Deepwater Anemones

[InsaneClownFish]

I'm curious if any of the anemones commonly kept in the hobby can be found in deep water. From what I understand, most of these anemones come from 3 meters at most...maybe 6 meters.

Obviously, these animals come from where light and turnover is most abundant- closer to the surface.

I've never had the opportunity to dive a reef, but I've heard comments from people who have as to how amazed they are as to where and how things grow.

I'm curious, are there anemones that are more likely to be found in deep water?

 

[garygb]

I know Entacmaea quadricolor comes from deeper waters, down to more than 30 meters and H. magnifica also can be found to 20 meters or more.

 

[garygb]

I just did a little research and found an article about H. magnifica. They are found deeper than I thought, up to 50 meters deep. I think of this species as a shallower water species, as some are even found in the intertidal zone, but 150 feet down is not exactly shallow water. Here's the link:

http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Heteractis_magnifica.html

 

[BonsaiNut]

I just did a little research and found an article about H. magnifica. They are found deeper than I thought, up to 50 meters deep. I think of this species as a shallower water species, as some are even found in the intertidal zone, but 150 feet down is not exactly shallow water. Here's the link:

http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Heteractis_magnifica.html

I'd be a little cautious using that article as reference - I think it was written by a student Many of the articles referenced as source materials were written by other students It has a number of mistakes and some questionable information.

As far as 50 meters goes, I'm pretty sure that is a typo and the author meant to state 50cm to 1m? Regardless, they exist at the surface down to about 10m depth. I have never heard of one being as deep as 20m, but maybe so. Remember they are photosynthetic creatures (via their symbiotic algae) so to be even 10m down they need to be in extremely clear water. They are relatively shallow waters creatures when I have seen them in the wild - they enjoy being on top of rock piles and coral bommies washed with lots of current.

 

[Reefvette]

BONSAI strikes again! lol

Mags are Light lovers.

 

[garygb]

Perhaps that was a student writer, and as I mentioned, I've always been under the assumption that they are very light demanding. However in this article, Bob Fenner mentions them being found at a depth of up to 30 meters (or as he puts it 90 feet)--at the very bottom of the article there is a pic with a description of the locale where the anemone was photographed:

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/marine/inverts/cnidaria/anthozoa/hetmagnifica.htm


And in this photo, (two-thirds down the article) of a mag at 16 meters.

http://www.underwaterkwaj.com/uw-misc/clowns/Heteractis-magnifica.htm


It's interesting that they can be found so deep. As a diver, I know how much light is filtered, even in very clear water. By 15 meters, it's not especially bright, even on a clear day. Perhaps this species prefers the shallower waters with very bright light, but also thrives in less in bright locations as well.

 

[garygb]

Perhaps that was a student writer, and as I mentioned, I've always been under the assumption that they are very light demanding. However in this article, Bob Fenner mentions them being found at a depth of up to 30 meters (or as he puts it 90 feet)--at the very bottom of the article there is a pic with a description of the locale where the anemone was photographed:

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/marine/inverts/cnidaria/anthozoa/hetmagnifica.htm


And in this photo, (two-thirds down the article) of a mag at 16 meters.

http://www.underwaterkwaj.com/uw-misc/clowns/Heteractis-magnifica.htm


It's interesting that they can be found so deep. As a diver, I know how much light is filtered, even in very clear water, by 15 meters it's not especially bright even on a clear day. Perhaps this species prefers the shallower waters with very bright light, but also thrives in less in bright locations as well.

 

[ousnakebyte]

As with most everything in nature, I'm sure there are always exceptions - even with H. magnifica. Might the occasional specimen be found in "deep" water? Perhaps. But, they are most common 10 meters and above.

The same goes for Elkhorn - A. palmata. It's primarily found 10 meters or less, but there is a colony (or two?) at the Texas Flower Gardens that is about 20 meters (60ft.).

Of course, this begs the question of what is "deep". Are we using diving standards as it relates to the formation of nitrogen bubbles in tissues - for us land-dwelling, compressed air breathing mammals, or in regards to the availability of light for photosynthesis - which can vary greatly from location to location or even time of year?

Cheers
Mike

 

[Reefvette]

Gary my thoughts would be this is when feeding comes into play.

 

[fish_dave]

I saw an H. Magnifica at 220 ft on the wall just off shore of Majuro, Marshall Islands. It had a group of pink skunks in it. We also commonly see very large carpet anemones and bulb anemones in the 90 to 120 ft. range in the Solomons Islands. They are generally inhabited by Clarkii clowns although once in awhile they will have pink skunks.

Dave

 

[shutiny]

I am with Mike about these anemones' depth and distribution. There are lots geographic variables/bottle neck that allow some variance of a light loving magnifica(and gigantea) to live in much deeper water. The deeper water animals are much larger than the shallow water "groupies". In general, I believed that Mertensii is the one beats out all others.

 

[velvetelvis]

I saw an H. Magnifica at 220 ft on the wall just off shore of Majuro, Marshall Islands. It had a group of pink skunks in it. We also commonly see very large carpet anemones and bulb anemones in the 90 to 120 ft. range in the Solomons Islands. They are generally inhabited by Clarkii clowns although once in awhile they will have pink skunks.

Dave

Do you see pink skunks in the bulb anemones too, or just the carpets? That must be quite a sight.

@shutiny: I have Michael Scott's book on clownfishes and damsels. He says there are also two forms of E. quadricolor: a smaller, colonial variety that lives at shallower depths, and a solitary, larger form found in deeper waters.

