Is this a magnifica?
- Thread starter george915
- Start date
shabreeson
New member
i would say it's 50 50.better picture of mouth and base is needed. some of the tentacles branch, and are pale yellow at the tips. both point slightly to mag
BonsaiNut
Premium Member
Branching tentacles are not unique to H. magnifica, nor are yellow tipped tentacles.
ocellaris123
Active member
I'm thinking its a magnifica as well. Get a picture of the mouth if possible.
BonsaiNut
Premium Member
You need to sweep the tentacles to the side and take a photo of the column. You are looking for verrucae - slight bumps/markings on the column that will be the same color as the column in the case of H. magnifica. They are sometimes difficult to see when the column is dark and the anemone is not fully expanded - but they will always be there if it is a H. magnifica.
However I don't think your going to find any, because I believe the anemone is a BTA - which won't have any verrucae.
H. magnifica verrucae look like this:
E. quadricolor columns lack them completely:
It is currently in a low light aquarium and isn't 100% happy. Because of this, it is taking on an appearance that is different from how it would look in the wild. If it were in a natural habitat I'll bet there would be no discussion - it would look clearly like one species or the other. I am basing my "guess" on the appearance of the anemone to me based on looking at thousands of anemones. But when stressed, they can fool anyone.
deangelr
Clown Whisperererer
The tentacles are uniform in Mags, they can bubble or taper (almost come to a point) at the ends in a bubble tip.
The oral disc in H. mag is about the same size as the foot. its almost like one giant column with tentacles. Where as bubble tips have a much narrower foot that it likes to hide between rocks. The foot in H mag. is normally prominent if viewed from a horizontal plane.
The mouth on the H. Mag protrudes, like a nipple in shape. The BTA mouth is normally just a closed slit in the oral disc. The mouth appears smooth. But this isn't always that helpful to me because the mouth never looks normal unless the specimen is very healthy.
Bring back more pics!
The oral disc in H. mag is about the same size as the foot. its almost like one giant column with tentacles. Where as bubble tips have a much narrower foot that it likes to hide between rocks. The foot in H mag. is normally prominent if viewed from a horizontal plane.
The mouth on the H. Mag protrudes, like a nipple in shape. The BTA mouth is normally just a closed slit in the oral disc. The mouth appears smooth. But this isn't always that helpful to me because the mouth never looks normal unless the specimen is very healthy.
Bring back more pics!
shabreeson
New member
never said only mags have branched tentacles and yellow tips. they're only a slight indicator IMHO. the tentacle positioning right under the clown looks like mag to me as well. like i said, 50:50 mag bta without a clear pic of the mouth
BonsaiNut
Premium Member
You know what? I can't remember if this is always the case in anemones I have seen in the wild
I remember seeing some like this, but can't recall if they are ALL like this. I'm going to be in Fiji in a couple of months, and will take a ton of photos of magnifica mouths I don't mind moving them around gently to take photos of the parts that I want to look at. I'll see if I can find any that have concave mouths like BTA's. Most of the time in the wild you can't see their mouths without moving tentacles aside.By the way, I don't disagree in general with your description. However the point I was trying to make is to contrast anemone appearance with anemone structure. Anemones can change their appearance substantially based on conditions - but they can't change their structure.
