Why is Stichodactyla gigantea expert only?

[Miami Reef]

 

[Miami Reef]

And why is haddons carpet moderately difficult? What makes the true carpet anemone so finicky?

@Randy Holmes-Farley How long have you had your true carpet anemone for?

 

[D-Nak]

They’re extremely hard to acclimate and oftentimes require antibiotic treatment. The same applies to haddoni, but to a lesser extent.

 

[Miami Reef]

They’re extremely hard to acclimate and oftentimes require antibiotic treatment. The same applies to haddoni, but to a lesser extent.

Antibiotics? For what?

I’m going to stick with BTA if this is the case.

 

[Jekyl]

Besides parameters and flow like others have said acclimation and infection are often issues. On top of that they require an insane amount of light to be truly happy. Like 2000par (not exaggerating)

 

[OrionN]

Yes they are difficult but in term of look, they are second to none.

 

[Variant]

From my experience both having lost and successfully kept gigantea anemones but also other "expert" level fish, I believe the reason certain livestock is categorized as expert only is because they can be difficult to condition to aquarium life.

For gigantea anemones this means being able to hospitalize and treat with the right antibiotics and QT processes. This can be very time consuming and require knowledge and experience to ensure you have a right rate of success. High rate of success should be important to make sure that even as hobbyists we are responsible sterwards of the marine life we take from the ocean.

On a similar note, expert level fish can be difficult to condition to aquarium life. But similar to giganteas you CAN get lucky. But that is more the exception. For instance I got a femininus wrasse that is typically really finicky and qomt take prepared foods well and often die
Mine did well. On the flip side I recently had a multibar angel that was so hard I had to sedate and force feed via tube every 24-48hours.

Expert level is all about what it takes to ensure high rate of success and being responsible. Sure if you bought 100 gigs I am sure a handful will be straightforward. Once conditioned both expert level fish and anemones will easily thrive.

 

[Miami Reef]

Let’s say I was able to treat this anemone with antibiotics and quarantine for the allotted time.
Will it get an infection once it goes into my mixed reef tank (which never had any medicine)?

Also, I can’t get 2000 par without killing every other organism in my tank. I have 4 52 hydra 52 running at almost full power.

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

Ive kept carpet nems from petco. The sticky bubbly ones. Not the long tentacle.
I did not have a problem. Size was the only problem.
D

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

I dont think they are getting them anymore though.
D

 

[Variant]

Let’s say I was able to treat this anemone with antibiotics and quarantine for the allotted time.
Will it get an infection once it goes into my mixed reef tank (which never had any medicine)?

Also, I can’t get 2000 par without killing every other organism in my tank. I have 4 52 hydra 52 running at almost full power.

Once itstreated, it should do well in your tank. Onces its in good health it should be able to manage. Also while I dont have hydra, I would just aim in tue 250+ par range and they will do fine. Im a sucker for broader spectrum (1) because my blue gig never looks good under heavy blues and (2) its more bullet/dummy proof.

Question now is more about can you source a gigantea? That seems equally hard or at least it was for me. Not sure if Orion would agree but I think smaller gigs do better in transit than larger onces.

 

[Hot2na]

Gigantea anemone's are like DRUGS...once you're hooked that's it...so before you get one...think about all that's involved.

 

[ThRoewer]

IME, giganteas and magnifica (which are actually very closely related) are not that difficult once acclimated. It is in the acclimatization where the difficulty lies as many come with infections that require antibiotic treatment. Once established they can be hardier than BTAs.

 

[fcmatt]

They were stupid hard to keep a long time ago and now just hard. Left over level from 15 years ago. But makes sense still in relation to everything else today.