New Gigantea( Pics added)

[Monti-Man]

Good evening.

We'll i picked up our new nem today and all seems we'll so far. It is a monster. Easily 10-12 inches. Mouth is closed and right now it is attaching in the sand by the rock face that i made especially for him

Couple questions though.

I know they need a toone of flow but right now i have all the powerheads on except the one above him which seems to be just pushing to much at the moment as he is trying to attach. Can i just leave it off for the evening and then turn it on tommorrow after i know he has attached. He is getting a fair amount of flow just not as much as i know he needs.

He was under a 250 halide at the store andi currently changed my light on his side to a 250 but want to put the 400 watt over him. When should i attempt to do that?

Pics:)
http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k208/hansonfam_2006/gigantea004.jpg
http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k208/hansonfam_2006/gigantea003.jpg
http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k208/hansonfam_2006/gigantea002.jpg
http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k208/hansonfam_2006/gigantea001.jpg

[Monti-Man]

Pics added

[Keri]

Nice!!

[Delphinus]

Looks great :)

I wouldn't worry too much about rushing the lighting. FWIW, mine are under 175W (but a shallow tank - 12"). I doubt 250 vs 400 will make any difference off the bat, ie., either are fine.

As for flow - yeah, I think for now, just let him settle in. With time, try experimenting with placements and wavemaker settings (if you have one). I was somehow able to get my 75g to have a "wash" of water come from one direction, for a few seconds, then a pause, then a "wash" in the other direction. I think for me the trick was having two powerheads side-by-side on the same wavemaker channel - both aimed close to the surface - the outputs just agitated the surface, but the real "wash" effect came from the suction of the powerheads. Hard to explain but it's like water is "falling" towards the powerhead, giving as close to laminar style flow as you can likely get with stock powerheads. Other options are try for a gyre effect (whirlpool), or prop type upgrades for the powerheads, or Koralias, or Seios, or Tunzes .. or Vortechs.. etc. etc. - likely there are many ways that will work out.

[Chaloupa]

Gorgeous anemone~ WOW, wish we had those here! Nice!

[Der_Iron_Chef]

Damn...that sure is nice! Can't wait to get mine :) Just waiting on the new tank to be ready (eek!)...

[Myka]

Nice one!!! I love carpet anemones. :D

That sure looks like an awfully new tank to be putting an anemone into though! :eek:

[Monti-Man]

Damn...that sure is nice! Can't wait to get mine :) Just waiting on the new tank to be ready (eek!)...

Your looks very good as we'll Drew. You were right they are pretty much the giants of the tank:)

Nice one!!! I love carpet anemones. :D

That sure looks like an awfully new tank to be putting an anemone into though! :eek:

Nope its not. The rock that it is against is just newly cured eco rock.Bought some to fill in the rest of the tank and i had to give him a fair chunk of real estate of his own so these are the rocks he got:)

[Monti-Man]

We'll all still seems good. Now he has out of the sand and attached to the rock face:)
Mouth still tightly closed and at some point today i will turn on the other vortech. I tried to last night but it almost pulled him out of the sand.Sooo not entirly sure how to pull this off without unattching him. I tried having it on low but that didn't work either. So i may have to move the powerhead and try and work with it that way.

[Der_Iron_Chef]

Hey...regarding our yellow Giganteas....this article (quoting Sprung & Delbeek) suggests that they're bleached green specimens. Either way, they'll be spectacular!

http://www.reefflections.com/anemone.htm#yellow

[Monti-Man]

I did read that as we'll. And Tony had said he thought they would turn a darker beige colour. But like you i am okay with that. Its just cool that we can keep these creatures alive in our tanks:)
I can't wait to see yours at home with you as we'll. When did you figure your tank would be ready?

I had said to Dennis yesterday you know you have a problem when you will drive all the way to Calgary just to pick up an anemone and then turn around and drive all the way back:)
God i need a life...lol

[Myka]

Nope its not. The rock that it is against is just newly cured eco rock.Bought some to fill in the rest of the tank and i had to give him a fair chunk of real estate of his own so these are the rocks he got:)

Oh good!!! Is this your 180g that it's in? Got a FTS? :D

[Monti-Man]

Yep it is in the 180. I will take some this afternoon when the lights come on:)

[Myka]

You're brave putting an anemone in a reef! I hear that the carpets tend to not move around much though, like the Bubble tips do.

[Delphinus]

Mine never really have moved around much. As they've grown they've shifted around a little, or picked a neighbouring rock that was larger, and so on. I think I've also noticed them move a little if I go a little too long between feedings. But rarely more than 6". Nowadays I just feed a tiny bit of mysis every day or two and that seems to keep them placated. I think if you can get them in a spot where they're happy (flow-wise and lighting-wise), they tend to stay put.

[Monti-Man]

Okay we'll. Here is an update. He is now 1/4 on the rock and the rest of his foot is on the top of the sand. I am having issues with getting the flow right. He seems to just be moving to the left and not counter current wise. Mouth is a little open now about the size of a quarter i guess and he looks like he is losing some zooentelle(sp). Looks like little black seeds coming out of his mouth? Not sure what that is about. But no inside showing at all. Generally looking okay just gotta get the flow right:)

And no i'm not worried about the sps. Currently they are on the other side of the tank and i don't think he is gonna go to far. He has a brand new bulb above him and lots of rocks for him to pick and choose from.

[a4twenty]

Looks like little black seeds coming out of his mouth? Not sure what that is about.

if it's black it is probably waste ( pooh ), zooxanthellae usually comes out brown and stringy. my new carpet did the same thing the day after feeding.

nice nem :mrgreen:

[Underwater]

Ok, so when that zooxanthellae comes out-does that mean the anemone is done for? I have had a couple of them that have had that brown stringy stuff come out of them and the next thing I know-they are melted! I've tried to find out more about this whole process and what is going on, but seem to missing the mark. Anyone want to impart some of their knowledge?

(PS-I hope this doesn't count as a hi-jack...apologies if it does.):redface:

[Delphinus]

My $0.02 - In and of itself, losing zooxanthellae is not a sign that it's done for. I'm not sure I'm going to do a good job explaining this, bear with me. It can just happen, heck, it can happen to an anemone you've had for years. They just all of a sudden expel their zoox. Sometimes a lighting change can trigger it. Sometimes maybe they're just annoyed at their tenants, evict them, and grow new ones .. I'm not sure.

The flip side is that if the anemone is already on the way out, one of the things it might do is expel its zooxanthellae. But is it on its way out because it expelled its zooxanthellae, or is it expelling zooxanthellae because it's on its way out?

Keeping anemones can be a bit of a black art. For the most part, it seems there's an initial danger zone (and in my experience, any new anemone goes through this - no matter what species it is), lasting anywhere from a couple weeks to a couple months. If they get through that, then the likelihood is that you have a hardy trouble free specimen on your hands. But a lot simply won't get through that, it may have nothing to do with you or your tank, but something that happened during collection or wholesale or transport or whatever. Unfortunately there seems to be an element of, you roll the dice and see what comes up.

I just recently lost my RBTA that I've had for 4 years. It's the oddest thing. One day it was there, the next it wasn't. The weird thing is that it seems to have completely disintegrated to the point where there's no evidence it ever existed. I don't know how it's possible. Anytime I've had an anemone die, there's been a mess left behind. In this case it has simply vanished. If it was a new anemone, I'd be all "Well - Ok - it didn't survive the transition into captivity." But I had it for 4 years! And it was looking fabulous right up to the last day I saw it. I have no idea what happened to it.

Black magic man. Black magic...