This morning I heard Kerri say, “Come down here and tell me how many anemones do we have?” For a long time we’ve had 2 in our large tank. Our old pair of maroon clownfish adopted both long ago and make frequent visitations to both. The boss (female) occupies the first one each night, forcing the smaller male to seek shelter in our second anemone, a large rose red colored bubble tip. We had not planned on adding a second anemone despite the large tank size just due to the occasional difficulty in keeping them. But we came across this one a while ago that was a captive grown. The second anemone in particular has thrived in our tank. It’s disc usually reaches 12-14 inches in diameter each day with the tentacles extending much further.

At least it was last night... But Kerri was indeed correct, something had happened.



There are clearly two anemones. Just to be clear, this used to be a single large creature and in the space of a single night it has split itself in two (the first anemone, that the female claims each night, is not visible). Reproduction via cloning is not actually that uncommon. It can occur for a variety of reasons, not all of them positive. In this case everything seems to have gone quite well. The smaller of the two has moved a few inches off since the lights came on, but by tonight it has settled down and seems content in its current position. Above the male clown is in the “daughter” clone, buffeting his newest ward.

You can actually get an idea of the total size of the original from the rock they are sitting on. You’ll notice a good deal of purple calciferous algae on the rocks (and glass) of the tank, yet that rock has a relatively little purple. That’s due to the anemone being open and more or less shading the rock beneath it (or perhaps also stinging anything that tries to grown under it?).

Anyhow, if both survive, or in particular if this continues favorably, then we’ll be happy to help propagate these for other fish enthusiasts. Not only does such a thing reduce them being taken from the wild, but it will be making exact genetic copies of an anemone that is known to do well in an aquarium.

This is why I read VeloNews:

The Year in Doping Stories

sigh...

Among them are Cat 3s and Masters. Really guys?