Positive id on anemone needed

[traveller7]

Yes, but they are mildly adhesive when compared to Heteractis crispa or Stichodactyla species.

fwiw: The specimen in my poor quality picture above would stick to the glass as well, but the surge would break the verrucae loose almost every cycle.

 

[traveller7]

Might want to head over to this page, click on the picture of the large healthy H. magnfica. It shows the unique verrucae fairly well and is of better quality:
http://www.nhm.ku.edu/inverts/ebooks/ch1.html

It does not show them sticking to anything, but as stated, they are so weakly adhesive, I wonder why they still have the trait.

 

[maxxII]

Vestigal perhaps...like wings on an Ostrich?

Nick

 

[SAreefer]

traveller, my anemone is in strong flow and the verrucae has a fairly good grip on the glass. It's even a bit of a mission to remove the anemone from the side(wanted to move it when taking the pics and it stuck like glue so rather left it). The one thing with magnifica I have noticed is the close proximity of tentacles to the mouth. Your link also mention - "Tentacles approach mouth to within 20-30 mm" , now it's not clear on my first(crappy) pic, but the tentacles is at least 50mm+ away from the mouth. It might not look like it, but it's a fairly big anemone.

btw, the "crappy" pic you posted is a brilliant one showing the verrucae pretty well. Descriptions on most sites on the foot does fit the bill pretty well for this anemone

 

[Flighty]

The clear distance around the mouth can vary tremendously for magnificas and is not a good ID characteristic in my opinion.

Here is one of mine for example

http://picasaweb.google.com/FlightyMail/Eggies/photo#5220443598226451842

 

[traveller7]

SAreefer, Sometimes I get lucky with my poor camera skills

As Flighty shared, please disregard some of the specific data, especially when collected post mortem.

The anemone in my pictures was sourced from East Africa, where I suspect your anemone was sourced as well.

fwiw: The anemone in your pictures can be much larger then it is now and when it fully expands, the distance between tentacles and mouth will be substantial. In none of the pictures provided is it fully expanded.

fwiw2: Unfortunately, I do not have a frontal shot of the anemone in the picture I posted, but mouth to tentacles of that one was 10cm+ maybe even 15cm.

This picture is side shot. Mouth, tight and protruding, appears in top 1/3rd of picture. Oral disk appears below that, side to side is 10cm plus in conservative measurement.

 

[SAreefer]

thanks flighty and traveller, to be honest it's the first time I have seen a magnifica with such a big gap around it's mouth void of tentacles. Guess I just always saw the covered well. It really does **** me off, as I'm always the one giving newbies grief for buying magnifica, it really is one of the anemone I believe belongs in the wild and not in our tanks, but I had to take a chance. I am on a mission to find a crispa for my prop tanks. It really is frustrating for me to get more details on the difference between crispa and magnifica. Shipment might of been from kenya, although I seem to remember shop owner mention another location.(possible indo)

Any future advice on how best to id crispa? Read on wwm that crispa has no verrucae, is that correct?

 

[traveller7]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13257402#post13257402 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by SAreefer
Any future advice on how best to id crispa? Read on wwm that crispa has no verrucae, is that correct?

Not correct. All Heteractis species have verrucae.

In my experience, crisp verrucae are essentially the same color as the column, and the are frequently more visible at the bottom edges of the oral disk. The are more round or oval in shape.

There are some great pictures on RC...I'll need to dig a bit. Unfortunate the 5ish pictures I have in my gallery of crispa were for other purposes and lousy for ID :>(

Crispa frequently arrives as "Sebae" and very bleached or white with purple tips:

 

[traveller7]

Took awhile to find, but this picture/post is fairly representative of a healthy H. crispa and it's verrucae:
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=8422124#post8422124

IME, the little recent arrivals like I posted above will barely show verrucae. When they grow out to 8"+ they can not be missed.

Best of luck.

 

[traveller7]

Here is another crispa thread worth reading:
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showt...25&highlight=crispa AND verrucae&pagenumber=1

So many of the smaller beat up arrivals are H. crispa it is silly

 

[SAreefer]

thanks for the links and all the help, I have to say, in all my years in reefing, this is the first time I have ever experienced such difficulty with an id and also the first time I have ever found so much bad info on the internet wrt an id.

I mean, just take Bob fenner's(whom I highly regard) article as an example - "Their "stalks" are generally grayish in color, with no evidence of verrucae"

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/marine/inverts/cnidaria/anthozoa/heteraccrispa.htm

and that is just to name one of the conflicting articles/threads I have seen.

 

[traveller7]

Anemone ID material is quite likely some of the worst available to the hobby. Even some reference material contains incorrect IDs. Especially once you factor in the wide distribution, scant photo examples, and deplorable condition of some species. Anemone ID's are dicey, especially without a collection point.

One plan is to make a best guess, grow the anemone out. Typically the ID will be easier when it settles in and grows for a few months.

Unfortunately, captivity tends to morph some long term specimens to a point they look like another species. For example, haddoni with long stringy tentacles(like gigantea), crispa with short nubs(malu,aurora,etc), and extremely large BTAs with extremely long tentacles(LTA).

There are folks on RC that are blessed with access and experience to most of the hosting species, over the years they have been pretty good at tough IDs. I just try and learn from them