Anemone ID please

[jkeithh1969]

This was sold to a friend of mine who actually got it for me as a RBTA. I am trying to figure out what it actually is. This picture was taken about an hour after I had fed it a silverside.

[zhenya]

It would be very difficult to say what this anemone is exactly by just looking at the tentacles. I think if you could get a shot of it's column and underside of the oral disk it would help alot.
I mean yes, the tentacles look swollen a bit, but it could be something result of something else and not a natural state, hence why I personally can;t say that it is a BTA. Usually, the BTA would have no verrucae on the underside of the oral disk, so if you can take a look there and describe it a bit more perhaps we can narrow it down some.

[Mr.Firemouth]

It is a purple tipped sebae anemone.

Fish and Aquatic Invertebrates » Saltwater Inverts » Anemone - Sebae Main Page

SebaeAneFAQs

Heteractis crispa (Sebae Anemone)

[Ninong]

This was sold to a friend of mine who actually got it for me as a RBTA. I am trying to figure out what it actually is. This picture was taken about an hour after I had fed it a silverside.

Well, for starters, it should have been obvious to your friend when he or she purchased it that it was not rose in color and therefore could not possibly be an RBTA.

Zhenya mentioned verrucae or the lack thereof on the column. He should have said that bubble tip anemones (Entacmaea quadricolor) NEVER have verrucae (warts) on their columns. It's a defining characteristic. All E-quads have smooth columns without verrucae. All of the other clownfish-hosting sea anemones do have verrucae.

So you can either rule it in or rule it out as an E-quad based on whether it has verrucae or not.

P.S. -- All species in the genus Entacmaea have smooth columns.

[jkeithh1969]

I agree about the rose part. She thought that since the stalk was pink that was why it was call a rose. The stalk part of the anemone is very smooth.

[Ninong]

I suspect that it is one of the common greenish forms of Entacmaea quadricolor. The tentacles are not always bulb tipped. If the column has no verrucae, then it can't possibly be the Sebae Anemone Heteractis cripsa because that anemone has prominent adhesive verrucae.

Check out this photo of an E-quad that is being offered for sale right now by one of the online dealers in L.A. Click on their "Green Bubble Anemone" thumbnail. I'll attach that photo to this post in case the vendor removes it. Notice the color of the tentacle tips of the anemone in the bottom right of the photograph. It's an identical match for yours.

[Mr.Firemouth]

I blew up the original pic and the tentacles have bubble tips. Sebaes dont usually look like those. Good call on the stalk being warty or not! I learn something everyday!!!

[jkeithh1969]

You're right, that picture is identical to my anemone.

[Ninong]

You're right, that picture is identical to my anemone.

Just a word of caution: You can't always rely on photographs on vendor's websites to be correctly identified. This particular online vendor happens to be better than most at providing correct ID's and the photograph posted on his website does appear to be that of an Entacmaea quadricolor. However, a single photograph can often be misleading and coloration and shape of the tentacles in this species are variable. Just check out the photograph of zhenya's E-quad tank for a good example of this.

Coloration aside, there are at least two and possibly three variants of E. quadricolor. This is why photographs can be confusing sometimes unless you are familiar with the distinct appearance of these variants.

[dobz55]

That guy is identical to mine, I bought mine as a BTa and sometimes he has huge bubble tips and other times almost none, but all in all he looks identical to the one I have

[jkeithh1969]

I just hate that she paid $40 for something that she didn't get. She knows now though that just because the base is pink, that does not make it a rose. I showed her a pic of what a real RBTA (or tank full of them) is supposed to look like. I bet you can guess which picture I showed her.

[jkeithh1969]

This may be a stupid anemone question, but do they sort of go through cycles of shrinking and returning to normal? Yesterday afternoon when I got home from work my anemone was shriveled to about 1/4 the size it normally is and it "Mouth" instead of going in was poking out and it released what I would guess is waste (maybe since I feed it silversides) but within a few hours it was back to normal size and it now has the bubble tips (unlike the picture I posted in the first post where the tentacles didn't have the bubble tips)?

[zhenya]

It is all normal behavior. It ate, it pooped and now happy as usual...

[jkeithh1969]

Thanks Gene. I was hoping that is all it was.