The Long Tube Anemone-Ceriantharia

So for my 2nd write up, i will do another of the interesting inhabitants of my tank. The Long Tube Anemone-Ceriantharia






Maximum Size: 10-12" long(some of which is buried under sand)
Habitat: reefs and sandbed's.
Diet: mostly anything meaty you feed them
Degree of Difficulty: Moderate due to med' light and med' flow(easy to feed)
Minimum Tank Size: 20gal(for one) i have 2 in a 75

I've had people ask if i was worried about the Tube Nem eating my Clowns or my Red Scooter or my Shrimp. The answer is no. Tube Anemones are generally filter feeders that require regular feedings of live or frozen small foods, and an emphasis should be placed on small feedings made as frequently as time will allow. Minimally, feeding several times per week with mostly mysis, brine, krill. But I have found that they will eat just about anything you give them. I personally hand feed mine, they gently grab the food out of my fingers. I am not sure where the fish-killer reputation for tube anemones originated, but I don't see much justification for it - either in the biology of the animals, or the ones that I have. Their "mouth" just isn't big enough.

The cerianthids (the scientific name for tube anemones) are actually not anemones. Aside from some internal structural differences that no one here probably cares about, there are a couple major differences between tube anemones and true anemones that are easy to see. First, they are the only "anemone-like" animal with two distinct whorls of tentacles on the oral disc - they have a batch of short tentacles which surround the mouth and then a ring of very long tentacles which encompass the outer edge of the oral disk. These long tentacles are used primarily in grasping their food(they will occasionally grab SMALL fish and shrimp) and defense, while the shorter labial tentacles are used primarily for prey manipulation and ingestion. In many species the tentacles can be bioluminescent, which is thought to be a visual "startle" defense against fishes that may attack the long feeding tentacles of the animal during their nocturnal expansion. Although some species are seen exposed during the day (and more so at depth), in general the species from shallow tropical waters are very stubborn in avoiding light, and rarely come out during daylight hours - even at night, the animals will retract as soon as the edge of a dive light beam passes across them. Their primary predators are not fish, however, but dendronotid nudibranchs(so be careful!)
A second key difference between the cerianthids and true anemones is that cerianthids lack the pedal disk and all associated musculature as well as lacking any sphincter muscles - this may sound minor to you, but it means that unlike true anemones, they cannot attach their base to the substrate on which they live. Anyone who has kept a true anemone knows that a happy and healthy animal will be strongly attached to something in the aquarium at all times.

I also want to talk about reproduction within this group, but any such discussion is hampered by the fact that there has been precious little research done on this subject. The species that have been studied are protandric hermaphrodites, meaning that small or young individuals are males, and the animal switches to being a female at some point in their lives (possibly triggered by some size or age threshold). Sexual reproduction apparently occurs by the release of gametes into the water column. There are several reports of a tiny tube anemone being found within the body cavity of an adult, but it is unclear whether this is evidence for internal brooding or an aberrant developmental pathway. Likewise, there is some evidence that these animals are capable of reproducing asexually, but to date there is no evidence that this has occurred in an aquarium. Regardless of the exact method of reproduction, the chances that your tube anemone will reproduce in captivity arent very good.

Tube Anemone's live with their tubes buried deeply in fine sands and muds. If you have a bare-bottom tank, or one with either a thin bed or coarse (rice-grain size or greater) gravel, these animals will not be able to find a spot that suits them and will most likely perish in short order in your aquarium.

If i missed anything please feel free to ask questions

(disclaimer:i used a few different websites to help with my research and put them together to make this write up)

 

enjoy

 

Very nice.

I am glad you mentioned that they are not true anemones.

Those are great pictures of them, they look so healthy. Too bad reproduction in the home aquarium is rare. Geographically where do they do come from?

Excellent Job!

 

Forgot to add this
Kingdom Metazoa: Multi-celled animals.

Phylum Cnidaria: Stinging-celled animals; tissue-grade life, no organs, three cell layers.

Class Anthozoa: Single or colonial polyps; no medusa stage; no cover on stinging cells.

Order Actinaria: True anemones; with pedal discs; two ciliated mouth openings (siphonoglyphs).

Order Ceriantharia: Tube anemones; no pedal discs; one ciliated mouth opening.

Thanks corailline, and they come from most tropical loctations

 

Love them

 

I tried to get a night time pic last night, but the canon t1i wasn't wanting to cooperate...they look amazing at night

 

Keep trying...I wanna see!!

Excellent write-up!! Thank You.

I guess I can't purchase one from my LFS...my aragonite substrate is too large.Wouldn't want to introduce the creature to a death sentence .Perhaps that's one of the reason's they're not doing so hot at my LFS,they're on a bare bottom.

 

They probably won't make it, I'm sure their tubes look like crap to...that makes me sad...and the finer the sub. the better, but giving it's current condition you'd be doing it a favor! I'd go for it! And I'll try to get some tonight

 

I was there two weeks ago and they must've just gotten them as they appeared healthy.I was just there yesterday and definitely noticed degradation in both specimens-Looked withered.Not sure If my purchase would even save them at this point.I think they're selling for $50 too so not exactly cheap.I'm gonna be stopping back some time this week.I'll have a chat with the employees about them,maybe I'll bring at least one home.

 

I'd let them know they seem to be degrading and try to save some $...let me know what happens