Wondering if my bta is really a ritteri??

[FishWife1]

I got it about a week ago and somehow it just doesn't look like a bta to me. It bubbles most of the time but it just looks different. These pictures are of it deflated. It has been eating like crazy and deflates for a short time daily. It attached itself to the back wall and hasn't moved - not much light there so I imagine it will eventually move. The clowns have not shown much interest in it but they have 3 nice size btas to wallow around in.

I guess I wouldn't even wonder except that I saw a ritteri at another lfs that looked very similar to this one, I thought it was a bta until I saw it's purple base. This base is deep red but the tentacles are greenish with brilliant green dots on the ends.

So, can anyone identify or do you need pics of it inflated? If so, I'll get some later and post them, too. I hope it is a bta because I don't know if my tank could support a ritteri.

Laurie

 

[WDLV]

Yes it is H. magnifica. And as usual, it looks very unhappy. Deflated, loose mouth etc.

 

[FishWife1]

Thanks - that's not the way it usually looks. It looked like that for about 15 minutes then re-inflates and stays that way except maybe for about 15 minutes a day.

Shoot, I really don't want a Ritteri.

Here's what it looks like now.

Laurie

 

[phender]

There is no way you can tell by that picture. Inflated tentacles would help as would a picture of the column just beneath to tentacles to see if it has verrucae.
Color alone is not an indication of species.
*edit*
Based on the new pic, you have a BTA

 

[FishWife1]

Yay! He is a pretty one, isn't he? He acts weird, though, not like my other bta's. Well, he is new to the tank so hopefully he will adjust and settle in nicely.

Laurie

 

[Flighty]

I would say not ritteri also. Check my gallery for some pics of the base of BTAs and Magnificas. I don't htink you can be 100% sure from either pic.

 

[WDLV]

The second picture does look like a BTA.
BTAs can look like other anemones but I've never seen one whose tentacles look like inflated BTA tentacles.

I'm usually pretty good at distinguishing them from oneanother. I've never seen a BTA look like that. It looks a lot like this Ritteri.

 

[WDLV]

Uh.. can't edit. The intent there was to say that I've never seen another anemone have the exact same swollen tips as a BTA. That feature is pretty unique.

 

[Flighty]

Magnificas can have bubbled tips at any time, and when they are sick they can often have clearish tentacles like that. The tricolor BTAs seem to share more characteristics with Magnificas than your standard rose or green BTA. I have seen them climb a wall and do that with their foot like you would expect a magnifica to do.

Seeing bumps or different colored dots on the top part of the foot would mean definitely Magnifica. The absence of them would point more towards BTA, but not clinch it.

 

[WDLV]

I remain respectfully skeptical. I've seen sick H.mags clear tipped like you're saying and I've even seen them loose half of their tentacle length in a tank crash and blow up their whole bodies including the tentacles like balloons, but I've never seen one with a tentacle that has a sphere at the end with the rest of the length being thin like a fully inflated BTA gets.
I don't mind being wrong, but I'd love to see pictures.

 

[BonsaiNut]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7616159#post7616159 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by FishWife1
Shoot, I really don't want a Ritteri.

You have an E. quadricolor (BTA). I've seen others with similar coloration...

 

[WDLV]

Bonsainut and FishWife1,
Were those BTAs wild collected or were they clones? I'm not from the NRP or anything I'd just like to know 'cause I haven't seen those where I live and would like to know if anyone has had that particular variety split.

That's about the size of the typical H.Mag (assuming you have an average sized hand) and I'd love to have something of that coloration at some point.

 

[55semireef]

I think pictures from different angles would help.

 

[BonsaiNut]

Here's another photo of the red base BTA. I've seen lots of other color morphs of BTA's - my favorites being rose tentacles with purple bases. I have also seen red base H. magnificas in the wild as well as in the LFS.

Tried to find some photos that "capture" what red-based magnificas look lilke in the wild. These give a good impression (in about 4' of water in French Polynesia):

 

[WDLV]

WOW!!! Thanks for the pics. Those were awsome! Do you get to snorkel/dive a lot?

 

[55semireef]

Nice pictures BonsaiNut.