Anemone ID and Condition Assessment help.

[gabrieltackitt]

Just picked up this carpet anemone at Petco for $15!

Can anyone give me any clues as to what species it may be? It’s fairly bleached currently, but what can you expect from petco.

Also can any of the experts out there give me a quick assessment of its current condition, what I should do to it before/after it goes into the tank? Its foot was well attached to the glass in the tank it came from, and the employee actually somewhat knew what they were doing and gently coaxed it to release without causing any harm. It seemed slightly sticky but not overly so. The tentacles do react to light when I shine a flashlight on them. That’s all I know so far, so if someone can point me in the right direction, I would be ever grateful.

 

[KrisReef]

@OrionN has some threads posted on here, and he might be able to give you real advide beyond my "Nice PetCo Score!" comment. Mouth looks a little gapey to me, but lets see what the board says.

 

[Rtaylor]

It’s a haddoni and it looks like it’s in decent condition. I would just watch for deflation and a gaping mouth. If you start to see that, you may need a cipro treatment, but haddoni tend to do ok without treatment. Gigantea seem to be more sensitive.

Just to be certain it’s haddoni and not gigantea, look on the underside of the oral disc. If you see purplish spots it’s gigantea, if not, it’s haddoni.

 

[OrionN]

Only sure way to ID this anemone is picture of the column. As is I think it is either a Haddoni 66% or Gigantea 34%

 

[garygb]

It appears to be a haddoni to me, at first glance. As others have said, it could be gigantea. An unhappy gigantea can strongly resemble a haddoni. A happy gigantea has longer tentacles, usually an inch or more, whereas haddoni have short, stubby tentacles like yours regardless of how happy they are.

Haddoni like a deep sand bed to bury their column, at least 4-6 inches, toward 6 inches for a large anemone. They like moderate water flow, temperatures 78-82, full-strength sea water specific gravity/salinity ~1.026-1.027/35PPT; reef quality lighting but not as demanding of bright light as gigantea.