Id Him

[Frankie]

I still think its a tube anemone. I did a little looking around and came across this site http://www.thepetstop.com/fish_shop/...s/Anemone.html Its not an id yet because i need to look in some more detailed areas online but the flatness of the rock anemone is common where the one you have isn't flat.

[reefjitsu]

It is absolutely not a tube anemone. It does not have the characterisitcs of tube anemones. The tentacles are the first clue. From the link I posted earlier:

So why are the cerianthids (the scientific name for tube anemones) not anemones? Aside from some internal structural differences that no one here probably cares about, there are a couple major differences between tube anemones and true anemones that are easy to see. First, they are the only "anemone-like" animal with two distinct whorls of tentacles on the oral disc - they have a batch of short "labial" tentacles which surround the mouth and then a ring of very long tentacles which encompass the outer edge of the oral disk. These long tentacles are used primarily in prey capture and defense, while the shorter labial tentacles are used primarily for prey manipulation and ingestion.

Just based on the tentacles alone, you can rule this out as a tube anemone. The specimen in question here is very obviously some type of true anemone.

This specimen is also attatched to a rock, something a tube anemone cannot do.

A second key difference between the cerianthids and true anemones is that cerianthids lack the pedal disk and all associated musculature as well as lacking any sphincter muscles - this may sound minor to you, but it means that unlike true anemones, they cannot attach their base to the substrate on which they live. Anyone who has kept a true anemone knows that a happy and healthy animal will be strongly attached to something in the aquarium at all times. Rather than a pedal disk (which true anemones use to hold onto the substrate), cerianthids end in a blunt point (sometimes called the foot) in which a small hole (which allows water to escape the inflated animal during retraction into the tube).

An easy test will be how this thing retracts. A true anemone retracts into a ball or used-chewing gum like glob. A tube anemone will dissappear into it's tube and cannot retract it's tentacles.

More importantly, however, although cerianthids can withdraw into their tube, unlike true anemones they cannot contract the oral disk or withdraw their tentacles (Brusca & Brucsa 2002). That is a pretty major difference. If you've ever seen a true anemone feed, you've seen it contract the oral disk to bring it's tentacles closer to the mouth, and when disturbed the tentacles of true anemones are retracted, the oral disk is contracted and a sphincter muscle closes the top of the animal into a ball to protect itself. Cerianthids are unable to do this, and can only retract into their tube to try to protect themselves

One last note, for the term rock anemone. Rock anemone is a common name for many (probably hundreds) of species of anemone. Don't read to much into this one not looking like other "rock anemones" you may see pictures of .

[Frankie]

Great info reefjitsu! Thanks for sparing me a ton of work. I hope kerry does the test and or gets more pictures up of this thing. Like the base. Now that i went back just now and looked harder it does have a flattish appearance to it. The one other thing in that picture i noticed this time is the tentacles. If you look hard you can just make out the bands around them. Kinda like segmented rings. This makes me think your right on the rock anemone.

[Boomer]

I agree 100% with jit and I raised Tube Anemones for over 20 years and it is not a Tuber by a long shot.

This is a tube anemone where you can clearly see the oral tentacles jit is talking about. Also notice how long the "capture tentacles" are. Tubers also can not upright themselves without their tube or at least stuck in the mud. Their base comes to a dull pointed end, kinda like a burrowing worm, as that is how they get into bottom sediments, where they then build their tube. With no tube or even with a tube and out on the substrate they lay on the bottom like a big worm. They could never sit like that on a rock, unless one propped up the tube so he sits like that.

[Frankie]

Cool stuff boomer thanks for clearing that up for me. I must have been confusing tube anemones with other anemones for a while now. I have seen tube anemones out of the hole in the lfs like you just said and it makes a ton of sense. You didn't mention what you think it is. Is it a rock anemone?

[Boomer]

Yes, some sort of Rock as jit has said also. You will never ID it from a pic and maybe not until it is acutally in soemones hands and they know what they are looking at. To often we ID things to species and should not be. I posted on this very thing a few months back. There are lots of, tons of, anemones that look like this.

[kerry]

You guys amaze me. I still wish I knew what he was, o-well, we will just call him a vague Jake "the rock" anemone. Thanks all!