Wild H. magnifica videos in French Polynesia

[Gig 'em]

Hi all,

I was recently in French Polynesia (Bora Bora, Moorea, and Tahiti to be exact) on my honemoon and I did some diving and snorkeling while I was there. To my pleasure I found several colonies of Heteractis magnifca anemones while I was diving and snorkeling and captured some video of them. I know it can be difficult to replicate their natural environment in our home aquariums, and hopefully this will shed some light on what kind of flow patterns and light intensities they like.

The first ones I found were at about 15 feet of depth and there was very little current. These anemones appeared to be a bit bleached. Here is the link to the video:
https://youtu.be/0sSkvdgW3SQ

The second colony I came across was much deeper, maybe 30-40 feet deep and they were located within a freshwater spring area. This was in Tahiti, an island that was formed by volcanic activity and full of lava tubes that dumps freshwater from the island onto the reef. The water around these anemones was noticeably cooler, had a much lower salinity level (as you can tell by the halocline in the video, and a stronger current. These anemones were much healthier and happier than the magnificas in the shallower reef. Whether that's from the cooler temperatures, increased current, lower salinity, or a combination is up for debate, and I look forward to the discussion about it!

Here's the second video from Tahiti: https://youtu.be/SbCqzFrMGcU

 

[garygb]

Wow! Those are cool. I always love to see vids of anemones in the wild. As far as why the ones look better in the deeper water, I'm not sure. But the current would be my guess.

 

[Jrsdaddy]

Very cool! Thanks for sharing

 

[geckoejon]

very nice.... the second video with the colony is just amazing!

 

[ca1ore]

Yes, thanks for sharing. Difficult to tell size. How big would you say the ones in the second video were?

 

[Gig 'em]

Yes, thanks for sharing. Difficult to tell size. How big would you say the ones in the second video were?

They were easily a 14-24 inches in diameter. They were huge!! A lot larger than the ones I've seen in captivity.

 

[ca1ore]

OK, thanks, kinda what I thought. Interesting that they often live as, I assume, clone colonies in the wild.

 

[D-Nak]

OK, thanks, kinda what I thought. Interesting that they often live as, I assume, clone colonies in the wild.

We see this with BTAs in the wild as well (and also with S. helianthus). This supports the notion that some BTAs and magnifica can be successfully cloned in captivity. I say "some" because I've also read that some BTAs and mags live solitary lives, which anecdotally could mean that they may not respond well to force propagation even though they are the same animal.

To the OP -- thanks for sharing the video. I always like seeing anemones in their natural environment.

 

[ca1ore]

That makes sense to me. My last magnifica grew huge, but never split. My current one is a third generation split AFAIK. Latter regularly 'balls up' whearas the former almost never did.

 

[Gig 'em]

Here's one more video of a colony of magnificas in shallower water
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CIekslIvmI&feature=youtu.be

 

[Gig 'em]

That last video is a little bit closer to what we commonly replicate in our tanks. The water was about 6-8 feet deep there, the light intensity was brighter, and there was a frequently random current that kept the tentacles moving around. These anemones seemed very happy and healthy, but not quite as colorful as the ones found deeper on the reef. It's hard to tell now if that was due to the intensity of white light in the shallows, or if they just didn't have as deep of colors. I think it was probably just how they looked in more direct sunlight.