Pink-tipped hitchhikers

When I bring home barnacles for my snails, they often come with hitchhikers. Last July, a couple of baby pink-tipped anemones came along for the ride. I looked for them yesterday when I cleaned the tank, and found four; they're multiplying*.

One has settled on a broken snail shell. This leaves it subject to rolling, being walked on, being buried in the sand, but also increases its exposure to possible foods.

Anthopleura elegantissima. Still a baby; they grow up to 10 inches across.

This one's a bit larger. The base is green, the tentacles tipped with pink, with white markings. And this one has a pretty striped oral disc. With a spiky hermit crab foot on the side.

Two pink-tipped anemones and a hairy hermit, on an oyster shell. The one on the right has something in its mouth. In the next photo I took, a few minutes later, only a tip was showing. Anemones swallow slowly.

Processing that last photo, I noticed a tiny critter near the bottom, too small to be seen clearly.

Here it is, with a section of hermit antenna for size comparison.

I don't know what this is. It looks like a snail, but not like any snail that I've seen on the beach or in the tank. It is slightly larger than a copepod, maybe 2 or 3 mm. long. Another hitchhiker, or a tank newborn?

I'll search the tank, and see if I can find in again.

(Update: I took dozens of photos of the area, and found another three of these critters, none as clear as the one above. I think they're baby snails.)

*That makes 8** anemones in the tank. That I know about. 4 pink-tipped, 2 orange-striped greens, one plumose anemone, and one burrowing anemone. There may be more, hiding among the barnacles or the algae.

** 9. 3 orange-striped green anemones.

Pink-tipped

An unexpected new addition to my tank.

Just a baby, starting to explore his world, riding on a Leafy Hornmouth snail.

More photos, and the story, tomorrow.

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