Anemone Without a Foot

[advena]

a friend of mine just gave me an anemone (might be a BTA, but the tenticles are very short & almost look like a bunch of grapes sitting on top of its body--i can post pix if it is needed to answer my question) that was hassled to the point of death by his naaaaaaaasty maroon...
he nursed it back to health and it has been doing fine (or at least recovering) for a few weeks in a specimen container he had in the display.
now its in my tank...

i noticed that its foot looked really unusual, but i figured that with all its been though that was par for the course.

after being in the tank overnight it is still just laying on its side and rocking in the currents... it hasnt moved, no foot has appeared, and it is definitely NOT attached to anything like a normal anemone.
other than that it looks quite beautiful & somehow to my eye doesnt look horribly distressed...

so my question is:

if an anemone has its entire foot removed will the foot grow back?
if so how long does it usually take??

or does someone have experience with an anemone doing somehting like this on purpose??

i have a healthy large BTA in the tank as well so the paramaters should be fine for the healing of this critter...

thanks much,
-scott

 

[WDLV]

Uh... the foot should grow back if it's actually missing. Pics?

 

[advena]

ive actually been able to take a bit of time and check it out, and my assessment is that its not doing as well as i originally thought.
its mouth is gaping open & it doesnt react to food (thawed krill broken into small pieces).

i dont think the foot is actually missing now... i just think this poor guy got so hammered that its just not opening up its foot.

here are some pix--please excuse the quality... had to shoot fast & handheld (BTW the anemone looks worse here because i had to move it into a bowl to shoot the foot):

the foot

and another

its gaping mouth (the black thing is some PVC (well ABS actually) pipe i stuck into my DSB to keep it in a sorta upright position)

and another with flash

thanks for any info you can provide.
the mouth has some mucus around it (the stuff on the left), which hides some of the mouth in the pic. the mouth isnt too deformed, just open.

im seriously worried about this poor guy!

thanks for any info.

-scott

 

[Ron Popeil]

you have a bleached, starved and very near death heteractis crispa/sebae anemone. i sincerely doubt an anemone in that condition will make it. if its not accepting food, of any sort, the best you can do is just provide it with light, and hope it can pull its self back to some stronger condition. not attaching is also not a very promising sign.

as far as i know, this species is a sand dwelling anemone, or rocky rubble area where it buries its foot. typically this anemone has long slender tenticles, rich and brown and leathery in appearance.

good luck, but...i cant be very optimistic at this point about your anemones survival.

 

[WDLV]

Here Here.

 

[advena]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7803427#post7803427 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Ron Popeil
you have a bleached, starved and very near death heteractis crispa/sebae anemone. i sincerely doubt an anemone in that condition will make it. if its not accepting food, of any sort, the best you can do is just provide it with light, and hope it can pull its self back to some stronger condition. not attaching is also not a very promising sign.

as far as i know, this species is a sand dwelling anemone, or rocky rubble area where it buries its foot. typically this anemone has long slender tenticles, rich and brown and leathery in appearance.

good luck, but...i cant be very optimistic at this point about your anemones survival.

aargh that makes me soooooo *&$#!*# pi**ed!!!!!!!!

thank you for the info.

well its on the sand being kept very loosely in place with some pipe (the pipe is about 3 times larger than the anemone).

its amazing to think that it should look as you described... i mean there are NO similarities...

just out of curiosity how the heck can you tell that its an H. crispa (i believe you im just naturally curious )???

i will keep offering it smashed bits of frozed krill every other day or so (unless you think i should leave it alone for a longer period)...

aargh this sucks!!!


-scott

 

[WDLV]

Tell tale tiny purple dots on the end of the tentacles... among other things.

 

[advena]

gotcha.
thanks for letting me know.

-scott

 

[WDLV]

Two books I'd recommend you read. One is called Clownfish. The other is called Clownfish and Their Host Anemones. I believe by Joyce Wilkerson.

 

[clord]

omg I forgot I have Joyce's book and its not just about clownfish thanks...

Btw its hard to find a healthy sebae anemone i been looking for a long time