Bounce Anemone?

[ARCkeeper]

About eight years ago some of my rose BTA's started exhibiting deformed tentacles. At first I thought it might be cancer, but the condition doesn't seem to progress. Many of the deformed tentacles appear to have a mouth. It opens when I feed the tank, and it even appears to have mesentery filaments. It hasn't effected the anemone's longevity - the Anemone pictured is at least six years old. I have another color morph anemone in the tank that isn't effected. Anyone have an idea what's going on? Should I euthanize the effected animals?

 

[TX_REEF]

@ISpeakForTheSeas here's an interesting one for you :face-with-raised-eyebrow:

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

About eight years ago some of my rose BTA's started exhibiting deformed tentacles. At first I thought it might be cancer, but the condition doesn't seem to progress. Many of the deformed tentacles appear to have a mouth. It opens when I feed the tank, and it even appears to have mesentery filaments. It hasn't effected the anemone's longevity - the Anemone pictured is at least six years old. I have another color morph anemone in the tank that isn't effected. Anyone have an idea what's going on? Should I euthanize the effected animals?

I've never seen that before - that's fascinating. Has the nem ever lost any of the deformed tentacles? I'm tempted to suggest taking one off and dissecting it to see if it's somehow an asexual reproduction attempt gone wrong, but maybe @Jay Hemdal would have some insight here.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I've never seen that before - that's fascinating. Has the nem ever lost any of the deformed tentacles? I'm tempted to suggest taking one off and dissecting it to see if it's somehow an asexual reproduction attempt gone wrong, but maybe @Jay Hemdal would have some insight here.

Sorry - I’ve never seen this before! I have a colony of the same/similar morph and I don’t even see bubbles on their tips.

 

[Rjukan]

Common BTA, that's *also unique?? :D

 

[ARCkeeper]

I've never seen that before - that's fascinating. Has the nem ever lost any of the deformed tentacles? I'm tempted to suggest taking one off and dissecting it to see if it's somehow an asexual reproduction attempt gone wrong, but maybe @Jay Hemdal would have some insight here.

I haven't seen them lose any but I've considered cutting one off to see what, if anything, grows back. These are in one of my tanks at work but they are all clones of four I donated from my tank at home. I never saw similar growths on my BTA's at home. The other odd thing about them is they get huge and sometimes go several years without dividing despite being target fed twice a week. They often get eight to ten inches across. They are in two unconnected tanks, but when one divides most of the others also split within a few days.