Minh's Purple Gigantea

[OrionN]

I have not been here for a long time. Kinda stay off of keeping active in reefing for a while due to time commitments. My tank just cruise along on auto-pilot with water change and feeding. I called Eric at Aquarium Masters a few weeks ago to ask him to do some water change for me. While talking, knowing that I was looking for a Gigantea for many years, he asked if I want to buy one that he had at his store since 5/1/2012. That got me interested. The long and short of this is that I pick up this anemone 7/25/2012. I put him in my 30 g Cube. He his doing well with no deflating cycles since I got him home on 7/25/2012. He is eating well and stay put where I put him. Here are a few pictures of this anemone.
Way too early to know for sure that I can keep him alive but I have good feeling about this. Just a few days and he start to regain some of his color already.

7/27/2012

http://home.grandecom.net/~mnguyen/PurGigan20120727.01.jpg

7/29/2012 Eating

http://home.grandecom.net/~mnguyen/PurGigan20120729.02feeding.JPG

8/3/2012 FTS

http://home.grandecom.net/~mnguyen/PurGigan20120802.01.FTS.JPEG

8/3/2012

http://home.grandecom.net/~mnguyen/PurGigan20120803.01.JPEG

[Scutterborn]

That's pretty groovy!


- Ben -

[Third Coast Tropical]

looks good Minh

[CoryDude]

Oooh, that is a very nice shade of purple. The crocea is very nice also.

[OrionN]

Thanks. It is about 10 inches or so at this time. I hope it will color up more. Eric have two more from the same shipment. One smaller healthier but brownish and another larger, possibly much larger purple. The larger purple is IMO not as healthy as the one I got. Regardless all three have been in Corpus since 5/1/2012. If anybody really wanted a Gigantea, these are the ones they may want to consider.
CoryDuke,
The two clams are Maxima's

[Pennies2Cents]

wow.. thats beautiful! :)

[ReefOne]

Awesome Minh! Glad to see you finally got a hold of one! My H. Mag is still running strong after 1.5yrs. Keep us updated!

-Ram

[CoryDude]

CoryDuke,
The two clams are Maxima's

I was debating that when I posted. I couldn't tell if those were ridges on the shell or just growth pattern.

[hobogato]

great anemone minh! best of luck, i know they are tricky

[OrionN]

Thanks I will keep this thread update

[dbmet]

Looks awesome!! I Didn't see these at his store. Will have to look again!!

[kenny1]

Hope it's doing well. Good luck

[OrionN]

Looks awesome!! I Didn't see these at his store. Will have to look again!!
Both are in his tank at home

[dbmet]

Ahhh I see.. Thanks

[OrionN]

I was gone for 9 days, got back in town today. The tank looks OK except there are a lot of algae on the glass and the cover for the MP10 was all clogged up. The anemone was still at the exact same place I put him. I guess that is a good thing. His mouth is a little open about 1/4 inch or so. The was a partially decomposed roach stuck to the MP10 cover. I removed the roach but some of the legs float off and the anemone got hold of a leg or two. Hopefully eating this will not get him sick.
I clean up the tank and change 6 gallons out of 30.
After the dust settle, this is pictures from today. The anemone regain all the zooxanthellae and is golden color with purple/blueish tentacle tips. Attached are two pictures today. I think he is doing well under my care for the last 2 weeks or so.

Full view of the Gigantea
http://home.grandecom.net/~mnguyen/PurGigan20120812.02.jpeg

Close up of the tentacles
http://home.grandecom.net/~mnguyen/PurGigan20120812.01closeup.jpeg

[hobogato]

definitely seems to be settling in for you - doesnt look as bleached out as it did in the beginning.

[OrionN]

I am not sure how but my white balance got out of whack. I have to reset and retake the pictures. The full picture is mere accurate in term of coloration to my eyes.

[OrionN]

3 weeks update.

I got tired of having sand blowing around with my MP10 so I added a layer of shell I got from Corpus Christi Bay. After I washed it in water of course. I also added my 8 years old Onyx Percula. and a few snails to clean the glass. Water change Sunday really keep the algae from growing since I don't have any fish in the tank thus not feeding it until just added the clowns. Here are two pictures from tonight.
I plan to feed the anemone every other day about 1.5-2 cc of shrimp or fish or what ever seafood I got. He is getting darker and the tentacles are definitely getting longer.

http://home.grandecom.net/~mnguyen/PurGigan20120814.01.jpeg


http://home.grandecom.net/~mnguyen/PurGigan20120814.02.jpeg

[Kristy]

Dang Minh... that nem is gorgeous!! Love that last pic with the little clown faces.

[hobogato]

looks great minh

[Pennies2Cents]

Wow... That Nem looks Great.. :) Keep up the good work.

[zaquanh_09]

where did you get your clam?

