Stichodactyla gigantea or Stichodactyla mertensii?

[mitchelljared]

So figured since I had some time, I'd clear this confusion up for myself by throwing the question to y'all: I've always wondered whether my carpet anemone was a gigantea or a mertensii? The pic is below. My rationale: Must be gigantea because it's hosting two percula clowns, which mertensii does not. However, has settled on a rock groove, and mertensii likes hard substrate, while gigantea likes sand. Could it be a gigantea who just like the hard rock? I know there are always exceptions to most marine rules. Any ideas?

[Delphinus]

Gigantea without question.

They do in fact prefer rock tops for attachment.

HTH

Originally Posted by mitchelljared

So figured since I had some time, I'd clear this confusion up for myself by throwing the question to y'all: I've always wondered whether my carpet anemone was a gigantea or a mertensii? The pic is below. My rationale: Must be gigantea because it's hosting two percula clowns, which mertensii does not. However, has settled on a rock groove, and mertensii likes hard substrate, while gigantea likes sand. Could it be a gigantea who just like the hard rock? I know there are always exceptions to most marine rules. Any ideas?

[mitchelljared]

Thanks Tony.

[Delphinus]

No worries - now that I'm actually at a computer and not hopelessly trying to type a message from my phone, I wanted to share some more thoughts.

When I see the picture alone it is enough for me to see gigantea - the two key things to look for are, the way the anemone holds itself (tends to "bunch up" into folds is common for gigantea). Laying flat is more a trait of haddoni and mertensii. And then the real clincher are the verrucae - those little dots on the column. They are purple, and sort of elongated oval in shape, and concentrated more at the top of the column. Mertensii has verrucae that are usually red, perfectly circle little dots, and evenly distributed from top to bottom (imagine a bad case of chicken pox or something). FWIW, haddoni have verrucae that are small and the same colour as the rest of the anemone (so basically invisible).

The hosting species itself unfortunately isn't much of a clue, as you mentioned there are always exceptions and in captivity there seem to be lots for what fish go into what. I think I saw a picture just last week (think it might have been in Dez's build thread) of an ocellaris hosting in some GSP. Crazy fish!

Anyhow hope this info is interesting and/or helpful. Awesome anemone BTW!