ID please.

[taylor t]

I've had this anemone for quite a few years. I got it pretty small, maybe 4", all purple, and had nubs on it for tentacles. It looked like bumps for tents. They grew longer pretty fast after it acclimated. It always has been a sand dweller. It's been in a vinegar bottle bottom I cut a while now. I never thought LTA just because of how thick the tents are. It has spots under side, but seems thick and tough, like leather. Raised white bumps underside, all the way down to foot. Bought it labeled malu from LFS. Then first pics on here, people said crispa. Then a couple years later, people said malu. I'm guessing because it hasn't gotten larger over the years, it remains the same size, food or no food. In person, I would call it malu, but now that LTA has been suggested, I'm not sure. The spots underside don't look LTA to me. Thoughts?

 

[ocellaris123]

what color is the foot? To me it doesn't look like a lta

 

[taylor t]

It's size is about 8". It's planted in the bottom of a 1 gallon vinegar plastic bottom, then I added sand to it. Makes really easy to move. It doesn't grow, that, combined with the tent thickness, combined with the tough leather underside white spots, led me to think Malu. No?

 

[taylor t]

Foot same color as under disk, purple/brown. Underside spots are white raised bumps.

 

[taylor t]

My guess is still Malu, just by the way it has maxed out on size. But, I could be wrong. Thoughts?

 

[taylor t]

Tentacle size varies, and has more than I would think LTA have near mouth.

 

[ocellaris123]

I would say malu,

LTA's have red foots/columns so I think we can rule doreensis out.

 

[taylor t]

I thought LTA had orange foot too, but just recently, I think I remember someone ID'd a LTA that didn't have orange foot. I don't know. Maybe it is LTA? Just stunted from being contained in a plastic bottom? Is orange foot a requirement for LTA? The curly tips do look like it, but I've seen LTA tips get even curlier than these. Maybe just a super happy Malu get curly tips?

 

[ocellaris123]

quite positive your's isn't M. doreensis. Too many tentacles, check out my green lta and compare

 

[taylor t]

Thanks ocellaris123. Looks like a happy LTA with curly Q's.

 

[OrionN]

LTA have very distinctive verrucae all line up in a roll close together. The orange foot are orange on the bottom and turn to tan by midway of the column.
Your anemone have tentacles sorta look like LTA but the verrucae are more like Malu. This, together with the tentacle count and the size of the anemone after a few years, make this anemone mostly likely a Malu. He does have the curly tentacles that seem to be similar to LTA, but not enough to ID him as a LTA IMO

 

[taylor t]

Thanks Minh! When I bought this guy, it looked really close to this, short purple tents:
http://www.liveaquaria.com/diversden/ItemDisplay.cfm?c=2733+4&ddid=255068

I used to have an anemone that looked just like Davocean's malu, if you remember what his looks like. I killed mine, so I got this one as a replacement, hoping it was the same as the one I killed, but it's quite different now.

 

[ocellaris123]

Here are my malu, I hope they get tentacles like yours

 

[ThRoewer]

I would say it is a H. crispa.
It has too many tentacle for a H. malu or M. doreensis.. And the tentacles are also not long enough or curled enough for a M. doreensis.
H. crispa can have slightly curled and shortened tentacles if the water current is rather slow.
And the color matches too.

 

[addictedreefer]

+ 1 on crispa. Those tentacles are too elongated for Malu IMO.

 

[phender]

Just a couple observations. IMO you can't ID a captive anemone based on length or number of tentacles alone. There are just too many variables in a captive system that affect those characteristics one way or another. They can only give you a general direction.

It is only the foot of an LTA that is red. You would have to pull the anemone all the way out of its bottle to see if the foot is red. Even then, it is not unusual for that red color to fade in a captive animal where it is almost not there anymore. What does stay is the color gradient in the column. The bottom of the column above the red is normally white and then changes to grey/brown when you start to see the white verracuae(sp?). The top part can be leathery.

The underside of H. crispa tends to white or cream with a leathery texture. Sometimes they can have a little yellow or orange striping, but that is not common.

According to their description H. malu is supposed to have a "delicate" foot and column. In addition, the tentacles usually stay much shorter than this specimen.

