Haddoni-Gigantea hybrid. Comments invited.

[OrionN]

I have a carpet anemone for the last 10 years that I "KNOW' that is a hybrid between Haddoni and Gigantea.
For those who does not know me, I am certainly have accumulated plenty of experiences in keep many anemones, but Gigantea and Haddoni, along with Magnifica are my favorites. I have keep them for long duration of time. This particular hybrid I have had for 10+ years.
Below are some images I used to document the reasons I came up with the conclusion that he is a hybrid.
First, picture of normal Gigantea and Haddoni

Red Haddoni

Blue Gigantea

Green Hybrid carpet
As we can see, the tentacles length is in between,. All three anemone are in great shape, health wise.

Blue foot of the hybrid, but not full blue. Also he is living in the sand.

Light verrucae on column, of the hybrid

Dark Verrucae of a full blood Gigantea

As you all can see, this green carpet of mine is a hybrid. I would be very surprise if DNA analysis of him does not show combine DNA of both Gigantea and Haddoni, not that I have the money to throw away to answer this question.

Comments are welcome

 

[User1]

Well you can do whatever else in this hobby does and slap a name on it, call it whatever you want, then move the decimal point and add some extra zeros to the base price and be done. I've come to the conclusion that this hobby doesn't care about the real scientific names anymore.

To your point, and documentation, it would be interesting to see what the DNA showed. I wonder if you reach out to any academia or public aquariums that do research with them could help with the DNA request. Or if they can possibly use the information you have? Yes, you have a great history with the animals and provide the community with solid information. Thanks for what you do.

Please note with my opening comment I know you do not do this. I was sort of kidding although I do have a issue with the hobby, chop shops, boutique shops, etc that seem to ignore reality.

 

[shred5]

Hmm Maybe right.. I do not know what to say and I defiantly see what your seeing.

 

[OrionN]

Better picture of the Blue foot in the sand

 

[D-Nak]

I have a nem that looks very similar. It's purple with a green center. The tentacles are definitely shorter. Here are some photos (sorry for the bad quality, the Radions are ramping up so they're very blue).

Top down, gigantea on left, nem in question on right:

Blue gig on left, green gig on right, nem in question in the back:

I'll take better photos when the lights are on at 100%.

 

[Paleozoic_reefer]

I have a carpet anemone for the last 10 years that I "KNOW' that is a hybrid between Haddoni and Gigantea.
For those who does not know me, I am certainly have accumulated plenty of experiences in keep many anemones, but Gigantea and Haddoni, along with Magnifica are my favorites. I have keep them for long duration of time. This particular hybrid I have had for 10+ years.
Below are some images I used to document the reasons I came up with the conclusion that he is a hybrid.
First, picture of normal Gigantea and Haddoni

Red Haddoni

Blue Gigantea

Green Hybrid carpet
As we can see, the tentacles length is in between,. All three anemone are in great shape, health wise.

Blue foot of the hybrid, but not full blue. Also he is living in the sand.

Light verrucae on column, of the hybrid

Dark Verrucae of a full blood Gigantea

As you all can see, this green carpet of mine is a hybrid. I would be very surprise if DNA analysis of him does not show combine DNA of both Gigantea and Haddoni, not that I have the money to throw away to answer this question.

Comments are welcome

That blue Gigantea is AMAZING! Is it a single one or multiple splits???

 

[OrionN]

That is one of my Giganteas. Gigantea does not reproduce asexually naturally. Some people have divided them successfully before but the chance of success there is a lot less than 50/50

 

[29bonsaireef]

So awesome to see someone still keeping healthy Gigs.

Question, where did you get the "hybrid"? I have an idea of what it might be.

 

[Premmas]

OrionN my carpet it is almost the same as yours. Mine doesn´t have the blue foot. One thing i notice, the light color verrucae on my carpet are sticking to the surrounding rocks. And he is also living in the sand.

 

[Mark]

Very cool Minh.

 

[Stuartmercer]

very nice blue anemone, i understand those are rare so your lucky!

 

[illcssd]

In all the hundreds of haddoni and dozens and dozens for Gigantea we imported when I had the store, I never saw one of those. Based on all common, and not so common knowledge. I'd agree with you.
Have you posted on RC? Or gotten an opinion from Gary M or Bonzai or Phil?(They're the only one's i'd think to go to about something like this, besides you.) This is super intriguing and I'd be very curious on DNA results.

 

[RedSea500MaxS]

Blue Gigantea is INCREDIBLE....love to see more and know more! Thank you. WOW!

 

[Leslie Tabor]

I love your posts! Beautiful anemones, whatever they are!

 

[OrionN]

OrionN my carpet it is almost the same as yours. Mine doesn´t have the blue foot. One thing i notice, the light color verrucae on my carpet are sticking to the surrounding rocks. And he is also living in the sand.

Post pictures if you can

In all the hundreds of haddoni and dozens and dozens for Gigantea we imported when I had the store, I never saw one of those. Based on all common, and not so common knowledge. I'd agree with you.
Have you posted on RC? Or gotten an opinion from Gary M or Bonzai or Phil?(They're the only one's i'd think to go to about something like this, besides you.) This is super intriguing and I'd be very curious on DNA results.

I posted but only get minimal comments

So awesome to see someone still keeping healthy Gigs.

Question, where did you get the "hybrid"? I have an idea of what it might be.

Thanks.
I forgot where I got this carpet from.

 

[Elegance Coral]

When I first saw the title, I was all prepared to say, NO that's not a hybrid.
After seeing the pic's......... Something ain't right. LOL
IMHO.....Without a doubt, it has gigantia DNA. The more I study those pics, the more I tend to agree with you, but just based on the pic's alone, I'm not prepared to say conclusively that it's a hybrid with haddoni. Could it simply be and odd gigantia???? IDK. You've had a decade of observation. All I have is a couple of pic's. I surely wouldn't argue against it being a hybrid, but I just don't know........
It is surely a unique sea anemone, regardless.
Peace
EC

 

[Stuartmercer]

I'll buy it for 1 dolla

 

[Nemguy123]

I also have a gigantea that had shorter tentacles he is 100% different then all my gigs I actually googled gigantea/Haddoni hybrid and your thread was the first result I will post some pics soon I can’t really get pic of the colum but it looks exactly like yours light blue with some blue/ purple spots

 

[Nemguy123]

Here are some pics he was in the sand at first but moved up to the rocks when I touch him he sinks completely into the rocks I can’t even see him

 

[ThRoewer]

That is one of my Giganteas. Gigantea does not reproduce asexually naturally. Some people have divided them successfully before but the chance of success there is a lot less than 50/50

Some gigantea actually do split naturally in the wild. I found research papers documenting such splits. Like with the closely related magnifica (which recent genetic research has shown to be a member of the genus Stichodactyla), there are strains (or sub species) that reproduce sexually and asexually (splitting) and others that seem to reproduce only sexually.

As to the hybrid anemone in question, it could also be a haddoni-mertensi hybrid - those two are genetically so close that it is hard to tell them apart by genetics:

from: Phylogenetic relationships among the clownfish-hosting sea anemones