughout my adult life. Also learned today that I want to attempt to spawn them.
The moral of this thread is that keeping these noodly blankets is plausible even for a lazy reefer like myself. If you can find them.
Gig 2 glam shot. This light causes phyto blooms every month or so, hence the extra green tinge.
Butt first, some numbers!
Salinity: 30.5 ppt / 1.023 sg
Temp: 81 F
Tank: 15 gallon display w/ HOB skimmer. plumbed into 120 gallon system
Light: Halo TGS LED flood light (120W equivalent, warm white spectrum, currently on 1500 lumen setting due to phyto bloom)
Flow: Hygger mini wavemaker set to nutrient transfer
Clownfish: Female C-Quest Onyx Picasso, Male wild-caught true perc
Sources: Amazing Aquariums and Reefs (local pickup), Corals Anonymous (local pickup), Pasadena Tropical Fish (local pickup), Harry's Marine Life (local pickup)
And some documentation of my methods:
Specimen Health Assessment
I can't find my original source thread for this, does this sound familiar to anyone? It was a thread ranking the health of anemones based on their symptoms.
- Mouth is firmly closed in a tight line or pucker (not including feeding response)
- Foot is firmly attached to substrate or container at multiple points and has no signs of injury or infection. responds to touch
- polyps are plump and inflated and the specimen responds to touch
- poop is once daily at max, is low volume and doesn't involve deflation/inflation (remove poop from tank manually if treating)
- If all other bullets are met, test sting and feeding response with a thawed bit of shrimp or squid. don't test sting with your finger unless you know you're not allergic
- I use OrionN's instructions , but I combine Cipro with equal doses of Erythromycin and Amoxicillin and a dash (3ml per 5 gallons) of AcroPower. It's the trio used in KungFu Corals dip regimen, and the amino acids theoretically incentivize the anemone to absorb the treated water more quickly.
- I use an eggcrate insert to protect the nem from the heater and powerhead.
- I use a sponge filter instead of powerhead if the foot isn't attaching reliably. The egg crate prevents a nem smoothie either way, but nems seem to deteriorate a lot more quickly if they are flipped upside down (especially if the mouth is open)
- I use an empty mug (or transparent cup if I need to inspect the foot) to hold gigantea or a mug filled with sand for haddoni.
- Used ABX water is aged on my balcony for 2-3 days, then bleached before dumping.
- I treat for 1 week if no symptoms are seen, then quarantine for an additional two weeks.
- Once treatment is done, I use 50% water from my display tank in water changes on the quarantined nem to check for compatibility with whatever microbiome the display has, including any trace amounts of infectious bacteria that the treated nems have grown to tolerate.
- I'm considering adding a UV sterilizer to the regimen during the day, maybe two hours after lights are on. This would theoretically help reduce the active proliferation of bacteria that the anemone expels, either through excretion or through squeezing out the water if I miss a mid-day deflation. The two-hour delay would maintain the therapeutic lifespan of the previous night's dose of antibiotics. My main worry is that water quality might deteriorate due to the nightly nuking of any nitrifiers in the water.
- The most important improvement I made to my own practicum is if I see the gig deflated, I immediately turn off the lights, do a 100% water change, administer a new dose of antibiotics, and replace the sponge filter.
- I caught a huge deflation (pictures below for the bold-of-heart) on Gig 4 last week and saw almost immediate relief of symptoms. I believe I shaved a good week or two off of the recovery timeline.
- I have noticed that a nem that is recovered enough to attach its foot, but still sick, i can usually trigger its deflation by turning the lights on and off again for five minutes each.
Gig 1: Sad beginnings
Ali from AAR got in a blue gigantea, but it was terminally infected before he even received it. Zero out of five health checks. I bought it (despite his warnings) and attempted to resuscitate.
I didn't succeed. I don't think I even have pictures because it was a limp salty donut from day 1. Even with advanced image search that'd be difficult to pull up on my phone.
