"mini" rock anemone?

[OoNickoC]

Picked this up after seeing afew of them lately on the net. I saw a picture of them a year or so ago but cannot find any solid information. The tentacles are smooth unlike most rock or flower anemones I've seen. Also this is about full size from what I can gather. They are coming in locally on "indo poly rock" . Anyone have a lead on these?

The are two varieties, one green on green, and this one being green center with pink/white tentacles.

 

[Ron Reefman]

I've never seen or heard of these. I had a stone flower in my nem tank that somehow became 3 when I wasn't looking. I had one original that was 3-4" in diameter in the tank for over a year. Then one day I noticed 2 little ones in the rocks nearby. Nothing had been changed in the tank. No new rocks, no new critters, just 2 new little stone flowers.

So are you saying that these new ones you call 'mini' are supposed to stay small? Any info on how big they get?

 

[OoNickoC]

Initially I thought young flower or standard rock anemones, but the outer and inner row of tentacles are wrong. I noticed the flowers have sort of a ribbed or textured surface on the outer tentacles. I will have to admit me thinking mini is conjuncture, judging by the way I've seen similar anemones at a very young age....so I'm not sure lol.

 

[bradleym]

There are some flower or rock nems that have smooth tentacles. So it could be a baby rock nem. However, there are also MANY anemones that aren't well known because noone wants to sell them. I have 3 types of "mini" anemone in my tank right now that noone has been able to identify. So you could be right about that, too. The only way to know for sure is to feed it. It will either stay the same, grow, or split. When it stops growing or splits, you've hit the full-grown size.

My advice is to feed it a single thawed mysis (or part if they're too big) every couple days. This plus good lighting should set it off either growing dramatically or splitting in a month or two (if it's going to). Let us know how it turns out if you decide to keep it.

 

[bhsgk]

I also have something similar in my tank. I call it my "mini-mini anemone".Mine essentially looks like a miniature "maxi-mini". I picked up one from a local reefer and within a couple of days I had three of them. I haven't been able to find any real info online about it.

 

[Ron Reefman]

bradleym and bhsgk, any chance at photos?

 

[bradleym]

One of mine is too small and far away to take a pic, but picture a baby aiptasia, only with neon green tentacles. And it never gets more than 1/2 inch in width, I tried.

Here are the other two. The first one is a sand dweller. It gets about 2 inches or so and the reproduces asexually. Although I've never witnessed the process, I don't think it splits.

The last one is new. I've only had it about 3 weeks, so I really don't know anything about it.

 

[OoNickoC]

@ Braleym, the last picture actually looks pretty similar to the variety I've seen cropping up around the bay area on indo polyp rock. Ive seen two varieties in person and they have the same squat stature with the slightly protruding mouth that pretty distinctive. Pretty cool. I hope these do turn out to be "mini". .

 

[bhsgk]

here are two of mine, but after i took the time to actually study mine they are IMO a completely different species than yours

 

[bradleym]

@bhsgk,

Check out this photo. Yours are the mid-sized mini species in this pic, off to the left (that's a regular maxi mini on right for scale). I've had them before. They are more prolific than maxi minis, but they aren't aggressive enough to be a pest. One day I'll get some for my new tank cause they are fun to have. Really hardy, averaging 2-3 inches maximum, and they can handle pretty much any flow or light.

On the same note, there is an even SMALLER mini carpet. There are several on the rock in center/left of the picture. THEY can be a pest because they split frequently, but it's hard to hate them when they only get a half inch max.

 

[bradleym]

Here's a better pic of them...

 

[OoNickoC]

Spot on! Awesome to know. Judging by the pic I say you nailed it. That's perfect. I really like the one I have. It is beginning to color up under just a 20 watt pc. Also had a zoo fall onto it with zero burn, good stuff. I like the pattern on yours there, very interesting! Thanks for sharing the pictures, nice.

 

[bhsgk]

mine look more like the smaller species that you mentioned.

the centers are smooth and does not have any tentacles. they are only about a half inch or so in size and have not grown in size at all since i got the original "mother" on 12/12/2011. the "mother" has since split twice and i now have three of them.

 

[bradleym]

How crazy! The color pattern would've led me to believe it was the larger kind. Are your's actually half purple and half green or is that just in the picture? The larger ones also have bare centers when they are small, but mine always got bigger and grew more tentacles. Looks like you've got yet ANOTHER unkown mini carpet.

 

[OoNickoC]

Yeah the center is a nice green surrounded by the purplish base color. It's hard to get pics we but there are white and pink streaks on some tentacles....I really like this one. I'm getting two more varieties this week! Also I did confirm with two other LFSs that these are all coming in on indo polyp rock lately.