Sebae anemone division? Is this normal?

[zachts]

At first, about 8 months ago I thought that it had been ingured by one of the fish or something as a few of the tenticles shriveled up and got all knoby and deformed. It remained that way for quite a while but had no other signs of distress and continued to grow larger.

Recently as you might be able to see in the picture where the arrow is pointing (within the last month or two) there apears to be now what looks like a partially formed new mouth growing out of the knobby deformed tenticles? or at least the tissue more resembles one than it used to.

Is this the normal way these anemones divide? I've never seen or heard of them doing so before.

If this is normal how long does it usually take before they are totally divided and one could be removed from the tank as there is barely room for one in there now. It fills 2/3 of the tank and touches front back and sides as it is.

I'll try and post a better picture later as my presense this morning riled up the fish and made the anemone start to close up around them.

 

[phender]

Sebae anemones (Heteractis crispa or malu) aren't known to split like a BTA. There have been reports that they may form buds under the disk or on the column, but I have never seen a pic of one that is separated or nearly separated.

I am not sure that is a new mouth. I might be a healed injury or a group of cells growing at different speeds.

Keep taking pictures and keep us updated. We don't know nearly as much about these anemones as we would like to and sometimes unusual things happen.

 

[zachts]

just a quick update. the "new mouth" has developed much more (or at least I just got a beter view of it) since the previous pic. there is now visible two distinct "lips" with a definate center crease.

I couldn't get a picture to show this but I can see now what apear to be the stringy white spirals of the anemone's "guts" forming below the tissue of the new mouth. there were two small strands visible today. Also the tissue forming the lips was moving substatially today. inflating and deflating like the main anemone's mouth does during feeding.

I also noticed numerous small white strands of "guts" for lack of the proper term visible near the surface of the remainder of the anemones tissue. something I've never seen in this anemone before. (but quite common in my flower anemies preceeding spawning events) not sure what this is significant or if I've just never noticed it, but it is looking more and more like the anemone may be starting to divide!

I really wish I had a better camera as I just can't get super detailed closups with the macro setting on my rather dated point 'n shoot

 

[Amphiprion]

I'm inclined to agree that it is healing. I've had this species spawn many dozens of times, but never split, nor have I ever heard of a split. Even if it did happen, it probably wouldn't be the primary means of reproduction in H. crispa.

 

[zachts]

.....but healing from what? the spot only apears to be getting larger and more developed.(not healing and returning to normal) the spot has been growing for nearly a year now as just an odd looking patch on the surface of the anemone...until just recently when it started looking "mouth" like.

can anemones get cancer?

asside from this spot it is in otherwise perfect health. I will keep posting updates as any notable changes occur. whatever is going on it will be intersting to document.

 

[phender]

This is very cool. I have seen anemones with two mouths before that never divided.

I wonder if maybe some mouth cells somehow migrated over and started a new mouth. I know things like that happen in people.

 

[Reefvette]

Nem

Nem

What have you been feeding it?

I have seen anemones rot from the inside out from silversides and bad food.

I also have had a double mouth magnifica. It was a healthy nem otherwise. although it would feed the mouth closer to where it caught the food.

 

[Amphiprion]

.....but healing from what? the spot only apears to be getting larger and more developed.(not healing and returning to normal) the spot has been growing for nearly a year now as just an odd looking patch on the surface of the anemone...until just recently when it started looking "mouth" like.

can anemones get cancer?

asside from this spot it is in otherwise perfect health. I will keep posting updates as any notable changes occur. whatever is going on it will be intersting to document.

For some reason, I never saw the second picture. It does look like a mouth forming, but not so sure it will split as a result. Pretty cool, though, as I've only seen it a few times.

I suppose they technically could get cancer, but many simple animals (especially ones that are clonal or the like) are often highly resistant to cancer.

 

[zachts]

What have you been feeding it?

I have seen anemones rot from the inside out from silversides and bad food.

I only feed it small pieces of thawed raw frozen shrimp soaked (sometimes) in reef plus. generally 1/4 wide slices, once to twice per week. It didn't like forzen fish of any type seafood or mussels and I like to eat shrimp so, my anemones and LPS also get to eat shrimp

 

[zachts]

I figured i'ts time for an update. The odd growth is continuing to develop. Still not sure it will become a second mouth but it is much larger tonight than I've ever seen it before. Larger than the actual mouth of the anemone. The anemone now almost fills the whole tank, and I need to start thinking about getting it larger accommodations, flow has suffered lately, the "poo" is normal just the power filter that drops water across the anemone's mouth stopped working this afternoon and I took the pics before cleaning it and getting the flow going again across the anemone's mouth again.

Other than the weird growth a very happy anemone, growing too fast for my liking lately. I need to find a cheap 2'x2' shallow cube for it and it's clown fish.

 

[zachts]

Nothing new really, the mouth like growth looks more mouth like and is larger but still not really well formed.

In other news, my ocellaris clownfish that live in the anemone are spawning! pics and video shortly! I hope they don't start hatching for a few days so I am around to try and get them out into a tank and try to raise them, but they look about ready to pop, and I'll not have time to do anything over the holiday weekend

 

[zachts]

I wish my camera was better.........

 

[taylor t]

Great timing on a thread bump! I just came home from Pete's, walked in, saw my mertens spitting out it's dinner from last night, a shrimp tail with shell. It eats from both main mouths. It's had multiple mouths for years, but one mouth has grown more than the rest, (got to be about a dozen that react, most are tiny slits) only one almost growing to the same size as the main mouth. It's got to be 5 years I've had this, I don't think it will ever split, and I'll never try manually doing so.


This is the remaining meal.


Reset complete.


Zachts, you have a beauty of a sebae for sure! The double mouth just make it that much more unique.

 

[zachts]

Some Video of the clowns and full tank shot of the nem, mostly just the clowns

<iframe width="640" height="390" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/HBGM-AU1aQY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


<iframe width="640" height="390" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/_TjZZXL6k8s" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

<iframe width="640" height="390" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/juDfIjL4lYI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>