Update on the blue anemone

A couple of days ago, Judy asked about the baby blue anemones; "Have any ... survived"?

One had. I wasn't too sure about a couple more.

That one is still hanging in there. It's only a few millimetres across, too young, really, to be out on its own. A persistent little critter, though; it was clinging to a few inches of torn eelgrass when I transferred it to the "hospital" tank, where the current is not as strong and there are no meddling hermits. The eelgrass has rotted away this week, until yesterday there were barely a couple of fraying threads left. Still the anemone hung on.

I fed it shrimp puree, and it stretched out stubby baby tentacles and grabbed some. It's awake and responsive. There's hope!

Tonight, I couldn't find it at first.  The eelgrass had finally disintegrated and sunk to the bottom, in pieces. I searched through the gunk and squirming amphipods until I found a shred of brown eelgrass tissue, with the blue speck of anemone sticking desperately to the end of one thread.

The rescue attempt: I found another length of eelgrass, a good, solid, fresh stem end. With a plastic wire (no metal in the tank) and working underwater, I tied the far end of that thread along the new eelgrass, so that the anemone lay next to it, almost touching.

I spent a few minutes, four or five, shutting down the tanks for the night. Before I turned off the anemone's light, I looked to see if my anchoring job had held. And the little Einstein had taken the opportunity; it was already in the middle of the new eelgrass blade! Brilliant!

Its survival is still iffy, but for now, tag me #happyhappy and #proudfostermamma.

No photos of the blue anemone; have a happy blue ladybug instead.

Smiling 25-spotter, in a Beach Grove garden