Mertens or Haddons?

cartman5579 · #1 11/13/2007, 09:18 PM

Can you tell me? I originally bought it as haddoni, but now i'm seeing blue to purplish verracue on the underside. And the tentacles are more fingerish than bulbous. Let me know please!

I know GSMguy has experience with this!!

cro55f1r3 · #2 11/13/2007, 09:33 PM

well whatever it is i have the same one

cartman5579 · #3 11/13/2007, 09:35 PM

good to hear, did you think it was haddoni?

phender · #4 11/13/2007, 09:45 PM

Wow! I don't think it is either one.

How big is the anemone? To me it looks like it may be Stichodactyla helianthus (Sun anemone) because it looks a lot like this one. I don't know how big Sun anemones get.

If it was a merten's the spots would be magenta or orange and continue down the column and start to form into streaks of red/orange.

With blue/purple spots it could be a gigantea, but it just doesn't look quite right.

cartman5579 · #5 11/13/2007, 09:57 PM

If it ever expanded fully it would be over a foot for sure. The only reason i ask is that my clowns love it, but i'm not sure if they should be in it!

Gary Majchrzak · #6 11/13/2007, 10:01 PM

definitely not haddoni.
I was thinking gigantea.

it looks like it's touching another anemone (BTA?) in those pics...

cartman5579 · #7 11/13/2007, 10:06 PM

yeah, they kind of learned to be together. I have 3 BTA's and this carpet and at one point or another they have all touched eachother. At first they didn't seem to like it, but after a few days, they seem to have learned to be around eachother. I was told that different species can learn to live together, or even touch eachother, and that seems to be what has happened here.

I had though maybe gigantea at one time due to the fact that the tentacles are around the mouth.

phender · #8 11/13/2007, 10:08 PM

Here is a pic of the underside and foot of a typical merten's carpet. Everyone I have seen (5 or 6) or heard about have had these markings. That doesn't mean they all have to.

reefman13 · #9 11/13/2007, 10:09 PM

I am also thinking Gigantea because of the slightly more elongated tentacles.

Now I am intrigued, Phender, when I typed 'sun anemone' into google images, this is what came up:

or was this what you meant....

Personally, I didn't think it looks anything like the one in the image above...

cartman5579 · #10 11/13/2007, 10:10 PM

definitely not mertens than! Sure hope its not Atlantic Carpet!

cartman5579 · #11 11/13/2007, 10:15 PM

Nope not Stichodactyla helianthus, they only get 6 inches max.

So, not Mertens, not Atlantic, that leaves haddoni, or gigantea. Could it be haddoni and have verracue? I thought i've read of haddoni hybrids with verracue. And i know i've seen GSMguy post one with the same, but it was purple

Gary Majchrzak · #12 11/13/2007, 10:15 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by reefman13
Now I am intrigued, Phender, when I typed 'sun anemone' into google images

that's the problem.
Don't use common names- for accuracy use the scientific one: Stichodactyla helianthus

cartman5579 · #13 11/13/2007, 10:25 PM

Nope not Stichodactyla helianthus, they only get 6 inches max.

So, not Mertens, not Atlantic, that leaves haddoni, or gigantea. Could it be haddoni and have verracue? I thought i've read of haddoni hybrids with verracue. And i know i've seen GSMguy post one with the same, but it was purple

phender · #14 11/13/2007, 10:42 PM

I have seen haddoni with faint verrucae spots, but not as pronounced as yours. I thought gigantea too, but something didn't look quite right in the pics, so I tried to think "out of the box" a little.

I forgot one of my basic ID rules. "When you hear hoof beats on the other side of the hill, think horses not zebras".

I'm going back to gigantea. The tri-colored tentacles are also a "slighty bleached" gigantea thing that they usually lose once they are acclimated.

Don't get caught up in the "hybrid" thing. There is nothing about your anemone that says haddoni.

cartman5579 · #15 11/13/2007, 11:05 PM

i'm guessing that your right.

Here are pics of my blue gigantea that didn't make it and i'm guessing that the verracue on this one would have looked like the ones on my current one had it inflated fully.

adtravels · #16 11/14/2007, 08:15 AM

I will say haddoni, dont what all the excitement is about seems healthy though
looks more like this than a gigantea does not have the "form" and I see verrucae on this in certain lights and conditions

phender · #17 11/14/2007, 11:36 AM

I have a feeling that this may be one of those situations where you have to see it in real life to make a positive ID.

cartman5579 · #18 11/14/2007, 11:37 AM

OH MAN, COME ON!!

Which is it, ....

EXPERTS COME OUT OF THE WOODWORK!

I don't know which book, but i know i read that sometimes the only way to tell between haddoni and gigantea is the verracue and tapered or bulbous tentacles.

delphinus · #19 11/14/2007, 12:08 PM

I'd guess gigantea, can you post some more pictures? Might help cinch the ID...

cartman5579 · #20 11/14/2007, 12:12 PM

well its going to have to wait then. wife just left for two days and she took the camera. oh well, it gives me time to build my glass sump/fuge!

What should i take pics of? I can't flip it over cause it is happy and attached. I don't want to mess with its mojo.

delphinus · #21 11/14/2007, 12:17 PM

Sorry, one more post, had a parting thought ...

My brown gigantea has verrucae that are unmistakable and bright purple. My green gigantea has verrucae that are still purple, but far less prominent and less numerous. I'm not certain if I have a picture online that shows the verrucae of that one, I'll go look for one and if I do I'll post back. But it looks more or less just like yours. So now that I've had a chance to think about it some, I'm leaning more now towards gigantea (if I was 70% sure before, now I'm like .. um .. 80% sure.

).

Here are the verrucae of my brown gigantea:

.. Ok, after searching, the best picture I found is the same one as my avatar. It's not as clear as the brown, but for what it's worth, look at the verrucae peeking out from under the clown:

I also found this picture but as you can see it had actually gotten some more verrucae by the time this picture was taken (it's at least a year newer than the other one):

phender · #22 11/14/2007, 12:24 PM

I have found in my experience with giganteas that the verrucae spots can become more prominant as the anemone become healthier. I have purchased a couple giganteas without noticable spots that had spots appear a couple months later.

I am pretty sure your anemone is a gigantea as well. I am just not willing to bet the house on it at this point.

cartman5579 · #23 11/14/2007, 12:27 PM

I can't agree 100% either as i've never seen a gigantea that had this short of tentacles before. Seems like they should be longer.

I seriously don't think its gigantea, and i'm actually thinking that it IS a haddoni.

If i'm wrong than its got to be a hybrid species.

traveller7 · #24 11/14/2007, 12:29 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by phender
I have found in my experience with giganteas that the verrucae spots can become more prominant as the anemone become healthier. I have purchased a couple giganteas without noticable spots that had spots appear a couple months later.

I have had the same experience with H. magnifica.

fwiw: I am leaning gigantea on this one as well, but little in reefkeeping is certain.

cartman5579 · #25 11/14/2007, 12:37 PM

here are all the pics i could find