Anemone

[josh_crosson]

Does anyone have pictures and info or links to where i can find pic and info on sexual reproduced rose anemones? i work at a aquatics store and had a customer ask if i wanted a whole bunch of rose anemone offspring, catch-? naturally i asked how long the tank had been running-"1year". i asked did you recently aquire any new live rock for your tank-"no" He had a beautifull huge rose anemone in his tank and all of a sudden he has a lot of little anemones in his tank they dont quite look like the aduilt, but ive never seen "babies", just the split clones of anemones so im looking for some "for sure" pic of baby rose anemones.

[zhenya]

Hi Josh,

I believe for a sexual reproduction in E.quadricolor ( any colors) there would have to be a male and a female of the same species present. I'm not sure what type of babies you've seen in this person's tank but I am sure that they are not baby E.quads if he only had one anemone prior to that( large or small does not really matter that much in this case). I know that people had their anemones spawn in the tank( myself included) but it was either a female or the males, like in my case, and nothing ever came out of it.
Here's a quote on reproduction of anemones from an article by Dr.Ronald Shimek, published in our magazine RHO.

Sexes are generally separate in sea anemones. The typical reproductive pattern is one where both sexes spawn into the sea where fertilization occurs. Within a few days of fertilization, a swimming motile larva called a planula is formed. Depending on the species, the larva may or may not feed.
Eventually the larvae will metamorphose into a small sea anemone and take up existence in the benthic environment. Asexual reproduction is common in some anemones, including the bulb tipped anemone, Entacmaea quadricolor, which may reproduce by splitting into two or more clonal descendants. Such cloning is absent or very rare in other host sea anemones.

The rest of the article( in case you missed it;) ) can be found here.

HTH.

[josh_crosson]

well at first naturally i assumed rock or glass anemone but what i cant figure out is that from what i know of the two they usually are hitch hickers on live rock, but this is where im stumped cause he hadent introduced any new rock to the tank since he started it over a year ago, wont the anemones show up prior to this long? they look small brown/ purpleish except the base its more clear and white tint, with thin tenicles about 1/4 the overall size of it with a slight concave to the "head" of it does this help any?

[zhenya]

well at first naturally i assumed rock or glass anemone but what i cant figure out is that from what i know of the two they usually are hitch hickers on live rock, but this is where im stumped cause he hadent introduced any new rock to the tank since he started it over a year ago, wont the anemones show up prior to this long?

Well, that's not always the case. Sometimes it takes time to reach favorable conditions for those anemones to really become prolific and reach large numbers. I know in my own case that it took at least two years for Aiptasia sp. to explode in numbers in my 110g anemone tank. I did see one small speciemen years ago that came on a small frag I picked up in the store( it was attached under a branch and I didn't see it for a long time). I paid no mind to it as it was only one, and it was only one for more than a year, that I could tell. Then, all of a sudden, it was many seemed like overnight.
Anyhow, there are many, many different species of anemones in the seas and it is hard to identify them from just the descriptions.Can you get an image of at least one of those anemones? Perhaps then we can either identify it here or we can seek help of one of the "experts".

[josh_crosson]

[josh_crosson]

thats the pic its not the greatest i took it with my phone

[zhenya]

Hi Josh,

Can you check that link, it does not work for me- I get an error message.

[Poseidon]

Me too...

[josh_crosson]

[Ninong]

Josh,

The picture you posted is not of a Bubble Tip Anemone (Entacmaea quadricolor). In spite of the fact that the picture is not very sharp, it is almost certainly Aiptasia, or at least that's what it looks like to me.

[Steven Pro]

Yep, they look like Aiptasia to me as well.

[josh_crosson]

ok people im not trying to sound like a jerk but not everyone if fluient in latin

[Ninong]

ok people im not trying to sound like a jerk but not everyone if fluient in latin

Josh,

Aiptasia is not only the name of the genus, it is also the most popular common name as well. Another less popular common name would be glass anemone.

As an LFS employee, you should make an effort to familiarize yourself with the scientific names for some of the animals you will be selling. Common names can be very confusing because often the same animal will have several different common names and, even worse, the same common name is often applied to several different animals.

In any case, the anemones you pictured are pests and should be eliminated as soon as possible. They are quite harmful to other reef tank inhabitants.

[zhenya]

ok people im not trying to sound like a jerk but not everyone if fluient in latin

Well, neither am I. However, scientific names are usually in Latin, and when we use them here is to try to eliminate confusion associated with using common names. For example, Aiptasia anemones are called commonly glass anemone and maybe some other names in different parts of the country.This is why when we really want to discuss BTA we call it Entacmaea quadricolor and so on.
I don't think any of us that responded tried to show off their Latin skills, I know I have enough problems dealing with English language personally...

[Ninong]

A couple of years ago I happened to drive by a small LFS in Gulfport, Mississippi. Being the curious type, I decided to do a u-turn and go back to check it out.

They were offering two types of live rock for sale. The live rock that was priced at $7.99/lb was rather drab looking Fiji rock with very little if any coralline coverage. In an adjoining tank they offered what they called "anemone rock" for $9.99/lb. It was the same drab looking Fiji rock but with lots of Aiptasia.

[zhenya]

:eek3: Well, not at all surprizing to me...

I once saw a rock covered in Anemonia majano selling as a polyp rock in one of the stores.When I asked what type of polyps were those I just got a blank stare from the kid...not his fault, really.

[josh_crosson]

now the moral for that story, i wouldnt get mad at the person selling the anemone rock, instead how about just slap the person exiting the store after purchaseing it lol
Zhenya
Well, neither am I. However, scientific names are usually in Latin, and when we use them here is to try to eliminate confusion associated with using common names
I just think it would have been nice to maybe include both names, because i hadaccually said glass anemone earlyer and if i hadn't asked about the latin id still be in the dark, dont get me wrong i do know enough to answer most questions that my customers ask me, but i still look for help as do we all, hence reefland forums. thanks for all the help everyone

[H2oGirl]

We had a problem with those too, best way to kill them I found was to inject them with a solution of lemon juice, worked a treat.

[kimberfish]

My rose BTA spawned about a month ago and I tried to get pics but the "spawn" dissipated in the water column it was kind of hard made my whole tank look like someone poured milk in it- see if you can see it:





back to normal like two days later!!