iBluewater
LIBRARY 2 - Anemones
Stichodactyla mertensii (Merten's Carpet Anemone)
There are some Merten's carpet anemones (S. mertensii) that are, without question, beautiful. These are the beauties that will be prized, and the ones we have pushed hard for our divers to locate and collect. The occasional Mertens that showed up in the trade previously tended to be plain medium/dark brown.
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S. mertensii - Underside View S. mertensii - Topside View
There is a need for those vibrantly colored Mertens to be brought to the aquarium trade. So the team at iBluewater pulled together their combined diving experience of the last 23 years and set out to re-find those sites where they had previously seen vibrantly colored Mertens.
One big discouraging factor for the commercial collector is that the Mertens have an extraordinarily sticky foot that is very difficult to dislodge. It stretches like an octopus's tentacle, binding itself to the contours of the rock surface, using the verrucae on their underside (those magenta, orange or red spots) to further aid in powerful adhesion. This is unlike other anemones like S. haddoni or S. gigantea, where only their foot is available to attach, less tenaciously, to the substrate or rock face. So it may be that to the collection diver whose time is money, needing 30-40 minutes to safely detach a Mertens from its rock is just not worth it. He would rather be using that time to collect a dozen bubble tips, gigantea, or haddoni.
It took a few dive trips for the iBluewater divers to work out the best ways to safely detach a Mertens from its rock more efficiently. Once that was learned, the know how was passed on to divers out at the collection points. We now have a small, but steady, supply of nice-colored Mertens (please see photos).
Mertens did not ship well at first. Through trial and error, we developed a method of properly shipping them so they faired much better. This is roughly akin to how we successfully ship Blue Stripes, another famously poor shipper.
There is a need for those vibrantly colored Mertens to be brought to the aquarium trade. So the team at iBluewater pulled together their combined diving experience of the last 23 years and set out to re-find those sites where they had previously seen vibrantly colored Mertens.
One big discouraging factor for the commercial collector is that the Mertens have an extraordinarily sticky foot that is very difficult to dislodge. It stretches like an octopus's tentacle, binding itself to the contours of the rock surface, using the verrucae on their underside (those magenta, orange or red spots) to further aid in powerful adhesion. This is unlike other anemones like S. haddoni or S. gigantea, where only their foot is available to attach, less tenaciously, to the substrate or rock face. So it may be that to the collection diver whose time is money, needing 30-40 minutes to safely detach a Mertens from its rock is just not worth it. He would rather be using that time to collect a dozen bubble tips, gigantea, or haddoni.
It took a few dive trips for the iBluewater divers to work out the best ways to safely detach a Mertens from its rock more efficiently. Once that was learned, the know how was passed on to divers out at the collection points. We now have a small, but steady, supply of nice-colored Mertens (please see photos).
Mertens did not ship well at first. Through trial and error, we developed a method of properly shipping them so they faired much better. This is roughly akin to how we successfully ship Blue Stripes, another famously poor shipper.
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Yellow-green Mertens Gold tip white clustered Yellow-green tip Mertens
So we are very pleased to offer S. mertensii on our regular anemone page, no longer just limited to the occasional specimen on our WYSIWYG page.
We observed that, generally:
a) 5500K - 6800K light is appreciated by Mertens
b) 10 - 12 hrs lighting replicates Mertens natural habitat;
c) medium to medium-strong flow works well;
d) 80F - 82F is its preferred temperature;
f) Mertens appreciate a stable PH (8.2 - 8.3) haddoni and gigantea prefer a stable 8.3;
g) Mertens, like schooling fish, get along well with other Mertens in the same tank and can be kept in clusters of 2 - 5. Haddoni or gigantea tend to jockey for ideal spots;
h) Mertens rarely "walk". If you turn down the flow in your tank Mertens for a few minutes it will very quickly stick to a rock in your tank and stay put;
i) Mertens are able to bounce back to a healthy state once you make required corrections to its tank environment if it appears stress. Gigantea do not and, instead, often go downhill all the way when idea conditions are absent..
Environment stats where our Mertens were collected:
Depth range (Ft): 3 - 18
Temperature range (°F): 80 - 84.1
Nitrate (umol/L): 0.048 - 0.418
SG 1.023 - 1.026)
Oxygen (ml/l): 5.461 - 5.785
Phosphate (umol/l): 0.085 - 0.247
Silicate (umol/l): 1.226 - 3.039
S. mertensii in the wild is host to 12 of 30 species of clownfish; including
A. leucokranos, A. sandaracinos, A. akallopisos, A. akindynos, A. allardi, A. chrysogaster, , A. clarkii, A. fuscocaudatus, A. latifasciatus, A. ocellaris, A. tricinctus, A. chrysopterus.
Clownfish in captivity are generally not picky and will accept a host anemone that's not its natural host anemone in the wild. Carpet anemones that host clownfish, such as Gigantea, Haddoni and Mertensii, tend to melanise the clownfish.
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So we are very pleased to offer S. mertensii on our regular anemone page, no longer just limited to the occasional specimen on our WYSIWYG page.
