Finally in the Club...My new Nem!!!

[westohooligan]

So, my friend who just opened his on store knew I was trying to find an S. Gigantea. So, he contacted his guy at SDC who sent us a video on Youtube of a really cool green one. I said no problem as long as it is fairly small and reasonably priced. So, they tagged it and sent it to the store. To my and the owner's surprise, this is what we got!

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7062/6793890198_a51a499436_b.jpg

[aljan]

wowwwww

[garygb]

Very lucky to get such a nice color. It looks good. I wish you the best of luck. With anemones such as gigantea and magnificas, it's the initial acclimation period that can be dicey. Once they're established, they are quite resilient.

[m758b033]

*drools*

[stickleback]

Really nice. Lucky man

[Gig 'em]

WOW! Lucky, what did you end up paying for it?

[westohooligan]

$85.00.

[Deepsea2005]

Wow, very nice Blue Gig.
I've been looking one for months.

[westohooligan]

You know, I wasn't expecting a blue one at all. The youtube video sent to me from SDC showed a really lime green one, super bright. So I was happy thinking I was going to get a green one, but when the owner of the LFS texted me when he got it, we were both really surprised! I'm just hoping it doesn't wander into my MP40 or Haddoni while I'm at work today... It seemed pretty happy where I put it, but you never know with those things.

[EdKruzel]

Awesome looking and at a reasonable price.

Best of Luck!

[Malign Reefer]

Very nice color..

[westohooligan]

Well, it stayed put, so must be happy there. No wandering, but I'm keeping the Vortech at very close to the lowest setting... Here are some more pics I took, slightly surprised they turned out as well as they did from my phone:

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7184/6943767359_6f2d6c76f1_b.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7202/6943771657_e92b5647d0_b.jpg


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hb6zNu1NIQE&context=C3c72efaADOEgsToPDskJWXuY0xKTTEnPvAy0VAPb1

[ILLiDaN]

Nice Catch!

[garygb]

S. gigantea need strong water flow and excellent water quality, especially while acclimating. You will want to have nitrates undetectable, sg 1.026-1.027, temp 80-82F, protein skimming and activated carbon, preferably.

[kaxt]

That's an awesome color- I'm very jealous

[westohooligan]

Thanks for joining in Gary! I always read your posts with great interest. I've been pretty successful with a Haddoni, but I wanted a gig really badly. Something I've noticed last night and tonight; after lights go out, it retracts pretty fast, then slowly expands back out. Is this something to be concerned with?

[sqwat]

love those colors man.u need a couple of mexicano turbos to get working on that algea you got growing.they will do the trick.

[elegance coral]

Most gigantea keepers agree that if you can see the anemone wiggling it's tentacles, like in your video, the flow is not strong enough. I believe, this is an adaptation for dealing with the harsh conditions in stagnant tide pools, or calm lagoons between tides, where gas exchange is low. This would be a beneficial ability in such a situation, but it would require a great deal of energy. Newly imported anemones typically don't have the energy reserves to keep up with constant activity like this. IMHO If you increase the flow, the anemone will stop moving its tentacles.

[garygb]

I wouldn't be concerned with what you're describing. That sounds like a normal reaction to the change of light. On the other hand, an open mouth and frequent cycles of deflation is something to keep an eye out for. That could signal a problem.

[westohooligan]

Gary, shot you a PM with some questions.

Thought I might get some feedback. Yesterday the thing looked BAD. Mouth was gaping...
And it detached from the rock. I put it back on, and changed my setting on my MP40 to lagoon random and cranked it up all the way. Within a few minutes, it closed its mouth again and this morning was reattached to the rock. Oh and it is deflating/inflating pretty often. Just for info: 250W HQI lighting, Bubble Magus NAC 3.5 cone, running a brand new bag of Seagel, and did my weekly change on Saturday of 5 gallons. SG is 1.026. It did look better this morning, but I'm not giving into hope of a recovery. Any chances or did I just flush some cash? Keep in mind I've been a reef keeper for nearly 5 years, so not an expert by any means, but I felt relatively certain I was ready to try a Gigantea due to my Hadodni doing so well. That and a bunch of my clownfish fry dying this weekend, it was for sure one of those, "What the hell am I doing in this hobby?", weekends.

[westohooligan]

Ugh...double post.

[D-Nak]

The inflate/deflate cycle is not a good sign. Has it been releasing any sort of dark colored gunk?

A couple other things to consider:

1. What is your pH? I've talked to a few folks and the consensus is that it should be at 8.3 and the less fluctuation the better. HOWEVER, if you're way off the mark right now, it would probably stress out the nem more if you quickly tried to adjust it to 8.3.

