Anemone Behavior

[Donya]

I've noticed that my small some-sort-of-Aptasiidae anemone has more diverse behavior than the regular Aptaisia species I've seen...I realize most are probably more concerned about eradicating them but since mine isn't overpopulating my tank I find it interesting to watch. So far I've figured this much out:

Top left: hungry but happy
Top right: happy, not hungry (and no, the shape is not exaggerated--it really does look like that)
Bottom left: really hungry
Bottom right: unhappy, but usually make-the-goby-stop-spitting-rocks-at-me unhappy

Is this a set of observations that holds for other anemones, or just some Aiptasiidae species? Mainly I'm curious about the whether the tendency it has to puff up and look like a flower when it's content is specific to its species.

 

[SkiFletch]

That seems normal for most healthy anemones I've ever seen. How big is your little guy?

 

[Donya]

It's about 1" base diameter when in the happy flower mode, probably about 1" of "stalk" too.

 

[SkiFletch]

Neat, bigger than I thought. Any coloration?

 

[Donya]

Wasn't a whole lot before the MH, but now it has bright fluorescent green bands on the tentacles and pink tips. The pink tips were slow in developing...those have only showed up in the last month. It's gone through a lot of changes since first being spotted as a little spec on the rock back in the spring.

 

[Donya]

Holy cow batman!!! My nem is in the process of moving out of its hole in the rock to get a spot with more light...I thought I'd help it since it had gotten muddled in the substrate thanks to the goby. I scared it when I tried to pick it up, and within a couple seconds it unleashed what I can only presume to be sweeper tentacles on me. I though I was already seeing its sweepers after what Nav told me in another thread, but it had filaments originating from the sides (where the rest of the tentacles come from--not digestive filaments or anything comming out of the mouth; these are from the sides) that were about 3" long. It missed my hand, but it nailed a small bristleworm with a few filaments and sent it into spasms. I am not sure the bristleworm is still alive after that, as it's just sitting on the substrate and unresponsive now Um...DANG! I thought nems wern't supposed to be able to do that sort of thing???

 

[Mr Miagi]

Nems are pretty powerful, aswell as other pecies with digestive filaments. Ive seen brain corals burn and kill acropora with digestive tissue. Sounds pretty interesting. Id just let it do its wn thing now, LOL. As for the "filaments from the side" deal, Ive got no idea....

 

[SkiFletch]

Yeah, you'd be surprised at the defense mechanisms of some of these organisms... I've seen my hammer coral literally digest the mushrooms that landed next to it and my elegance coral has marked its territory with some sweepers by burning out all the algae within about 2" of its skeleton. Good thing it missed your fingers cause I'm sure that would have hurt a lot

 

[Donya]

Nems are pretty powerful

It's so little though. I guess size doesn't matter...I know Aiptasiidae species (assuming that is what it is...not sure anymore) are supposed to be able to overwhelm corals with what sting they have, but this thing is nuts. I thought it was all cute and everything too.

Good thing it missed your fingers cause I'm sure that would have hurt a lot

It gives a good zap just from the regular tentacles, but those don't phase the bristleworms...kind of shows the amount of sting difference. The speed with which it reacted was also frightening. I had somehow invisioned sweeper stuff as being something that took a few minutes to extend...not something they unroll like whips seconds after being disturbed. I saw the guy at the LFS just pick up a condy no problem so I thought why not...I take it though that my nem's angry behavior is not characterstic of non-Aiptasiidae like condys/bubbletips/etc.?

Ive seen brain corals burn and kill acropora with digestive tissue.

What is it with marine inverts and doing distrubing things with their digestive system as an offensive mechanism...anemones turn inside out, sea cucumbers barf in the tank when unhappy, corals stick their digestive filaments out and wave them around at you (how rude!). What happened to just tasting bad or having spines to look mean? And I thought my fw crayfish were evil.

Y'all are making me afraid of other corals now I think I'll stick to mushrooms.

 

[Mr Miagi]

Nothing to be afraid of, just wear gloves!

All the fighting mechanisms are for the wild, but they can be useful in our tanks. The availability for space wars. They tend to fight to the death, and if your mechanisms doesnt actually accomplish anything, like sweeper tenticles or your digestive filaments, youll be grown over and youll die from lack of light! I can see why these creatures fight! LOL. A good video of a coral secreating its stomach was on "Blue Planet" in the Reef Chapter. It basically killed a section of another coral overnight because they were both starting to encroach.

I think all this stuff is pretty interesting. (You probably know all about what I said, but I am bored, and trying to put off Uni work... )