Anemone ID?

[ouchthathu]

Can anyone ID these anemone's? They are growing and splitting like mad. I started with one over a year ago and now have 23 of them in varyin sizes and tanks. They are very hardy (I have a 50gal that's running on 120W of light for a month now and it has 11 of them) the other 12 are in my 120 (as seen here).
Occasionly they bubble up on the base (not often at the tip), like attaching to rocks and don't bury thier foot/base into the sand. The largest one is about 8" tall from foot to oral disc and about 3" thick with 5-8" tentacles.

 

[j.p]

long tentical? and if u want to get rid of 1 i am open

 

[ouchthathu]

When I bought it I was told it was a BTA (which it obviously isn't). I cant find any similar pictures on the internet anywhere (it seems most of the LTA's look very different or have colored bases).
If you are in or around SE North Carolina, stop on by.. I'll give them away. They are to the point now (as you can tell by the long tentacle sweep) that I have to start clearing them out to start putting coral in.
Right now I want to get rid of all but 2 of them. That means 21 of them need to magically disappear.

 

[lexluethar]

WHOA, you have 21 freekin anemones in the same tank? Did one split into all of these?! I've heard its very risky to have more than one in a tank.
I agree, it looks like a LTA.

 

[perfectdark]

IMO It still maybe a bubble tip... hard to distinguish here. But IMO there are some issues here. First off the amount of times it has split is alarmingly high. Contrary to what you may have been told that is not a good sign. An anemone that constantly splits is a sign of stress, especially that many times inside of a year. Also the general look of your anems stringy and not inflated fully. Another cause for concern paired with the constant splitting. If I were to guess I am betting they are bubble tips but they are very stressed and more information on your tank is needed to try to help you figure out why.
Tank size, lighting type and wattage, inhabitants, filters, power heads. Water chemistry and not just "water tests are good" Actual numbers are what is needed. Alk, nirates, nitrites, amonia, SG, calc, pH and temp., along with anything else you test for.

 

[babyb]

bubble tip anemones dont always bubble, thats really crazy that it split that many times,
and when you say 120 wts , is that pc or mh

 

[perfectdark]

I just re-read.. seeing as though to my knowledge they dont make 120 watt mh light I am going to assume they are std flourscent and you were told that BTA's can survive under that type of lighting. While I agree to a degree you certainly IMO do not have enough lighting for them. @ 2.4 watts per gallon and I am assuming thats on a std 50 gal tank nothing out of the ordinary as far as height is concerned.

 

[ouchthathu]

Lemme backup a bit. All 23 anenome's started from the first one. It's probably been over the course of 18 months (not just one year - but still alot over the year).
The first one started in the 50Gal with 4x65w PC - for the first 6months it stayed as as just 1 anenome and then it started splitting and never stopped. About 11 months ago I had a total of 5, and i took 3 and moved them to my 120Gal with 2x250W HQI, 4x54W T5 (total of 716W).
At that point the 2 remaining in the 50Gal have split to a total of 11, the 3 in the 120Gal have split to a total of 12. They are fed twice a week small meaty foods (either krill or silversides).
About a month ago I lost one of the ballasts on my 50Gal (new ballast came in today) and it's run on 130W (2x65W) for the past month and those anenomes have moved all around the tank looking for more light, none have split in the past month.
Water chemistry on the 120Gal is;
Ammonia - undetectable
Nitrite - undectable
Nitrate < 10ppm (20gal water change due this weekend)
PH - 8.3
Calcium - 430ppm
Specific Gravity - 1.022
Average Tempeture is at 77.9F
The 50Gal is a little more stressful IMO (due to it's location and lack of coral or other inverts I'm a bit more lazy on the water changes.)
Ammonia - undetectable
Nitrite - undectable
Nitrate 20ppm
PH - 8.1
Calcium - 310ppm
Specific Gravity - 1.024
Average Tempeture is at 76.5F
So far I've ruled out the LTA - Most LTA's bury thier foot in the sand (these have never liked being on the substrate - fine sand in the 50gal and coarse sand in 120g)- LTA also tend to have spots on or along thier base.
The tendency of these anemone's is to move towards high current areas (4 of the 12 in the 120g have moved to spots right in front of a Maxijet 1200 powerhead).
The tentacles tend to get longer 1-2days after a feeding (usually doubling in length)
They do NOT change behavior when a clown is in or near them. My two clowns LOVE these things and have been laying eggs constantly since they were added to the 120g.

