ID Anemone in live rock

[Nikky.Werr]

This anemone was on my live rock being bothered/nibbled on by some sort of hairy crab that I removed. I put it in my refugium to see if it recovers. It was inside a queen conch shell turned live rock, It's 1 inch in diameter and equal length in height with vertical dark pink stripes running down its body on a lighter pink or creme base and its tentacles are brown and apparently short (though its mostly been completely retracted, it let its tentacles "loose" for a little while). I'd like to know if anyone can ID this and in the event that it recovers, would it be safe to put in my main tank with my clowns and scarlet shrimp?
I'll add a picture ASAP which will hopefully be by tomorrow late morning since my camera battery is dead and charging.
I have absolutely no clue about anemones and unfortunately, in the country I live in, nor does my LFS so there's no one local who could assist me in ID, care or possibly keeping it if it survives.
The refugium has low/medium flow, live rock and deep sand; i propped the anemone on the rock but it kind of floated onto the sand and it's stayed there. My water conditions (ammonia/nitrite/nitrate) are chemically balanced with salinity and ph at 1.025 and 8.3, respectively. I hope this is adequate.

Thanks in advance to everyone who takes a minute to check this out!

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

We'll have to wait for a picture to ID it.

 

[Nikky.Werr]

Anemone Photograph

Anemone Photograph

Here's a photograph, sorry for all the time it took. I hope it's clear enough in the photo.
Thanks again!
By the way it doesn't seem to be doing great/better but, like I stated last night, I really know nothing of anemones. I've read all the generalities I could last night but knowing about the specifics would help.
The light in my hospital tank/refugium is pretty basic so that probably isn't helping. I wonder if "stress guard" from seachem would help or hinder it, opinions would be greatly appreciated. This guy would do much better in my tank light-wise (i think), but that all depends on the safety of my clowns. I propped it on the LR to take the picture, I probably shouldn't have moved it but it moved back onto the ground beside the rock. Anyways, thanks for taking a look.

 

[shesacharmer]

First of all anemones thrive in high light environment so unless you have exceptional lighting in your refugium it's not going to play nice down there. It's not unusual for them to ball up like this when they are stressed. I'd suggest moving it to the bottom of your DT so as not to light shock it. Give it about three days to settle in. It still seems to have some color so that is a good sign. Once it opens up for three days in a row feed it some mysis or a tiny bit of minced clam...some kind of raw meaty seafood...but just a small bit. After it accepts food continue to feed it about every three or four days but just a tiny piece. It's going to get most of its food from the light. In a couple of weeks you will see it start to recover.

 

[Nikky.Werr]

Thank you for that information, I will proceed to do that. Would you happen to know what kind it is? And would it be safe for my fish?
Again, thanks a bunch.

 

[shesacharmer]

It's fairly difficult to identify from your current photos. When it relaxes a bit more see if you can get a better photo with less foot showing. It's very likely to change color once it begins to open up and take some nutrition. Any ID at this point would be strictly a guess. The tentacles tend to get short when they are starving and they lose most of their coloration. It might be Sebae or LTA but it's really too soon to tell. Keep us updated. I believe your tank mates will be safe in the short term while it's recovering and you are making a positive ID. Just try to feed it once it settles but don't rush it.

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

I moved this for more views from the anemone gurus.

 

[Nikky.Werr]

Thank you!

 

[Nikky.Werr]

another picture

another picture

As soon as I put the anemone in my tank, it placed itself inside one of my LR caves, this is the best shot I could get because I did not want to move it around and risk stressing it out even more. I hope this is a better shot than the previous ones.

 

[joshky]

No idea on the species, doesn't look to be a clownfish hosting anemone.

 

[Nikky.Werr]

So the anemone moved back to the shell turned live rock where I found the crab munching on it. There's no way for me to see it. This is a picture of the live rock. What am I supposed to do? The LFS I bought this live rock from had no idea it was in there and they'd had that shipment of LR for weeks so I'm assuming the anemone never came out of there but then how would it feed?

