Anemone....bad?

[alexkharden]

I've been moving rocks out one at a time on a mantis hunt, and discovered this guy today. Richard at TBS said there are no invasive anemones on his rock, and to be fair there's only one of this guy. What is it though, because it looks like all the aiptasia pictures I've seen? Is there a non-invasive aiptasia species? Hard to see in the picture, but it has a tube that goes as far back under the rock as I can see. Also, under the rock, I can clearly see a pistol shrimp going about his sand sifting business.

So do I have an awesome symbiotic relationship going on, or a potential plague? Or has my pistol partnered up with a plague, lol.

 

[Dkuhlmann]

Look up Curlie Que Anemone or try spelling it a few ways. They are from the Aiptasia family but don't breed like Aiptasia do. They come from Florida area and actually get sold in LFS for about $10 or so.

 

[alexkharden]

That sounds promising Do they pair with pistols? (I can't even see the benefits of that relationship)

 

[sam.basye]

There is a pistol shrimp that lives symbiotically wih the Curly-Cue anemone. I believe the pistol shrimp is red and has the same name as the nem.

If it were my pistol shrimp, Snappy, the nem would get chopped up because he would try to move it. Lol I have a rogue emerald colored pistol shrimp.

The Curley-Cue anemone is essentially a big Aiptasia that doesn't multiply fast. They are in the same family which is why it looks very similar to Aiptasia.

Benefits of the pairing is the shrimp protects the nem and the shrimp might get some of the nems catch of the day.