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View Full Version : LTA split again!


danny zubot
07-28-2004, 06:07 PM
I now have three green LTA's. I have been moving my tank to its new location for the past couple of days and when I woke up this morning there were three LTA's. The last time it split was about 6 weeks ago. Each one's disk is about 4 inches in diameter with a foot that is about 1.5 inches in diameter and about 2 inches long (on average). My clown's are very confused, should I be looking at getting rid of the offspring?

Quinn
07-28-2004, 06:42 PM
You are positive this is M. doreensis? Unless I'm having a brain spasm, I could have sworn this almost never happens in captivity. This warrants discussion on RC's Clownfish and Anemones forum.

Bob I
07-28-2004, 07:16 PM
You are positive this is M. doreensis? Unless I'm having a brain spasm, I could have sworn this almost never happens in captivity. This warrants discussion on RC's Clownfish and Anemones forum.

It might be worth asking as to the point of attachment. When I had LTA's they attached to the substrate, whereas BTA"s always attach to the rocks. Additionally some BTA's seem to lose their bubbles in captivity. At least that was my experience. :rolleyes:

Quinn
07-28-2004, 07:34 PM
I agree Bob, it would be very easy to confuse one for the other, and I have done it on many an occasion.

danny zubot
07-28-2004, 08:39 PM
When I got the anemone from Alan I got the whole rock. All 3 three are now attached to various smooth textured rocks around the tank. If it is a BTA then I must be mistaken, I have a picture or two of the anemone before it split in the picture form if anyone can give a positive ID.

Quinn
07-28-2004, 08:40 PM
Photos always help. Did Alan figure it was an LTA?

danny zubot
07-28-2004, 08:42 PM
I just checked my PM archives from Alan, they are BTAs...oops! What are the real differences between them?

Quinn
07-28-2004, 11:02 PM
Tony is the resident expert. I expect he can elaborate.

Delphinus
07-29-2004, 02:38 PM
They can be similar looking but there are some fairly distinct differences in the tentacle shape, the verrucae, the overall shape, and their habits (espescially where they choose to attach and so on). The tentacles are usually longer on M. doreensis, they tend to spiral into a corkscrew shape sometimes (hence the common names "long-tentacle anemone" and "corkscrew anemone"). Entacmaea quadricolor can have tentacles that bubble-up hence the common name "bubble tip anemone." But BTA's don't always have bubbles and the reasons for this are not well understood; suffice it to say "they may or they may not." But the "BTA" name still references back to the species name so just because it doesn't have bubbles doesn't mean it's not a BTA.

You can do some reading on the field charactistics of these species and the other Indo/Pacific hosting species over at
http://biodiversity.uno.edu/ebooks/intro.html

Fautin and Allen are generally regarded as the forefront experts on the hosting species of anemones and this link is an online version of their book "Field Guide to Anemone Fishes and Their Host Sea Anemones". The print version is more complete than the online version so if it's something you're interested in, you should find the printed version somewhere.

muck
07-29-2004, 02:49 PM
Awesome link tony!!!

I skimmed through it and there is tons of great information. I will go back and read it in its entireity though. Have been considering one of these animals down the road someday. Now I can do my homework. :mrgreen:

Man, where does he find all this great stuff... :confused:

Delphinus
07-29-2004, 03:27 PM
Despite being probably about 15 years since it was first published, I think it's still basically the definitive standard as far as identifying species and indicating their geographic ranges and such. I have the print version and it's actually one of my favourite books, I'll just pick it up and read about a few things every now and again. It's only shortcoming, if it is one, is that the care requirements for anemones in captivity was not well understood 15 years ago so they don't say much about that except for "don't try it." I've never spoken to Dr. Fautin myself but from what I understand by talking to others who have, she still has strong personal feelings, disapproving of the practise of keeping anemones in captivity, due to the overall dismal statistics of how many don't survive to their natural lifespans. Personally I feel that we have come a long way in the last 10-15 years and I think it is possible to replicate their natural environment enough to be able to attempt keeping them (if me make an honest effort to care for them properly, at least). (I guess if I didn't feel that way I'd be a huge hypocrite!) Entacmaea quadricolor makes an ideal specimen for most tanks due to its smaller overall size (relatively, compared to the other species, at least .. it can still be impressively large regardless), it's somewhat larger range of tolerances for certain parameters such as temperature and lighting, and reproduces by fission fairly readily in captivity (so obtaining a captive split, rather than a wild-caught specimen, should be fairly easy to do). Captive splits are always better to obtain than wild-caught because 1) they tend to be adapted already to life in captivity, so their survival rates are much higher and 2) an anemone wasn't taken out of the wild.

Anyhow, I love anemones and love nothing more than just looking at them or reading up on them, so I can't blame anyone for feeling the same way. Good luck and I hope you have fun reading up! :cool:

danny zubot
07-29-2004, 04:46 PM
I agree with conservation aswell, I now have 3 beautiful specimens which I'll probly end up selling in time. Thanks for the link about anemones, I love them too and I'll try to post some pictures of the three BTAs.