Please help identify this Anemone!

[dryza]

Hello Everyone and Happy Saturday!

I went by Petco a few weeks ago to grab supplies and as I walked by the Saltwater tanks, this anemone caught my eye.. It looked healthy and hosting a clown, but appeared severely bleached, so I decided to rescue it.

When I inquired about the anemone with the employee, he indicated that it was a donation by a family that was moving out of the country and they don't really know what type of anemone it is. I showed some of the pictures to our local LFS and they said it's BTA that's bleached, but they had some doubts as well.

The most interesting thing about it is that it will not attach to anything and seems to be content just chilling in the cave I've put him in and I had to put him there to avoid him rolling around like a soccer ball. I've been feeding hit small bits of shrimp for a few weeks and he seems to very happy and hosting my pair of Maroon Clown fish. They too feed him as well.

Any thoughts or input would be greatly appreciated from the Anemone experts out there!

Cheers,
Reza

 

[Jdadams]

Long tentacle anemone

 

[Maritimer]

Agree with Jdadams, it's a long-tentacle anemone.
Agree with your LFS - it's bleached.

~B.

 

[dryza]

Thank you both for your quick response!

Any thoughts as to why it's refusing the attach? Again it seem fine and peek out of the cave to get light and tuck back in, but isn't willing to attach to anything.. It's a bit of nuisance as I've had to dial down my powerheads quite a bit avoid him steamrolling over all my other corals.

 

[Jdadams]

They are sand dwellers. Dig out alittle sand by a rock and place the anemone in the hole. Keep flow down a bit so it has time to get it foot down in the sand.

 

[dryza]

Sounds great, thanks for the feedback and advise @Jdadams

 

[alan3402]

I vote for a very bleached Malu. The striations, dimpling and foot shape and size relationship look exactly like my Heteractis Malu and can be tricky to identify. Can't tell in this picture, but the foot is shaped exactly like yours as well.

If it does end up being a Malu, I can give some help on recovery. I 'rescued' mine and it took about 6 months to fully recover from the bleaching.

BTW, your photos show the foot not attached yet, so regardless of type, it is not really happy right now.