[OrionN]

Thanks Ace, Kristy and Penny


where did you get your clam?
I got the larger Maxima forever since he was about 1.5 inches now about 4 inches. The smaller one from GC Reef about ?2 years ago. I think I got the larger one from Tropical Fish Haven. I ordered a few clams from ClamsDirect.com when they still selling clams many years ago but also get a few from LFS when I see one that I like. I have too many from too long ago and cannot keep track of which from where anymore.

[OrionN]

This PM after feeding

http://home.grandecom.net/~mnguyen/PurGigan20120815.01.jpeg

[OrionN]

Update on the anemone. He is doing great. I had a little problem with him from??? maybe over feeding several weeks a go for a while. He seem off and have his mouth open, but he have recovered. Clown pair was removed for a while and for the last week a pair of baby Picasso Percula. They are not as rough on the anemone. Two pictures below, one was with flash (FTS) and one without flash. The color in real life seem to be in between the two.
I did not like the attache pictures so I link the picture from my webpage. My fat Mandarin caught on camera in the FTS.

http://home.grandecom.net/~mnguyen/PurGigan20120901.01NoFlash.jpeg


http://home.grandecom.net/~mnguyen/PurGigan20120901.02Flash.jpeg

[hobogato]

looking good minh

[OrionN]

Thanks ace

[OrionN]

I got a video of the anemone and the tank this AM. I don't have a paid account so my video seem to be degraded a lot when I upload it to Youtube. This is how much flow the anemone is under with a Vortech MP10 in a 30 g cube. Two baby clowns, A. percula, are also in the anemone. They are just over and under 1 inch. A Mandarin Dragonet and a Marine Beta can also be seen in this video if you look carefully. Only 4 fish in the tank with the anemone plus various SPS and Xenia.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Qbu0Yzj3tI&feature=youtu.be

[hobogato]

wow minh, that anemone looks great. that is a ton of flow!

[OrionN]

6 weeks in my tank, the anemone is doing really well. I started to feed him again but not very often, maybe once a week. I got some trout eggs from sometime ago, he seem to like that a lot. I also feed him shrimp. He is about 12 inches at this time, likely bigger than that but really folded in the rock crevice that I placed him in. He have not move very much at all since I placed him there many weeks ago. Because he seem to be happy and not moving, I removed the cover of my MP10.
Below are side by side pictures of the first week and this AM. I think he is out of the wood. If he died now it is all my fault not due to stress and injury from before I got him

Close up

http://home.grandecom.net/~mnguyen/PurGigan20120730.01%20Damage%20tentacles.jpg

http://home.grandecom.net/~mnguyen/PurGigan20120908.01closeup.jpeg



Full view

http://home.grandecom.net/~mnguyen/PurGigan20120727.01.jpg

http://home.grandecom.net/~mnguyen/PurGigan20120908.02.jpeg

[OrionN]

I bet you guys (and gals) never seen these tentacles before, two tentacles that merger together and form one tip. It must been injured and heal abnormal. In many years of reefkeeping and anemone keeping I have never seen one like tin the picture below

http://home.grandecom.net/~mnguyen/GiganteaAbnormaltentacles.jpeg

[OrionN]

I got the opportunity to get another Gigantea from Aquarium Master. It is a yellow small Gigantea that likely will turn brown when he recover. Bleached but otherwise seem OK. He was in the same shipment as the purple one so he have been at Eric's house for several months. I put him in my 65 g tank in my office.

I feed the yellow Gigantea some salmon today, he ate it but a little slow. I have to protect him from having the clowns stealing the food. The gigantic Crocea I have had for 10+ years from ORA via LFS here in Corpus. Got him when he was just over 1 inch long.
The two pictures below on before and one after I fed him.

http://home.grandecom.net/~mnguyen/YelGigan2012092201.jpg


http://home.grandecom.net/~mnguyen/YelGigan2012092202.jpg


My purple Gigantea is doing really well. I have not feed him for a while because he is too big for the tank, and I cannot move him to his permanent home yet. Picture today


http://home.grandecom.net/~mnguyen/PurGigan2012092201.jpg

[alton]

That is nice

[OrionN]

Thanks.

[OrionN]

I upload a movie of the Purple gig recently linked below. Also a picture of him attached

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X610E8tSQ_o

[Scutterborn]

That's awesome, Minh!!


- Ben -

[OrionN]

After about 4 months under my care, this Gigantea is really doing well in a small reef. Only 30 g cube. I have also change clown fish. A full grown breeding pair of Onyx Percula in this Aquarium. Other fish included a Male Green Mandarin and a Marine Beta. The Gigantea is all fold up but even in this state, he is at least 14 inches in diameter. I have 3 clams in this tank and a dozen SPS frags and Red Sea Pompom Xenia.

http://s5.postimage.org/6xxx8djwl/Pur_Gigan2012111801.jpg

[Texreefer]

none of your pics are showing up

[OrionN]

I am not sure why but it is showing fine when I look at the thread.
The picture can be seen here:

http://postimage.org/image/bju1gq5fn/