Is this a Haddonii ????
- Thread starter LesMartin
- Start date
Kiel'thalin
Member
Hmm, looks like a Mertensii variety if I am not mistaken.
Amphiprion
Premium Member
We would need a look at the column, underside of disc, and foot to get an accurate ID. without these identifiers, it looks like S. haddoni, especially with the brown ring around the mouth, IMO.
phender
Active member
Since you said there are no markings on the column then it is almost certainly haddoni. The coloration on the mouth is also a haddoni characteristic.
FWIW: For about 5 years I sifted through large troughs of haddoni and gigantea carpets at the local wholesalers trying to find a merten's carpet. I would lift the the edge of each one to see if they had magenta or orange verrucae. With some of the giganteas I would try to determine what the difference was between purple and magenta verrucae.
When I actually saw my first Merten's I could have kicked myself for wasting all that time and effort. Even in a tank of other carpets it was immediately obvious that it was completely different than the rest. Even if you didn't know what you were looking for it would be obvious. Beside the fact that the orange or magenta spots become more dense and more red as the spots get to the foot making the foot appear almost completely red, the column is very weak and in a bare tank the merten's usually lies basically flat on the bottom.
Here is a pic under the "skirt" of a mertens that shows the foot. Actually it is the area just above the foot. The actual foot has even more red.
FWIW: For about 5 years I sifted through large troughs of haddoni and gigantea carpets at the local wholesalers trying to find a merten's carpet. I would lift the the edge of each one to see if they had magenta or orange verrucae. With some of the giganteas I would try to determine what the difference was between purple and magenta verrucae.
When I actually saw my first Merten's I could have kicked myself for wasting all that time and effort. Even in a tank of other carpets it was immediately obvious that it was completely different than the rest. Even if you didn't know what you were looking for it would be obvious. Beside the fact that the orange or magenta spots become more dense and more red as the spots get to the foot making the foot appear almost completely red, the column is very weak and in a bare tank the merten's usually lies basically flat on the bottom.
Here is a pic under the "skirt" of a mertens that shows the foot. Actually it is the area just above the foot. The actual foot has even more red.
The column is completely sky blue without any verrucae. I'ts strong also. When I collected it from my LFS it was in attached to the bottom of a bare tank and completely upright. The thing that's niggling me is the length of the tentacles. As I stated at the beginning of the thread, they are much longer than my blue haddonii and much thicker.
S. haddoni may have tentacles as depicted in your larger photo and based on that picture alone, and your description of the column: it is highly probable, your anemone is S. haddoni 
phender
Active member
I don't know if it is environmentally caused or there are two varieties of haddoni, but I have notice differences in structures as well in different individual haddoni. Some will have longer tentacles that seem to be less dense. You can see the oral disk though the tentacles. Others will have very short tentacles that are so dense that there is no room between them at all. In addition, the later anemones seem to have a thinner oral disk if it were to be viewed in cross section.
If you click on my "red house" there is a pic of a blue haddoni that represents the longer tentacled variety and bright green haddoni that represents the shorter tentacled variety. Unfortunately, neither of those anemones are with us anymore.
In my limited experience, it has seemed to me that the longer tentacled variety has been accepted more readily by non-natural symbionts like percula, ocellaris and skunks than the short tentacled variety.
If you click on my "red house" there is a pic of a blue haddoni that represents the longer tentacled variety and bright green haddoni that represents the shorter tentacled variety. Unfortunately, neither of those anemones are with us anymore.
In my limited experience, it has seemed to me that the longer tentacled variety has been accepted more readily by non-natural symbionts like percula, ocellaris and skunks than the short tentacled variety.
An interesting point you made Phender regarding the depth of the oral disc. My green long tentacled variety seems much more robust overall ie even the column seem stronger. It frequently stands erect up into the water column whereas the blue short tentacled version, although it does expand and contract etc has never done this.