I have seen a lot of H. crispas in the last 35 years of reef keeping and I can't think of any that have shown that degree and consistency of curling/corkscrewing at the tip of the tentacles. Many captive LTAs don't exhibit the corkscrewing at the end of the tentacles either, but when it is present, its a pretty good indicator. The dark grey color of the underside of the oral disk also makes me lean more towards LTA than crispa.

There are a couple of tentacle is this pic that go beyond just curled tips and are full on corkscrew.

Are their any clowns in the tank? Does this anemone host any of the clowns? H. crispa tends to be accepted by all clowns even if the are not natural symbionts. LTA's are not quite as popular with a lot of clowns.

Even though my first inclination is that it is a LTA, unless you pull it completely out of its bottle and show us the whole anemone, I don't think a 100% positive ID can be given. If I were you I wouldn't worry about it. Just enjoy a nice healthy anemone.

 

[taylor t]

Wow, Thanks Phender for your thoughts. Not what I thought you would say. You may still be right. With the pictures and the time I've had it, if it is a LTA, I am completely shocked. It hasn't grown in years, and gets food with the mertens. I'm not going to uproot it just to see, I'm just curious what everyone else thinks it is. If I post it in a "show me your LTA" posts, I'm thinking they all would tell me it's not a LTA. If I post in a "show me your malu" posts, they say it can't be a malu. If I post in a "show me your crispa" thread, and they find out it's only 8" diameter after so many years, I'm thinking they too, would say "nope, there's the door"!

Fun and games aside, yes, it has hosted clowns, and still does. It was one of the first anemone's the clowns dove into in the first 5 seconds of going in the tank. I added 13 baby Rod's onyx early summer last year. I removed all but 4. All 4 still use it, but they use all of the nems.

This is from 5 minutes ago.


And then here's a different clown, 4 minutes ago.


All over the disk area, there are baby tentacles, and long tentacles. There are more really small ones that surround the mouth, than are on the outside of the disk, but they are all over the disk. No uniformity with tent length. They do not have the spacing I remember LTA to have, the disk is tightly packed.


Close up.


another.


Not trying to poo poo anyone, no offense intended. But, if I look at other pics of mertens, is it fair to say that the mertens I have, probably is on the longer end of tent length in captivity? And, when I see other gigs, I still can't help but think, the tent extension on my gigs is on the longer side. Then, I would think, when comparing anemone's, it may be possible, it is a malu, and it just has tents that are on the longer side too? It's been years since I had a LTA, and when I did, it had loooong tents, straight and stringy, and the disk looked like it was over-inflated with lots of space between the several tentacles it had. It didn't seem to have many tentacles at all. One of the reasons I got rid of it back then. Instead of clowns playing in lots of tents, it looked like they swam around the pencil rods, the few it seemed to have.

Well, what ever it is, I like it. Just don't know where it fits in. I know there's no definitive thing I can post with a picture, but if not only for the size (8" diameter), the amount of food I've given it, and how many years I've had it (5-8 years maybe?), I can't help but still think it's a malu. Any other anemone would be 4 times the size after eating for so many years, even crispa. Thanks everyone for your opinions! I appreciate everyone who had an opinion, even though it seems like I'm back at square one again.

 

[phender]

I just can't remember ever seeing a H. crispa or malu being that color under the oral disk, whereas pretty much all LTAs are that color. But, I have learned that just because I haven't seen it or heard of it, doesn't mean it doesn't still occur.

I just did a google images search for Macrodactyla doreensis including this one that look quite a bit like yours.

Its a tough call. I think if you posted the pic from 11/24/11 people might have a different perspective.

Even though it is small, H. malu would be my last choice. The small size could be explained by inhibition from other anemones or corals in the system, or even the container he sunk his foot into.

I was just about to throw in the towel and say H. crispa until I looked back at the 11/24/11 pic and it put me back on the fence again.

 

[taylor t]

Doh! I'm such a dope. Thanks Phender, I didn't realize my original pic from years ago wasn't in the thread. I'm digging through some of my older photo's of the tank with it. Some pics of the mertens early years too.

 

[taylor t]

I lost my sea feather. I had it for maybe a couple years.