Reef nutrition

S gigantea vs S haddoni

Thales

Past President
See the difference?

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Well yah Rich, one is a FULL SHOT and the other you can't see the oral disc :p
 
I don't look at the oral disk to tell them apart, just the tentacles. Gigantea has finger like tentacles that form radial lines across the top of the anemone and haddoni has more ball like tentacles that don't project very far from the surface of the anemone and they cover the entire surface of the anemone.

It is possible that old haddoni get more finger like tentacles.
 
Well the second shot from AIM barely, just barely shows the side profile of a few tentacles ;)
 
I would also concur that yours, nearly a year in captivity, is well acclimated and more prone to extend it's tentacles and show true form. I highly doubt AIM's is acclimated all that much to aquaria :) Since I need to email him about BAYMAC, I'll ask.
 
I thought we'd moved on from that all ready Rich?

BTW:


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FIXED it :lol:
 
Green one barely shows any lines and doesn't seem to exhibit the clubbed tips you speak of.

If you took two shots of RBTA in different tanks they'd look different as well :lol: One could have bubble tips the other could be elongated.

If you haven't figured it out, I'm just f'ng with you. Now get back to work!
 
You bastage! :D

Lest we have some kind of repeat of the 'vitamin c cures ick and gets rid of dinos' fiasco, the green one is a gigantea, and is not supposed to exhibit clubbed tips!

GreshamH said:
Green one barely shows any lines and doesn't seem to exhibit the clubbed tips you speak of.

If you took two shots of RBTA in different tanks they'd look different as well :lol: One could have bubble tips the other could be elongated.

If you haven't figured it out, I'm just f'ng with you. Now get back to work!
 
Matt_Wandell said:
I sorta remember that S. mertensii had the same longitudinal rows. Or maybe not! How do you differentiate?

Damn you Wandell, this is about gigantea and haddoni :D

I don't believe S. mertensii has the defined longitudinal rows on the tentacle side - the spots on the bottom yes (the verrucae, orange and pink, which are sticky in this species). They also don't seem to come in blue or red, just green and brown, sometimes orange, with pretty verrucae. The oral disk on S. mertensii is generally not seen and its tentacles are longer close to the mouth, and its not nearly as sticky as the other two. It also gets way way bigger. So, boiled down, I would look at color, rows and stickyness below and lack of stickyness above. However, from what I understand, S. mertensii is rarely collected for the trade, so we aren't all that likely to see it.

Where they are found, what they adhere to, they are blown around in flow, and who hosts in them can also help ID them.

This is a pretty good reference:
http://www.nhm.ku.edu/inverts/ebooks/ch1.html
 
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