 

[speedyron]

Id be worried bout the crab maybe a gorilla crab

 

[Nikky.Werr]

I was able to get the crab out before adding the LR to my tank. Id heard it clicking and that's how I found both the crab and the anemone.

 

[speedyron]

never heard a crab click sure u dont have a mantis shrimp too

 

[Nikky.Werr]

I have some pistol shrimp, haven't seen a mantis... Maybe I'm mis-describing the sound as clicking, but as I followed the source of the sound I found the crab and the anemone within the above pictured rock after looking in with a flashlight.

 

[Nikky.Werr]

Now I'm just worried that the anemone will die and kill off everyone else since I can't see it and monitor it's progression.

 

[shesacharmer]

It does not look to be on the verge of dying. Give it more time to get settled.

 

[Nikky.Werr]

Update on Anemone status

Update on Anemone status

I found the anemone's hiding spot and was able to get a nice shot of it. It's as open as I've ever seen it, but seems to have less tentacles than yesterday (maybe since it's more open just looks like less?) None of the fish are bothering it but when my shrimp passes by or the fish swim overhead, it shrinks its tentacles in a little bit. It's hiding between the back of my tank and the rock its nestled between, so it doesn't get much "traffic"

 

[Nikky.Werr]

Anemone opened up!

Anemone opened up!

Okay so I noticed yesterday morning that when I first turn on the tank lights at my "morning/watery light" setting for a few minutes, the anemone is at it's most opened. I tried to capture this yesterday but once she/it senses the lights it started creeping back into itself. This morning however I was camera ready. You can see her/its mouth. It's not the best and most clear shot, but it's not bad. Check it out.
So obviousy she doesn't like the lights which is curious because she was doing just fine (fine as in showing at least some tentacle whereas in the tank during daylight hours she shows little to none.) with my fuge/sump lights which are just ur basic "marineland" leds that come with the aquarium lid they sell. The lights on my tank are Aquamana full spectrum LED's. I got them because of the reviews on amazon, people saying their "corals and anemones LOVE IT!". Anyways will the anemone ever get used to them? should I keep the lights at their dimmest for the next week?
Just as a reminder, this anemone was inside a live rock cave sitting at my LFS for about two weeks when they got their last live rock shipment. They had no idea this anemone was in there and nor did I when I purchased the LR. So it's safe to say this anemone had been hiding out for two weeks inside a dark LR cave with little to no lighting and no physical food either.

Oh and I did feed it yesterday, it reached out for the food on the tweezers before it was in grabbing distance but gosh once it was right in front of her, she just "shwooped" it off the tweezers and into her mouth. It was amazing to watch and I'm glad I know it has food in its stomach.

 

[sam11909]

Hi Nikky,

You PM'ed me concerning the warty anemone identification. Your anemone is definitely not a common warty anemone. Warty anemones tend to have "warts" or bumps covering the column.

However, I do actually have this species. A friend of mine collected 19 of these from the Florida Keys a couple of months ago. I am currently a student studying anemone behavior, so obviously these anemones are really interesting to me! I spoke with a graduate student (also working with anemone species), and he wasn't able to place an ID on them. He pointed me toward some anemone identification literature, but I haven't had any luck in finding even similar looking species. However, I haven't had the time to dig very deep. I'll let you know if I do find an ID eventually.

From in-field observations, I know that these anemones retract their long (feeding?) tentacles during the day. It seems that the long tentacles in the center are only used for feeding at night and not for photosynthesis. For this reason it might be a good idea to feed the anemone after the lights go out or before they come on. The outer ring of short tentacle-like structures are exposed and flat against the substrate during the daytime. These may serve to host zooxanthellae (symbiodenium) so that photosynthesis may occur during the day. I have not confirmed this yet, but I will do a squash slide soon to find out. The individuals I have seen are in very shallow water (1-3 feet) in full sunlight. The foot of the anemone reaches down through the sand and attaches to limestone about 1-2 inches below the surface at my site.

It looks like it's doing really well in your aquarium. I wouldn't worry too much about it dying or fouling your aquarium. Just feed it every few days, and I'm sure it will do great!

I'll let you know if I receive any more information. I hope this helps!