TubeAnIDF

FAQs on Tube Anemone Identification

Related Articles: Tube Anemones, Cnidarians,

A beautiful site of Tube Anemones Bob Some of the Cerianthids u can find at Chek Jawa in this link http://habitatnews.nus.edu.sg/news/chekjawa/ria/text/tubeanem.htm <What a nice site... many good features... Will post on the Tube Anemone FAQs part of WWM. Thank you for sending this along. Bob Fenner> Perry

Scientific Name (Tube Anemones) Dear Robert I found your web site very informative and very interesting. I have attached two jpg files to you. One is from your web page and the another one is also a tube anemone I bought from a local aquarium shop in Hong Kong (probably came from Philippine or indo-pacific) Could you tell me their scientific names? Especially the one from your web site. Many thanks! Yours, Denis Ip Aquarium enthusiast Hong Kong <Likely both are Cerianthus orientalis, the most commonly imported species from the Indo-Pacific... Cerianthus membranaceus of the Mediterranean is often used in Europe... Bob Fenner>

Tube anemones Greetings, I am still cycling my tank with live rock and recently discovered 6 baby and one rather large (over 1 inch wide) purple tube anemones attached to a piece of newly acquired live rock. I read on your site that these anemones may cause problems in a stocked aquarium. <they are fascinating and beautiful but somewhat demanding to keep (fully dependant on target feeding by you) and VERY aggressive. A risk to fishes> I first attempted to extract the baby anemones with a siphon with no luck. They are firmly anchored on the rock and retreat deep into the rock crevices. <indeed... you will likely damage of kill them in trying to remove them> I then attempted to remove them with tweezers, again no luck. After pulling off several tentacles they just retreat into the rock. Can you please suggest another way to remove these types of anemones? <I'd suggest selling the rock with anemones to a LFS or aquarist that desires them> They are confined to one piece of beautiful piece of rock with large amounts of purple encrusted algae, which I hate to throw away (cost me 65$). <the anemones are worth far more. $12-15 each wholesale!> Also, I was hoping that maybe I could keep just the one large tube anemone in my fish only tank. Would you perceive this to be too risky? <not at all with large bodies fishes (tangs, angels, wrasses). They are really quite beautiful! Perfect for a fed/high nutrient fish only tank. Give strong water movement so that the tentacles are always whisking about and please feed a small amount of finely minced meaty foods almost daily (for convenience to keep food away from fishes... take a slurry of minced ocean meats in some saltwater and feed through a long plastic tube... say1/2 inch dia.)> Thanks for your great site and all your help. Jeff <best regards, Anthony>

Re: Tube anemones: actually Aiptasia Anthony, I do not believe these are fan worms as they definitely have tentacles. I have sent 3 emails due to size of the pics. 2 pics are of the large anemone (2.5 inches from base of tube to tip of tentacles) and one pic contains a few of the babies. I have a total of 8 babies and one adult on a few different pieces of rock now. Sorry for the large/multiple attachments. Can you confirm this species by these pictures? Thanks, Jeff <thank you for the pics... the Cnidarian photographed is clearly one of the nuisance Aiptasia species (glass anemones). There are literally thousands of pages of reference on the Internet about eradicating this animal if it becomes a plague. Rest assured it only becomes a plague in overfed or overstocked tanks (lack of nutrient control... skimming, water changes, water flow, etc). Else... they will not divide, breed or flourish. Do a keyword search on Google for WWM and beyond to learn more about Aiptasia. Best regards, Anthony>

Re: Tube anemones: actually Aiptasia Anthony, <Steven Pro here this morning.> Sorry for being such a pest. I don't believe you ever received this pic though. This pic shows the large anemone's tube more clearly. Again, he's about 2.5-3 inches long. The tube is about 1.5 inches long. Do you still think this is a glass anemone? <Absolutely an Aiptasia> I thought for sure this guy was a tube anemone. As always, thank you very much for your help. Jeff <Have a nice day. -Steven Pro>

Re: Tube anemones Thanks for the prompt reply. Today I noticed several more of these baby tube anemones on various other pieces of rock. They seem to be spawning quite rapidly. <are you sure these are Tube anemones (Cerianthus species... see pictures) and not simply Serpulid fan worms? The fanworms/feather dusters are so common. The presence of one tube anemone is rare... reproduction is essentially unheard of> I have read the articles regarding the use of Peppermint shrimp and Copperband butterflies to eradicate Aiptasia. Are there any known creatures that will prey on tube anemones? <Nudibranchs> Thanks once again, Jeff <kindly, Anthony>

A Curious Find, Tube Anemone - 03/12/07 Greetings! <Salutations! Mich with you today.> I recently purchased a small piece of live rock that had a tube anemone skeleton on it. After I put the rock in my tank and examined it, I saw a small fan that was electric blue when I looked at it from the bottom up and from the top down it was electric green. As I continued to watch, some of its tentacles changed to red and purple and yellow. It was so cool because it looked as if it was producing its own light and could glow in the dark. <Neat!> My guess is that it's a small tube anemone, but I'd like to know its name and how to care for it. <Could be an Arachnanthus, Cerianthus or Pachycerianthus spp. More info here: http://www.wetwebmedia.com/tubeanem.htm > Will it grow large enough for me to not have to search for it whenever I want to see its "lights"? <Possibly, but do be careful if it does. They can pack a powerful sting and are quite capable of killing other livestock. Hope that helps, Mich>

Baby Tube Anemones? ID Polychaete Worms 10/2/07 <Greetings random aquarist with poor punctuation, Mich here capitalizing your "i"s> I have a 60-gallon with a tube anemone in it... <And hopefully not too much else as these beauties can pack a powerful sting.> about 6 months or so, it started spewing out eggs. I have video that I took of it. It was spewing out little purple eggs that some of the fish were eating... in my 20-gallon tank where I have another tube anemone, that one started spewing out what looked like sperm. Looked like it was shooting out white milky looking substance into the water. <OK.> Anyways..... my 60 gallon now, the one that had eggs shooting in it... there are those little tubes you see in the pics, they have a single looking worm coming out of them. And they are starting to show up everywhere on the rocks and sand. I have not added any rocks in over a year in my tank. I'm wondering what these little tubed worms are? Probably something common and not what I'm thinking.. but what are they? <Is a Polychaete worm, perhaps a Terebellidae, Sabellaridae or Sabellidae species. Hard to tell by just looking at the tubes, but I suspect something along the lines of a spaghetti worm though some type of feather duster may also be a possibility. Likely something similar to the ciliated feeder seen here: http://www.dtplankton.com/images/figure02.jpg and will anything take care of them from spreading so much? <They are harmless filter feeders. I would not discourage their spread. But many wrasses will nip at these.> Thanks. <Welcome, next time please capitalize your "i"s and the first word of each sentence. Mich>

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