Anemone Species ID?

[bwells]

I purchased this anemone a couple of months ago and I think the LFS told me it was a "mushroom anemone", but looking for information on the care and feeding of said anemone, I do not see that species described. The closest species I can find is a carpet anemone.

Can someone identify this anemone for me?

When I purchased the anemone, I was told to feed it tiny bits of mackerel which I bought frozen. For a couple of weeks, the anemone did close up and consume the mackerel bits; fed once a week. But for the past 3 weeks or so, it has not been closing up and any food I put into the anemone, just sits there until eventually a fish or shrimp takes it. It still appears healthy and seems to be thriving, but just not feeding on the bits of fish. I tried feeding some mysis shrimp too, but it still does not close up and move the food to its mouth.

Can anyone suggest what might be wrong if anything? Can the anemone survive if it does not eat directly? Maybe it is feeding on particles in the water and food that floats down. It is responsive to light and the light is at a high intensity so I wonder too if it is able to use light to take nutrients. What do you recommend I feed it, and how often?

Oh yes, one other thing. There is a hammer coral 6" or so away, but I have never seen the coral reach come close to the anemone. Would the anemone move if that happened or would it still look good and just stopping eating?


Thank you for your help!

http://oakleafs.com/reef/green_anemone0.jpg

[RyanSweatt2004]

It's technically not an anemone. It's a green hairy rhodiactis corallimorph. Basically a green hairy mushroom coral. Yours looks very healthy and it should because they are super easy to take care of and will quickly multiply and cover a large amount of your rock work. I literally give them away to local hobbyists all the time. Even though they have the ability to consume small foods like plankton and other food bits, they don not need to be fed because they rely primarily on photosynthesis to grow. They do great in low and high light areas but seem to prefer low to medium flow areas. They can move across the surface of a rock but very slowly, maybe an inch or so a month I'd say unless they let go and are blown around. True anemones can move very quickly across your entire tank over night. As far as stinging any other corals, they have a pretty light sting that can bother some corals but generally they are fine to use a filler coral to go between larger corals. I've had them growing up the sides of large leather corals without any problems. They are very similar to recorders and other mushroom corals. Here's a liveaquaria link to them.

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=597+598+665&pcatid=665

[D-Nak]

Ryan summed it up nicely. My only add is to watch the hammer. If it has long sweeper tentacles it could send some out towards the mushroom and possibly kill it. I slowly removed all of my LPS with long sweepers since I was losing too many corals.