2. What are your calcium levels like? Based on my experience (and only my experience) I don't think gigs like changes in calcium, such as those that occur when dosing kalkwasser. I don't think it's due to the calcium itself, but the results that occur due to dosing (primarily pH increase).

3. Others may disagree with me on this one, but I believe that gigs should be acclimated to light, especially when partially bleached or when spewing zooxanthellae. I had a gig that would retract at the same time every night. I attributed this to too long of a photo period. I would start with a shorter time with the lights on, shading if possible. If the gig wants more light, it'll either try to move to expand more. The drawback to this, is that it requires energy on the part of the anemone, and if it's already weakened, this may cause more harm then good (hence the controversy).

Keep us posted. I lot of us are keeping tallies on the success rate of gigantea. Good luck!

[westohooligan]

Thanks for the reply. No it's not spewing anything or melting. I didn't even think of checking my PH! Duh...haven't done that in a LONG time. There is kalk in my top off. Maybe I'll clean that out. I'm running home over lunch to see what it looks like. On a personal and professional level; this weekend has been terrible...

[reefbooger]

My gigantea turned into a complete weirdo when i upgraded my lights from VHOs to LEDs. Too much of a shock I guess. That was almost a year ago and i still have to adjust my photoperiod to accommodate him. Could be your water params though. definitly one or the other.

[Miss Nano]

Wow, your anemone is gorgeous!

[westohooligan]

Well, I'm pretty sure it's a goner... This morning it looked pretty bad. It was shrunk quite a bit and the mouth was opened to about the size of a quarter. It was still attached to the rock, but I'm sure when the MP40 went out of night mode, it will probably get blown off. I should have taken it out this morning, but didn't have time... Terrible I know.

What a craptastic weekend I've had as a hobbyist...

[D-Nak]

The unfortunate part about this is that the mortality rate for gigantea is probably close to 90%. We just haven't figured out an acclimation process that consistently works. Many believe that they are on their deathbed due to the collection process and nothing can be done once we receive them. I've spoken to a few LFS and they simply choose not to bring them in for customers.

I only know one person who gets gigs on a regular basis and quarantines them before selling. He has a three week+ process to acclimate the gigs and only ships via airport to airport to keep the transportation time to a minimum. This may very well be the type of dedication needed to bring these into a captive environment.

[charleneatkins]

good luck with your new baby!!! gor gi ous!!!

[westohooligan]

The unfortunate part about this is that the mortality rate for gigantea is probably close to 90%. We just haven't figured out an acclimation process that consistently works. Many believe that they are on their deathbed due to the collection process and nothing can be done once we receive them. I've spoken to a few LFS and they simply choose not to bring them in for customers.

I only know one person who gets gigs on a regular basis and quarantines them before selling. He has a three week+ process to acclimate the gigs and only ships via airport to airport to keep the transportation time to a minimum. This may very well be the type of dedication needed to bring these into a captive environment.


That's the consensus I've pretty much come to. I can't seem to find any conclusive info online from anyone as far as a fool proof way to keep them alive. I know it was flown here from Sea Dwelling Creatures though. The owner of my LFS went and picked it up. I may just have to get a nice colored haddoni and call it good. I already have a "mint greenish" one and it is doing great.

[D-Nak]

On the scale of carpet anemone level of difficulty, if gigantea rates a 10 for being the hardest to keep (mostly to acclimate actually, once established the consensus is that they are hardy), then haddoni probably rates at a 3 or so. They acclimate fairly easily, and unlike gigs which come in looking decent, then last about a month and die, sick haddoni usually look bad from the beginning.

To me, this is what is most frustrating about gigs. They actually look "okay" when they arrive at the wholesaler and even the LFS. In terms of color, when they don't show signs of bleaching the color actually looks better to me, since the brown tinge given off by the zooxanthellae isn't visible (of course, lack of zooxanthellae is not a good thing). It takes a week to a few weeks for them to really take a turn for the worse.

IME, now that I know what a healthy gig looks like, I can tell you that I've never seen a healthy gig come into a LFS, they all just look "okay". Most have short, stubby tentacles that resemble a haddoni and often have slightly gaping mouths, which gets worse over time. Sometimes the siphonglyph is visible.

[westohooligan]

Well it's not dead...yet. I'm actually surprised, but it still isn't looking good.

[2Addicted]

Pictures?

[westohooligan]

No pics... I just checked and it was melting away...not even attached. Adios my friend.