Some anemones in Fiji
- Thread starter BonsaiNut
- Start date
BonsaiNut
Premium Member
I did not see any. I saw three species of clowns:
A. frenatus (most prevalent)
A. chrysopterus
A. perideraion
Interestingly, A. perideraion was exclusive to H. magnifica. All mags had A. perideraion, and I did not see them in any other anemone species.
LAKEM0NSTER
New member
:eek1: 
THANK YOU for sharing!!!!!! I hope someday I can see some reefs in person!!
THANK YOU for sharing!!!!!! I hope someday I can see some reefs in person!!
phender
Active member
Great pics! Thanks for sharing.
I really hate to be picky, but I think that the anemones that you IDed as H. malu and M. doreensis are both H. crispa based on habitat and a couple other things. In addition the Fautin/Allen book (which isn't always right about these things) doesn't show either anemone occurring in Fiji.
Thanks again for the great pictures. I hope you have more.
I really hate to be picky, but I think that the anemones that you IDed as H. malu and M. doreensis are both H. crispa based on habitat and a couple other things. In addition the Fautin/Allen book (which isn't always right about these things) doesn't show either anemone occurring in Fiji.
Thanks again for the great pictures. I hope you have more.
BonsaiNut
Premium Member
LOL Phil... the same book also has A. latezonatus only occuring in H. crispa in the wild... Just saying...
I very specifically took those pictures because the anemones were clearly (to me) the species I labeled them as (when you saw them in person). The M. doreensis was definitely in the rocks. Prior to seeing that anemone I would have said 100% that it was a sand-only anemone. The photo I agree doesn't look as M. doreensis-like as it should - from another angle you could better see several curlique tentacles and it looked much more traditional. But trust me on this - it was difficult to see (at the time) what the photos looked like as I was bobbing in the water.
Same with H. malu. They were not all that uncommon - but many were buried in coral rubble versus sand. They were very easy to recognize because of the much shorter tentacles that were more bulb-like - all the crispas had long, much thinner tentacles that were much more numerous. It was day and night. They were also much smaller than the crispas. Guess you had to be there
But in real life they were to me like night and day they appeared so different. Put it down to my bad photo skills Given that Fiji has over 10,000 square kilometers of reefs, there is a chance they may have missed a few anemones
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BonsaiNut
Premium Member
By the way, Google "heteractis aurora fiji", hit images, and tell me what you see
I didn't see any, but there are plenty of images of them occurring in Fiji, even though the Fautin/Allen book says they don't live there.
BonsaiNut
Premium Member
Here's a different photo of the same M. doreensis (with my shadow messing up the photo). It better shows the signature curlique tentacles.
BonsaiNut
Premium Member
The S. haddonis I saw were in very shallow water. At low tide they were in less than 1 meter - I could walk out and look at them and the water didn't come to my knees. The other anemones were deeper, but some were definitely less than 2 meters at low tide. (Tide was approximately 2 meters).
In French Polynesia I have seen H. magnifica completely exposed at low tide. In Fiji they were some of the deeper anemones - I never saw one shallower than 4 meters (low tide).
delphinus
New member
Wow great pictures. I too would love to see the full album if it ever gets uploaded publicly (please and thank you)!
The Fautin and Allen book seems to me at least 10 years old, at least, memorizing it meticulously was my obsession 10 years ago and it was a few years out by then already .. so while it's probably still the defacto bible on the topic, surely the sample sizes of observations has increased over this time and there might be the occasional exception to the rules therein...
Without any shred of real evidence or personal experiences to corroborate, I always had the notion in my head that to see S. gigantea in the wild you needed to go more east, to shores of places like the Philippines, Thailand or Vietnam, or Malaysia and Indonesia.. or places even more east than that (Indian Ocean).. Without having been there, Fiji almost seems to me like Hawaii's bigger brother. That might be a totally unfair thing to say so maybe I'll stop talking now. Great pictures - thanks for sharing!
The Fautin and Allen book seems to me at least 10 years old, at least, memorizing it meticulously was my obsession 10 years ago and it was a few years out by then already .. so while it's probably still the defacto bible on the topic, surely the sample sizes of observations has increased over this time and there might be the occasional exception to the rules therein...
Without any shred of real evidence or personal experiences to corroborate, I always had the notion in my head that to see S. gigantea in the wild you needed to go more east, to shores of places like the Philippines, Thailand or Vietnam, or Malaysia and Indonesia.. or places even more east than that (Indian Ocean).. Without having been there, Fiji almost seems to me like Hawaii's bigger brother. That might be a totally unfair thing to say so maybe I'll stop talking now.
Great pictures - thanks for sharing!
the real fishman
BoomBoomClown
Ahh Fiji why you be so beautiful
phender
Active member
Oh, I know. They actually have a latezonatus in a BTA in their book! They mis-IDed it in the caption, but it is definitely a BTA. They also show S. haddoni not occurring in the Marshall Islands when of course we have seen plenty of pics of them thereLOL Phil... the same book also has A. latezonatus only occuring in H. crispa in the wild... Just saying...
.........
I was basing my opinion more on my observations of the pictures. I looked them up in the Fautin/Allen book as an after thought.
I am notoriously bad at IDing anemones from pictures alone. I certainly bow to your expertise since you saw them in person.
Mea culpa. It appears that all the clowns that I have been referring to as A. frenatus were probably A. melanopus. Apparently in Fiji A. melanopus can be a complete bright red with almost no black. What can I say - I'm not the best clown guy
They were probably Amphiprion barberi. What do you think. Awesome pics by the way.
joseluisrdec
New member
very nice pics!!!!!!!!!!
