Rock Flower Anemone?

[DezertRat]

Anyone have any experience with these guys? I was told its a Zebra Mat Anemone, but there's not much info on it. Best I can come up with is that its a Rock Flower Anemone. What do the experts think? :thumbsup:
You can see in the one picture that its really close to my leather, but both seem to be ok with it? I am kinda still learning what stings what, but for the most part I think I have a pretty friendly tank :dance:
And yes my tank has been up for a few years, so I think its well cycled enough to support a nem. Although, on a separate note, I have been losing my green cromis... :rollface: ...weird.

[fishroomlady]

No experience - have kept rock anemones before but yours definitely has a lot more tentacles than your standard rock anemone. I just wanted to comment though, that anemone is gorgeous! Such cool colors and markings. Good find! I hope it's not eating your fish :(

[rssjsb]

That's definitely not a rock flower. It looks like some species of heteractis - malu or aurora maybe. It's cool looking whatever it is, but I think it's a little bleached.

[DezertRat]

---Thanks, I thought it was pretty cool looking, plus the fact that the crab was already chillin in there. I have read those anemone crabs like to live in pairs? Anyone know anything about those? Its not munching my fish, nem has only been in there a couple days. I dunno what could have happened with those fish :/
---So you say its not a rock flower huh, I kinda thought it looked a different too. I didn't think it was bleached because it has some darker coloring's, mostly around the mouth. But then again it is way more white than it is dark, we'll just have to see won't we. I'll research those species you suggested and see if I can spot a match :)
I can't believe how close it is to the leather! Keeping a close eye incase one of them gets upset about it :D

[rssjsb]

It's not so much the white parts, it's that the rest of the tentacles look kind of transparent. With a little TLC, they should take on a solid, probably tannish appearance.

As to your chromis, they're known for dwindling down from a group to one or two.

[DezertRat]

Ahhh ok I see, yea the tentacles are transparent huh... Would you suggest anything to help get it back on track?
I also did some more searching using Heteractis, and it looks most like the Aurora. Which is supposed to be aggressive? Yet its touching the toadstool leather and less than an inch from rics. Everyone seems happy for now.
I feel a slight bit better knowing that chromis do that, I thought they were hardy. But my royal gramma just up and died after it been in there for over a year. Then a few days later one of my clowns. Just outta nowhere!

[bradleym]

It's a Heteractis Aurora, no doubt. It is a sand anemone, so a 3+ inch sandbed would be appreciated. Feeding it a few thawed mysis every couple days would be good for it's recovery. It looks pretty healthy, aside from the color. Good luck with it.

[DezertRat]

Thanks Bradley, I only feed my tank every 2-3 days anyway and I'll make sure to target some mysis his way. So if it likes the sand, will it move down there? I have about a 5-6" sand bed. I'm just curious as to how aggressive it will be. Obviously right now its not stinging anything, but I know anemones are not the friendliest mobile inverts :/
It seems to have planted its foot quite well in between two big rocks.

[bradleym]

If it is settled in between two rocks I'd let it stay. Although over the next few months/years it may suddenly decide to move the rest of the way down to the sand, as long as the lights are bright. Fortunately, this species will almost never climb upward unless the lights are super dim, so most of your corals should be safe.

[DezertRat]

Yea I figured I'd just leave it where it is and see where it wants to go.
My lights are 4x54W t5's and an LED moonlight. I'm planning on building an LED setup sometime in the near future... Still some research left on that tho :D
What is your take on how aggressive they are? Like I mentioned, its brushing against a toadstool, but I don't see any issues. Will a nem only sting when it feels like it? I assume as long as I keep it well fed I shouldn't have to worry about my smaller fish getting eaten right? lol

[james1990]

sick nem! I never saw one with those markings before. I have a rock nem and it doesnt look like that at all. Looks more like a giant hairy mushroom

[DezertRat]

If it is settled in between two rocks I'd let it stay. Although over the next few months/years it may suddenly decide to move the rest of the way down to the sand, as long as the lights are bright. Fortunately, this species will almost never climb upward unless the lights are super dim, so most of your corals should be safe.

So it just now decided to mission the few inches to the sand! :)
Seems to be doing good. Mouth is tightly closed and it's catching food.
And on the missing fish note.. I noticed my old old hitched mussel is nothing but a shell now, could a large electric blue hermit crab be responsible? I thought they prefered green over meat? But I know they're omnivores. Who knows right! :D