Haddoni / Saddle Carpet Anemone (Stichodactyla haddoni)
A variant of Carpet anemone (Stichodactyla gigantea)
Representative Carpet anemonephoto — a dedicated image of this exact morph isn't available yet.
The related saddle carpet — a thick, deeply folded oral disc with shorter, beaded tentacles often in green, blue, purple or mottled 'saddle' patterning, sitting flat and broad on the sand.
📜 Backstory
Frequently sold alongside gigantea and confused with it, S. haddoni is a hardier-shipping, sand-dwelling carpet collected across the Indo-Pacific. Color morphs (blue, green, purple, mottled) are wild selections; the blue and rainbow haddoni command premiums for the same reason as gigantea — pigment rarity in collected animals, with no captive-bred lineage in the trade.
Keeper tips for this variant
Unlike gigantea it buries its foot deep in soft sand rather than anchoring to rock, so give it 4+ inches of sandbed and high light; its sting is potent and it readily eats fish, so choose tankmates carefully.