Haddoni/Gigantea?

[Silfer]

What carpet anemone is this? Can you tell from this pic:

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploads/fgfdg.jpg

Also where do haddoni/gigs prefer placement wise? both by sand/rock or can gigs go higher up on rock?

Thanks

[ocellaris123]

Looks haddoni to me. Get a pic of the column and verrucae.

[Silfer]

What's a quick way to tell? As it's in the shop, will be going tomorrow

[ocellaris123]

blue/purple spots on column will signify gigantea.

I am pretty sure its haddoni though

[OrionN]

That is a Haddoni. There is no way that he can be anything other than a Haddoni.

[Silfer]

Don't really want a haddoni with what I read on them eating fish.

[OrionN]

Gigantea eat fish too (first hand experience). There are not a lot of experience with Mertensii, but I think all the carpets eat fish.

[Silfer]

Aye I know, just heard 10x more horror stories regarding haddonis tho lol

[OrionN]

Aye I know, just heard 10x more horror stories regarding haddonis tho lol
That is because there are more than 10 times Haddoni than Gigantea in captivity.
Up until recently there maybe a handful of Gigantea in captivity
Gigantea will as likely or more likely to eat fish than Haddoni

[Silfer]

Not in the uk. Never had an issue finding them and I've been keeping marines for 6 years.

[SDguy]

That is because there are more than 10 times Haddoni than Gigantea in captivity.
Up until recently there maybe a handful of Gigantea in captivity
Gigantea will as likely or more likely to eat fish than Haddoni

I'm surprised to read that. Can you elaborate on your experience, or link to a thread where you do? Thanks.

[downbeach]

That is because there are more than 10 times Haddoni than Gigantea in captivity.
Up until recently there maybe a handful of Gigantea in captivity
Gigantea will as likely or more likely to eat fish than Haddoni

Agreed, I believe there are simply more Haddon's(or misidentified), so by extension more stories. FWIW, I've had my current Haddon's for a number of years, and have never lost a fish to it.

Here is the Fautin-Allen field guide, considered by many to be the standard which to identify the species, and their particular environmental needs.

http://www.nhm.ku.edu/inverts/ebooks/intro.html

Additional reading:

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/carpetanemones.htm
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/ca/volume_6/volume_6_3/capranem.html
http://animal-world.com/Aquarium-Coral-Reefs/Giant-Carpet-Anemone

http://i1226.photobucket.com/albums/ee410/Downbeach88/FTS-2.jpg

[OrionN]

Over the last 10 years, I have keep Haddoni, lost a few fish to them. But over the last 2 years I have lost a Flame angel, a Mandarin and a Leopard wrass to my Gigantea (I got 7 Gigantea at thai time)

[OrionN]

Not in the uk. Never had an issue finding them and I've been keeping marines for 6 years.
I am very interested in anybody who have keep Gigantea more than 3 years ago for any lenght of time. An the picture of the anemone ofcourse. Miss ID are very common

[D-Nak]

Agreed, I believe there are simply more Haddon's(or misidentified), so by extension more stories. FWIW, I've had my current Haddon's for a number of years, and have never lost a fish to it.

Here is the Fautin-Allen field guide, considered by many to be the standard which to identify the species, and their particular environmental needs.

http://www.nhm.ku.edu/inverts/ebooks/intro.html

Additional reading:

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/carpetanemones.htm
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/ca/volume_6/volume_6_3/capranem.html
http://animal-world.com/Aquarium-Coral-Reefs/Giant-Carpet-Anemone

http://i1226.photobucket.com/albums/ee410/Downbeach88/FTS-2.jpg

Please stop sharing those links. Not only does it encourage mis-identification because the photos in the articles aren't correct, but a lot of the information is outdated or incorrect.

[D-Nak]

BTW... it's a haddoni as others have mentioned. Another characteristic of haddoni are the pale stripes. Some believe these are stress-related and tend to fade when the nem settles in. I have never seen these on a gigantea.

[downbeach]

Please stop sharing those links. Not only does it encourage mis-identification because the photos in the articles aren't correct, but a lot of the information is outdated or incorrect.

I don't profess to be an expert, although I have some years of experience, and have found these articles to be very helpful. If you can't rely on the advice of these learned folks where else can you go for the information? These article all seem to corroborate each other, so if they're wrong/incorrect, perhaps you would share with us some information that has corrected/updated these published articles.

