maxi/mini anemone question

[jolson10450]

what is exactly considered a maxi/mini anemone? i have mini carpets about the size of a 1/2 dollar coin but i always called them mini carpets. now i see these maxi/mini anemones everywhere so just trying to clarify my understanding of them. is there 2 different types? mini anemone and maxi anemone? or is it just one group of each considered the same thing?

thanks!

[jimsflies]

Not sure...although I like them.

I think these get 3-5-inches in diameter...so they are bigger than the mini carpets that everyone has had. And they seem to come in more colors.

[ReeferRob]

Maximum color, mini package?? IDK but was wondering the same thing! Do Clown host in them? Do they walk around like other nems?

[jolson10450]

yeah ive seen the "maxi/mini" anemones before in store and they are bigger than the ones i have i was just wondering if there was a difference. they are pretty hot right now, a lot of LFS got some shipments in this week with them.

rob: my mini carpets walk around like other anemones and more than just mushrooms, ive had them move from the bottom of my 1g to the top of it about 4" within a day, i'd have to say they look better than any ricordea ive had in my tank as well. i think mine are to small to host clowns but maybe the mini/maxi anemones, i believe mine is just the mini. this is where i get confused, is mine the mini, and the bigger ones the maxi? and saying maxi/mini anemone is a combination of both or what??

my brain hurts!

[jimsflies]

I think they are not as apt to walk around as other nems.

I've seen referrences to mini carpets and mini/maxis. I'm not sure if they are the same thing or not?

[Tom@HaslettMI]

Originally Posted by jolson10450

what is exactly considered a maxi/mini anemone? i have mini carpets about the size of a 1/2 dollar coin but i always called them mini carpets. now i see these maxi/mini anemones everywhere so just trying to clarify my understanding of them. is there 2 different types? mini anemone and maxi anemone? or is it just one group of each considered the same thing?

thanks!

The latest CORAL magazine has an article on them. The author runs an aquaculture facility that has been propagating and selling them for "some time". She states that they are a not yet described species, but according to an anemone expert they are definitely not Mini carpets (Stichodactyla tapetum).

Originally Posted by ReeferRob

Do Clown host in them? Do they walk around like other nems?

According to the article they "...are not know to host clownfish" but "may be attractive to anemone shrimp and commensal crabs". It also says they live in or on rock and once settled usually stay in one place.

HTH,
Tom

[jolson10450]

thanks tom! i have the mini's for sure, just trying to clarify it.

[Cultivated Reef]

Another difference between the two is that the mini mini's tend to reproduce by "cloning" in captivity quite readily where the maxi mini's do not seem to do so. They need to be encouraged...muhahaha MuHaHaHa MUHAHAHA. Ahem, sorry about that