 

[Reefvette]

Shu Tin

Shu Tin

Any idea why the larger anemones head to deeper waters?

Gigantea i have seen the difference between deeper water ones and shallow water but never thought of why they would move deeper.

Do you think they move to shallow water to breed?

 

[BonsaiNut]

I saw an H. Magnifica at 220 ft on the wall just off shore of Majuro, Marshall Islands. It had a group of pink skunks in it. We also commonly see very large carpet anemones and bulb anemones in the 90 to 120 ft. range in the Solomons Islands. They are generally inhabited by Clarkii clowns although once in awhile they will have pink skunks.

Dave

Cool comments Dave - thanks for adding. 220 feet is pretty deep for scuba

Reefvette - here's on study (on S. gigantea) showing distribution of individuals on a reef. Smaller individuals are found in shallower water habitats. Large individuals are found in deeper water. It seems to suggest that many anemone larvae settle in shallow waters / grass beds, and move to deeper water as they grow. The small anemones disappeared at a higher rate than the large ones. It should be noted that this study was wholly conducted in a shallow water section of the reef, so it does not attempt to answer the question of maximum depth.

Interestingly, I have read another study on mobility of S. gigantea that shows that even the large ones don't always stay put. On average, about 10% of large S. gigantea moved each year in the study - some moving into the study area, and some moving out.

 

[garygb]

In that last article I posted, the anemone had been in the same place for 37 years (at the time of writing), almost 50 feet below the surface. Clearly, so much is still unknown about this species.

The information I've read matches what Shutiny says about the larger individuals being found in deeper waters. This is consistent with E. quadricolor. I think those two species have a lot more in common with one another than mags have with other members of the Heteractis genus. Taxonomy on anemones is far from definitive and I expect eventually there will be another shake up in the classification.

 

[shutiny]

Any idea why the larger anemones head to deeper waters?

Gigantea i have seen the difference between deeper water ones and shallow water but never thought of why they would move deeper.

Do you think they move to shallow water to breed?

Good question, but I just don't know. In my tanks, when condition deteriates, or when one gets sick, a gigantea, mertensii will hang side way/ perpendicular in it's orientation to the light. If bad condition, illness continues, most will move to shaded and less flow area to hide. It's very difficult to ID each specimen in the ocean with out tagging them. They all looked the same, even color changes over times. May be DNA/ chromosomal study will help ID if in fact they are the exact same specie.

 

[BonsaiNut]

I've sent an email out to a friend who lives in the South Pacific who may be able to provide a little more first-hand info...

Additionally, I've been looking at light attenuation in sea water. As you would expect, a lot depends on clarity of the water, which is impacted by many things including warmth, algae concentrations, proximity to shore, etc. I was surprised to learn that "clarity" of mid-ocean sea-water actually exceeds that of distilled fresh water (in terms of light being able to penetrate farther). Here's a chart that may help illustrate:

Figure 6.18 Left: Attenuation of daylight in the ocean in % per meter as a function of wavelength.
I: extremely pure ocean water; II: turbid tropical-subtropical water; III: mid-latitude water; 1-9: coastal waters of increasing turbidity. Incidence angle is 90° for the first three cases, 45° for the other cases. Right: Percentage of 465nm light reaching indicated depths for the same types of water. From Jerlov (1976).

I suppose you could calculate a maximum healthy depth for a clown anemone if you knew what % of PUR spectra lighting they needed to live, and also knew the attenuation level of the surrounding water. Additionally, anemones all have the ability to have different populations of zooxanthellae. I would guess that deeper water anemones have zooxanthellae specifically adapted to deeper water lighting conditions (though I have no data to back this up).

Regardless, this chart illustrates one thing - even in the CLEAREST ocean water, you lose 80% of your 465 nm (blue) light by 200 feet. And blue light penetrates farther than any other spectra.

 

[Reefvette]

Bonsai

Bonsai

I wonder if this has any effect on what colors the anemones are based on depth in the ocean

 

[BonsaiNut]

Oops... forgot to post this. I got an email from my buddy who lives in the Marshall Islands:

I've been trying to think of the deepest clown-bearing anemones I've seen. I'd probably have to say Entacmaea quadricolor. We see those with Amphiprion tricinctus out on the seaward reef at least to about 140' and I wouldn't be surprised if they go deeper. Also, I know of one on a shipwreck at around 130'. Heteractis magnifica certainly goes down to just over 100--I remember one maybe 110 on the seaward reef right next to a quadricolor and several at the bases of lagoon pinnacles at around 100'. Stichodactyla haddoni and Macrodactyla doreensis maybe to 100 but only on the lagoon slope, usually in patches of Halimeda algae. I can't think offhand of any Heteractis crispa, H. aurora or S. mertensii quite as deep as 100'. In fact, crispa and mertensii are usually on the reeftop at less than 60'. But all these anemones can be shallow. I guess I haven't seen M. doreensis shallower than about 25' and S. haddoni less than maybe 20, but the others can be less than 10' (although are not usually that shallow).

 

[garygb]

Thanks for posting Bonsai. I find this fascinating. Since the OP led me to do some research, I'm realizing some of these anemones can live in surprisingly low light in nature. I would wonder if the ones imported are more likely to be found near the surface, as collection might be easier in shallower waters. Perhaps juvenile, and clonal individuals are the ones we most often have in our tanks and the ones from the brightest waters. Like I posted before, there's so much we don't know about these animals.