We observed that, generally:
a) 5500K - 6800K light is appreciated by Mertens
b) 10 - 12 hrs lighting replicates Mertens natural habitat;
c) medium to medium-strong flow works well;
d) 80F - 82F is its preferred temperature;
f) Mertens appreciate a stable PH (8.2 - 8.3) haddoni and gigantea prefer a stable 8.3;
g) Mertens, like schooling fish, get along well with other Mertens in the same tank and can be kept in clusters of 2 - 5. Haddoni or gigantea tend to jockey for ideal spots;
h) Mertens rarely "walk". If you turn down the flow in your tank Mertens for a few minutes it will very quickly stick to a rock in your tank and stay put;
i) Mertens are able to bounce back to a healthy state once you make required corrections to its tank environment if it appears stress. Gigantea do not and, instead, often go downhill all the way when idea conditions are absent..
Environment stats where our Mertens were collected:
Depth range (Ft): 3 - 18
Temperature range (°F): 80 - 84.1
Nitrate (umol/L): 0.048 - 0.418
SG 1.023 - 1.026)
Oxygen (ml/l): 5.461 - 5.785
Phosphate (umol/l): 0.085 - 0.247
Silicate (umol/l): 1.226 - 3.039
S. mertensii in the wild is host to 12 of 30 species of clownfish; including
A. leucokranos, A. sandaracinos, A. akallopisos, A. akindynos, A. allardi, A. chrysogaster, , A. clarkii, A. fuscocaudatus, A. latifasciatus, A. ocellaris, A. tricinctus, A. chrysopterus.
Clownfish in captivity are generally not picky and will accept a host anemone that's not its natural host anemone in the wild. Carpet anemones that host clownfish, such as Gigantea, Haddoni and Mertensii, tend to melanise the clownfish.
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Bubble Tip Anemone - Green (E. quadricolor)
Bubble Tip Anemone - Green
Bubble Tip Anemone - Lemon (E. quadricolor)
Bubble Tip Anemone - Lemon
Bubble Tip Anemone - Orange Sunburst (E. quadricolor)
Bubble Tip Anemone - Orange Sunburst
Bubble Tip Anemone - Super Nova (E. quadricolor)
Bubble Tip Anemone - Super Nova
Doreensis - Blue-Magenta Doreensis (M. doreensis)
Blue-Magenta Doreensis
Doreensis - Green Doreensis ( M. doreensis)
Green Doreensis
Doreensis - White Tip Brown Doreensis (M. doreensis)
White Tip Brown Doreensis
Doreensis - Red Doreensis (M. doreensis)
Red Doreensis
Doreensis - Purple Doreensis (M. doreensis)
Purple Doreensis
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S. gigantea in the left video is in excessively strong water flow for Giganteas. They prefer a low to moderately low water flow. A pair of Australian/Darwin's Black & White Ocellaris is being hosted. |
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This is the same fella from the video above, but it has migrated up the middle of its tank, where water flow is very much lower, as seen by the calmer movements. |
Gigantea - Saddle Green Gigantea (S. gigantea)
Saddle Green Gigantea
Gigantea - Green Gigantea (S. gigantea)
Green Gigantea
Gigantea - Pink Gigantea (S. gigantea)
Pink Gigantea
Gigantea - Pink-Magenta Gigantea (S. gigantea)
Pink-Magenta Gigantea
Gigantea - Purple Carpet Anemone (S. gigantea)
Purple Carpet Anemone
Haddoni - Blue Carpet anemone (S. haddoni)
Haddon's Carpet Anemone - Blue
Haddoni - Green Carpet Anemone ( S. haddoni)
Green Carpet Anemone
Haddoni - Irridiscent Saddle Carpet Anemony (S. haddoni)
Haddon's Carpet Anemone - Irridiscent
Haddoni - Pastel Green Saddle Carpet Anemone (S. haddoni)
Haddon's Carpet Anemone - Pastel Green
Haddoni - Purple Carpet Anemone (S. haddoni)
Haddon's Carpet Anemone - Purple
The purple color expression in haddonis
make them the rarest of all the colored
haddonis.
Haddoni - Red Carpet Anemone (S. haddoni)
Haddon's Carpet Anemone - Red
Rarely seen in the aquarium trade,
very pricey when available.
White Tip Chocolate Malu (H. malu)
White Tip Chocolate Malu
Uncommon
Malu - White Tip Green Malu (H. malu)
White Tip Green Malu
Uncommon
Magnifica/Ritteri - Neon Yellow Tip (H. magnifica)
Neon Yellow Tip Magnifica (H. Magnifica)
Extremely rare - Pictured hosting a small
colony of Super Black Onyx Perculas.
Magnifica/Ritteri - Red Based (H. magnifica)
Red Based Magnifica (H. magnifica)
Extremely rare - rarely seen in the
aquarium trade.
Sebae Anemone - Purple (H. crispa)
Purple Sebae anemone (H. crispa)
Extremely rare, seldom if at all seen
in the aquarium trade. Pictured hosting
a pair of Fiji Blue stripe(Amphiprion
Chrysopterus)
Tube Anemone (ceriathus sp.)
Tube Anemone (ceriathus sp.)
Colored tube anemones come in
a variety of colors. The rarest colors
are the very deep purple, magenta,
and orange-red.
Colored tube anemones come in
a variety of colors. The rarest colors
are the very deep purple, magenta,
and orange-red.