Anemone ID? Another update. Anemone Relocated.

[OCDP]

Fair enough. I should have re-phrased my other post, my apologies. Like I have mentioned.. I'll take some better photos of the anemone and its underside this evening and hopefully that will narrow it down. Thanks for your help Tony.

Heh, you make me seem careless with my anemones I try to be as careful as possible. I have only lost one anemone out of the many I have kept. And it's a little hard to make powerhead guards for Seio's, and also creating one that won't reduce efficiency of the powerhead. I am working on it..

[TheReefGeek]

What would differentiate the quadricolor from the magnifica?

[OCDP]

Tony, you'd be perfectly suited to answer this one heh..

I know of only a couple differences.. I'll let another anemone pro out there have at it.

[Delphinus]

Well, Entacmaea quadricolor has 4 hoofs and a long tail with a bushy end. Long shaggy fur and two black beady eyes placed under some pointy horns. Heteractis magnifica on the other hand tends to have strong muscular back legs, sharp claws, a slightly tapered tail and very strong disposition to seek out heat registers to have a nap.


... Seriously, usually, there's no confusing the two, they're quite different. Yet sometimes you'll see these ones where they defy easy categorization. If it comes down to it, H. magnifica has verrucae arranged in rows along the column. E. quadricolor doesn't show verrucae along the column at all, although I think they might show some right at the top of the column.

http://www.nhm.ku.edu/inverts/ebooks/intro.html

[TheReefGeek]

And verrucae are?

[Delphinus]

Sorry. Think of them as wart like structures that the anemone can use to adhere to substrate. From the link I provided: "Most host actinians have, in the upper part, longitudinal rows of small warts (verrucae; singular is verruca) to which particles of gravel may adhere; commonly these are pigmented differently from the rest of the column."

Here is a picture showing the verrucae of one of my carpets (Stichodactyla gigantea):


Offhand I do not have pictures of the verrucae of H. magnifica versus E. quadricolor, sorry, although a quick google search should yield plenty of results.

[TheReefGeek]

Great pic, thanks! I cleverly called them "spots" up to now.

How often and what do you feed your anemones? Have any trouble with your carpet eating small docile fishies like clown gobies or mandarines?