I'm only sharing my failure in the interest of transparency. I bullied Ali into selling me it and I'm sure his supplier shipped it healthy too. I think I could have saved it if I knew what I know now, but that's the life of a gig farmer.
Gig 2: Happy Seconds
I promise it's all good news from here! Next up was a brown anemone with a green foot (sold as "Wintermint") from Corals Anonymous. I drove a couple hours to pick it up to avoid the shipping gamble, and it was very healthy from day 1. kudos to CoralsAnon for the great specimen!
Brown is probably the least desirable color for a gigantea, but the way this anemone shines in the fake sun is awe-inspiring. Like the other colors, there's a distinct gradient on the tentacles between the base color and a lighter, almost iridescent tip.
Gig 2 in treatment tank showing off its foot
Gig 2 in the display, somewhat showing off the tentacle gradients. Mama perc doesn't trust my camera
Gig 3: Weird Thirds
This one is from Pasadena Tropical Fish, another local pickup. It was completely white except for a blue foot, and has very light verucae. It's always had very strong footing, but it had a loose mouth for the first few days of treatment. It still does not have a feeding/sting response but is slowly extending its tentacles. I almost lost it to a weird microbe or something in the quarantine tank that was staining the water a dark brown. I started a fresh quarantine tank and triggered a small deflate before resetting the treatment timer and it's now healthy and looking better every day.
During treatment it started to exhibit a green or yellow tint to the mouth and inner tentacles. I haven't heard of white gigantea existing in the wild, so I'm betting it will continue to color up after continued care.
Coloration and tentacle extension was much more progressed before the weird brown water issues.
Gig 3 looking 'bald' and bleached after finishing its second round of treatment and moving to display
blue foot pics from when i moved it from a mug to a crappy deli cup. tentacles have extended further since this photo
Withdrawn after the suspected stinging event, but still with longer tentacles. yellow/green coloration is very subtle under white lights.
The weird thing is I think I just missed Gigs 2 and 3 stinging each other? They were nearly touching yesterday morning, but when I came back to the tank a few minutes later to move them, both nems had retracted from where the point of contact would be. Gig 2 is now roaming around on its tubing and Gig 3 is a bit more withdrawn than usual.
I'm going to test out this theory again next week once everyone is settled down. Given the blue foot and the shorter tentacles, gig 3 might be a haddoni/gig hybrid. Not sure if that would explain a sting reaction, though.
Gig 4: Once more, with color!
Harry's Marine Life got in two green gigantea from Sri Lanka. It's currently in treatment and improving quickly after a rough start. It passed all health checks in the shop except the mouth check, it was nestled up to its companion in the shop and I believe I checked the wrong mouth.
It quickly deteriorated in the bag to the point where I couldn't distinguish its mouth from its foot through the plastic. Upon acclimation, it only passed two of the five health checks: sting response on the outer tentacles and a weak grip on the foot. It deteriorated from there until I caught it mid-deflate as I mentioned above. Either my timing or the general course of the treatment paid off; it's now doing great and is only struggling to close its mouth.
After acclimation. See how the tentacles also look weird around the mouth? No sting response from the inner tentacles as of this photo.
Horrible picture of the worst deflate, I was panicking so I didn't re-take it.
Looked great after the bad deflate, but it was still very sick.
Second deflate, it had also detached its foot and fallen mouth-down. Very gross.
State as of last night with a bit of expelled medication (maybe?) around the mouth. I haven't caught another deflate, but it's still failing the mouth check more often than not. Cautiously optimistic!
Next Steps
I need to aquascape this display tank, it's boring af.
I want a blue s. gigantea once the green is done with treatment. Anyone selling one?
I might not pursue spawning until I have some more attractive color variants besides my green. Maybe Gig 3 is actually a gig and it can pair with Gig 4? Time will tell
Bonus pic of the tank in the middle of an algae bloom. The male clownfish hides in Gig 3 when his wife gets violent. He thinks he can fix her.