[darrenduds20]

Is the carpet of Les m on ur ?

If so he has had a tri colour green crpet just like that for a very long time and it has never lost the stripes .

[D-Nak]

Looks like they're sharing bits and pieces of wrong information, most of it from the same original source.

My biggest issue has to do with the photos -- the red anemone is clearly a haddoni (though it's in the rockwork which is a bit odd). The blue nem also looks like a haddoni. One of the most common questions I see on this forum when it comes to carpet anemones is how to ID a haddoni versus a gigantea. These photos will only confuse people.

Other issues:

"Newly arrived anemones are not a good idea to purchase... Put a deposit down and leave prospective buys at your dealers for a good week."

This is not true. A week in a dealer's tank could kill it, while a week at my house in QT with Cipro could save it.

"Stichodactyla haddoni in a tank in Germany... artificially dyed... and likely to die... avoid such artificially colored specimens." [describing a neon green haddoni]

I've never seen a dyed haddoni. Furthermore, neon green haddoni are seen fairly often.

"How much circulation is advised? Something short of ripping the animals off the rock, but complete and vigorous, non-linear... "

No, it's even questionable if gigantea like a lot of flow. Haddoni definitely do not.

"Carpet Anemones, by virtue of their large size, sometimes "sticky" nature and general lack of hardiness in captivity are not good candidates for asexual propagation (fragmentation, cutting...). But sometimes they do this themselves..."

I don't think we need to re-visit the issue of propagation, but those who read looking for a reason to try something, may read the above statement as a reason to cut it since "sometimes they do this themselves" when the reality is that there isn't a SINGLE case of this happening in captivity that resulted in two healthy carpet anemones.

...

Here's a few more I pulled from the other articles... (and keep in mind that the second article references the first one)

"Like Stichodactyla haddoni, the gigantic carpet anemone will need a deep sand bed in the home aquarium"

"The gigantic carpet anemone occurs in blue, red, green, purple, and pink color morphs." Red and pink?

"Carpet anemones are voracious eaters, and all species should be fed weekly to bi-weekly, depending upon the health and size of the animal and the lighting conditions in the aquarium."

"If you are buying a carpet anemone from a local fish store, have the dealer hold the animal for an entire week at least."

"This anemone can easily cost between $30 for a tan one up to $400 for a red one" A red gigantea, really? I know of only one possible candidate.

"The S. gigantea have not been bred in captivity and rarely do they split on their own. Propagating is not recommended. Anemones in general can multiply by sexual and asexual means. One way is using fission, which is when they actually split in half from the foot or mouth to form a clone, although the clone is its own animal, similar to twins."

I do agree that the articles are good for general consumption, but the reality is that portions of the articles, when taken out of context, can lead (on the extreme end) to the death of the anemone. Rather than point people to these articles, I'd rather that they read the sticky above or ask people in the forum (actual owners, not from authors who may not even have carpet anemones) -- or better yet, do a search on RC first!

[darrenduds20]

What a brilliant explanation.

[Silfer]

Is the carpet of Les m on ur ?

If so he has had a tri colour green crpet just like that for a very long time and it has never lost the stripes .

Yeah it is mate, only pic I could find similar to the one in my LFS lol

[darrenduds20]

Did you get it?

[OrionN]

I think Wet Web Media information on anemones are horrible. From keeping anemones for a long time I can see that the information there are parrot from other sources and the author did not know which information is correct and which is not. He seem to have minimal experiences (if any) with anemone species that he wrote about. It seem none of the pictures are original pictures.
The article on animal-world is a little better IMO

[Reefvette]

I agree with Orion on the anemones eating fish thing.

You have to remember that haddonis and gigantea are more likely to eat different fish.

Mostly haddonis will eat sand dwelling fish that they would come in contact with in the sand. Not so much free swimming fish.

Gigantea are going to come into contact with more free swimming fish and in my expierence are very very sticky and much stronger then a haddoni. I had a 16 inch gigantea eat a 6 inch orange shoulder tang.

Mertens not so much on the fish eating.

[Silfer]

Did you get it?

Going up Saturday to have a look, they are holding it for me. Said the shipping water was cold (was in the minus here when it was delivered) but they said it's looking better already.