 

[dogstar]

Originally Posted by OuchThatHu
When I bought it I was told it was a BTA (which it obviously isn't). .
IMO, Thats exactly what they are.
Also agree with Perfect about the constaint splitting is due to some stress issues. Cant say for sure what the issue could be but after reading the specs you posted and if those numbers have been consistaint, then perhaps the low SGs and Temps could be troubleing them.
If it was not for the constaint splitting, I would say other wise they look reasonably healthy to me.

 

[lexluethar]

Agree with dogstar and perfect, are you at least making money off of all of these splits ?
I would go for a salinity of around 35ppt - i'm not sure what that comes out to be for specific gravity.

 

[perfectdark]

Originally Posted by LexLuethar
Agree with dogstar and perfect, are you at least making money off of all of these splits ?
I would go for a salinity of around 35ppt - i'm not sure what that comes out to be for specific gravity.

Depends on the temperature of the water but @ 80* its 1.026

 

[mach03infront]

that is crazy 23 times ....woah!

 

[perfectdark]

Your 50 Gal IMO Has better chemistry for the anems. But what else is in that tank and your others. There maybe other issues from other inhabitants leading to the stress. How about your flow and filters, what are they? 1.022 is low and might add to the stress. Do you run carbon? Although the sucess rate of keeping multiple anemones in the same tank is near 100% when they are all clones, there could be something else competing with them, large leather coral as an example. Something that could be starting a chemical warfare and stressing them all out. Just a thought.

 

[ouchthathu]

How about your flow and filters, what are they? 1.022 is low and might add to the stress. Do you run carbon? Although the sucess rate of keeping multiple anemones in the same tank is near 100% when they are all clones, there could be something else competing with them, large leather coral as an example. Something that could be starting a chemical warfare and stressing them all out. Just a thought.
Filtration is dual CPR backpacks for skimmers, a 20gal sump/refugium with liverock and macro algea on a reverse lighting schedule. in the 120g the only coral in there are a few zoos. the rest of the bioload consists of 5 Peppermint Shrimp, 1 Coral Banded Shrimp, a scooter blenny, a snowflake eel, 2 clowns, 3 damsels, and a myriad of crabs and snails.
I want to add coral and am getting ready to thin out this overstock of anemones. I really wanted to id them before giving them away. Right now the local fish store doesn't want them. And no one in my area seems to want a anemone right now

 

[ouchthathu]

Originally Posted by LexLuethar
Agree with dogstar and perfect, are you at least making money off of all of these splits ?
I would go for a salinity of around 35ppt - i'm not sure what that comes out to be for specific gravity.
No money here, the local fish store won't touch them and i can't give them away. THere isn't a large market here for Saltwater fish.
I think what I am going to do is to slowly raise the temp of the tank to 79F and the salinity up to 1.026. It's the only thing I can think of that might be causing problems here.

 

[taossweetcheek]

If you want to give away any remaining anemones, I'll take one. I'm in Morehead City. if you can send me some pictures I can't see the ones you posted above for whatever reasons with my computers.
Email
Taossweetcheeks@yahoo.com

 

[tangwhispr]

Originally Posted by PerfectDark
http:///forum/post/2390190
IMO It still maybe a bubble tip... hard to distinguish here. But IMO there are some issues here. First off the amount of times it has split is alarmingly high. Contrary to what you may have been told that is not a good sign. An anemone that constantly splits is a sign of stress, especially that many times inside of a year. Also the general look of your anems stringy and not inflated fully. Another cause for concern paired with the constant splitting. If I were to guess I am betting they are bubble tips but they are very stressed and more information on your tank is needed to try to help you figure out why.
Tank size, lighting type and wattage, inhabitants, filters, power heads. Water chemistry and not just "water tests are good" Actual numbers are what is needed. Alk, nirates, nitrites, amonia, SG, calc, pH and temp., along with anything else you test for.
Very true, a healthy anemone rarely splits, I think he has some other issue going on.