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[RICO222]

I,m no expert on this? but I think the ID may be a bit off.

I've been looking for an unusual anemone for some time and came across this little fella at my LFS.


It has a red/orange base
Thick long green tenticles ( some have yellowish nobbles )
Purple stripped oral disc with protruding mouth, also the underside of the oral disc has dimples

 

[kimsie]

Do you have a picture you can post?

What is it labeled as?

 

[RICO222]

Sorry this has taken so long but its been a while since I hosted images on a server and none of my sofware was installed.

Fingers crossed this should be it.

and

Its only been in the tank about 2hrs so it looks much smaller than earlier on at the store.

Ps Importer and LFS think it may be Heteractis Aurora

 

[criccio]

Macrodactyla doreensis

 

[RICO222]

Thanx for swift response, Are we definately sure?

 

[kimsie]

I think criccio's right - Long Tentacle Anemone is the common name (just in case you didn't know - don't mean to insult)...

I'm about 98% sure - but I've been wrong..

 

[garygb]

Yep, I say M. doreensis too.

 

[elegance coral]

Wow. Slow down people. I almost posted agreeing with everyone else. I'm glad I didn't, because I think I would have been wrong. I believe it is H. Aurora. The beads are visible on the outer most tentacles. It does look alot like a LTA, but it's not.

 

[reef rico]

NICE ACCOUNT NAME LOL AND NICE NEM!

 

[RICO222]

Thats just the thing that got me all mixed up to begin with.
From what i've read thick long green tenticles and the colors in general would say a Doreensis, but the yellowish nobbles would say aurora and nothing else?

Open to ideas

 

[elegance coral]

I'm not convinced that it's Aurora, or that it is a host species at all. I am convinced that it is not Doreensis.

 

[criccio]

"but the yellowish nobbles would say aurora and nothing else?"

Quoting Sprung's Invertebrates book, " Small specimens of M. doreenis may have beaded tentacles like H. aurora..."...

H. aurora are much more heavily beaded.

Colored column, long tentacles, radial lines, lta no doubt.

 

[kimsie]

It was the color of the column that made me say LTA... I didn't think Aurora had that color... but I could be wrong!

 

[elegance coral]

Quote from "Anemone fishes and their host sea anemones"

Similar species Heteractis aurora, H. crispa, and H. malu also live burrowed into sediment, and may have red or yellow pigmentation on the lower column. Tentacles of M. doreensis lack bulges , in contrast to those of H. aurora, are fewer than those of H. crispa, and are longer than those of H. malu. The column of M. doreensis is thin, and has distinctive verrucae. The distribution of this species is the most restricted of any host anemone.

 

[1GoldClown]

Its a type of LTA. You got an unusual anenome, Congrats on your pic !

 

[adtravels]

sorry elegance coral you are wrong on this one

 

[RICO222]

Thanks guys for giving this your time and opinions. I've taken a couple more pictures last night if thats any help.

The nem seems settled and has put its foot down in the sand just touching the rockwork. It has deflated once expelling brown gue and giving me a fright, All seems well now and its size has settled to around 6-8 inch across. I'm going to the store later today and hope to feed it later.

 

[elegance coral]

In that last pic. Is that sand sticking to the anemones verrucae?

Can we get a pic of the upper collumn and verrucae?

 

[OrionN]

M. doreensis have very clearly seen white verrucae. H. aurora does have colorful column similar to M. doreensis.
Maybe this is a hybrid of the two. I tend to agree with elegance coral, bit I have seen only seen a few H. aurora and never look at the column of this anemone closely because it is so easy to ID them from the tentacles.

 

[elegance coral]

Anemone identification is a process of elimination. There are certain criteria an anemone must meet before it can be placed in a given group or species. Doreensis has long smooth tentacles. This anemone does not. Therefore, we must look to other possibilities for a proper ID. Without knowing if this anemone has adhesive verrucae, it meets the characteristics of Aurora. Aurora typically has many more "beads" than this anemone, though. Aurora and Doreensis do have overlapping distributions and live in the same type of environments. This should put them in close proximity to each other in some areas. I believe that most anemone species are capable of internal brooding. This would mean that it is highly possible, or probable, for the sperm of one of these species to come into contact with the eggs of the other. The only question is, can fertilization take place between these two anemones? If so, OrionN may be correct about the hybrid, and this could explain why Sprung noticed "beads" on anemones that otherwise have Doreensis features. Regardless of all that, we can not conclusively classify this anemone with any host species given the information we have. We don't even know if it has adhesive verrucae or not.