When the sun shines ...

Two days of sunshine. No wind. And a low tide. It's been a while since I've been out on the tide flats. And there were birds, critters, seaweeds, rocks (so many rocks!); I've got a bunch of photos to process.

For today, here are some anemones, pink, green, beige. All were at the upper level of the beach, most barely underwater; they keep on fishing as long as the water covers their tentacles.

Pink-tipped green anemones, Anthopleura elegantissima. With barnacles, shredded seaweeds and eelgrass.

Burrowing or Moonglow anemones, Anthopleura artemisia. The green colour shows the presence of a green alga.

More Pink-tipped greens. With a blade of sea lettuce,

The tide has just left this one stranded; it will soon shrink down underneath the sand. Bits of broken shells stick to the base. Looks like a doughnut with sprinkles, doesn't it? 

The orange and white things on the left are Dwarf Calcareous tubeworms, Pileolaria spp. Also present: mussels, periwinkle snails and another pink-tipped anemone. Broken bits of shell collect on the sand near the top of the intertidal zone; lower down, the water washes them away.

More critters tomorrow, I think.

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Salió el sol. Dos dias hace que no ha llovido, y no hubo nada de viento. Y la marea estaba baja en la tarde. Hace tiempo que no he podido caminar en la zona intermareal. Y había pájaros, animalitos, hierbas marinas, piedras (¡tantas piedras!) Ahora tengo un montón de fotos para procesar.

Por ahora, aquí hay algunas anémonas, color de rosa, verdes, café claro. Todas están en la aona superior intermareal; casi todas apenas cubiertas de agua. Siguen buscando alimento mientras el agua les cubre  los tentáculos.

1. Anémonas verdes con tentáculos color de rosa, Anthopleura elegantissima. Con bálanos y fragmentos de hierbas y algas marinas.
2. Estas son anémonas verdes, que llamamos "Resplandor de Luna", Anthopleura artemisia. El color verde se debe a la presencia de alga en los tentáculos.
3. A. elegantissima. Con una hoja de lechuga marina.
4. La marea acaba de dejar esta anémona fuera del agua. Pronto se esconderá bajo la arena. Pedacitos de concha se adhieren a la base. Parece una "dona con sprinkles", ¿no?
5. Las criaturitas anaranjadas con blanco son gusanos de tubo calcáreo, Pileolaria spp. Aquí también hay mejillones, caracoles marinos Littorina sitkana, y otra anémona A. elegantissima. En la parte superior de la zona intermareal se amontonas pedacitos de concha; más abajo, el agua se los lleva.

Para mañana, otras criaturas intermareales.

On the shady side of wet rocks.

So many different beaches; sandy, rocky, seaweedy, stony, steep, slippery, lumpy ... For this low tide day, I chose a smooth, flat, sandy one, for ease of walking. An unfortunate choice. The tide didn't go out far enough to reach the eelgrass beds, where little scuttling and sliding critters would find shelter. The sand reached to the edge of the water, and everything except sand dollars were already sheltering deep in the sand. And the sand dollars were hurrying, as fast as a sand dollar can hurry, to bury themselves.

But there were rocks. Good-sized rocks, mostly standing well apart; glacier droppings. Around each, the current has dug a shallow depression, and on the shaded side, it's business as usual, even at low tide. I went from rock to rock, checking out those tidepools.

From a few metres away, I could see movement; quick, darting dashes for cover; small fish startled perhaps by the vibration I was making in the sand, perhaps by my shadow. Crabs, maybe, heading for the deepest crevice under the rock. When I got to the edge of each pool, nothing was moving. I waited, sometimes, pretending to be another rock. The fish were more patient than I.

Seaweed doesn't hide. And anemones keep fishing as long as there's water.

Algae, red, green, brown. Turkish towel, sea lettuce, and Sargassum.

Burrowing anemones, green and palest pink. And one slow crab.

A salad bowl; Moon snail egg collar, with shredded sea lettuce and red, twiggy algae.

Two plumose anemones hanging from the rock. The water still covers their mouth, so they keep those tentacles spread open.

It's good to see healthy purple starfish again. More sea lettuce, red, bladed algae, and another green anemone.

A silvery plumose anemone, almost entirely out of water, tentacles retracted. Sea lettuce, and small, orange thingies; sponges?

Next: on/under the sand.

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Tantas playas, de tantos tipos distintos: arena, rocas, piedritas, algas marinas; resbalosas, firmes, inclinadas ... Para este dia de marea baja, escojí una playa arenosa, plana y firme, donde sería fácil de caminar. Una decisión desasertada. La marea no bajó suficientemente como para que alcanzara las areas donde crece la hierba Zostera, donde las criaturas activas pueden encontrar abrigo. Hasta la orilla, se extendió la arena, y todos los residentes, aparte de los dólares de arena, ya se habían escondido de la luz y el aire. Y esos dólares de arena se apuraban, tan rapidamente como un dólar de arena puede apurarse, para desaparecer también.

Pero hubo piedras. Piedras de buen tamaño, bien separadas; desechos de los glaciares. Alrededor, las corrientes han formado depresiones en la arena, y en la sombra, la vida sigue, aun a marea baja. Caminé de una a otra de estas rocas, examinando esas pozas de marea.

Desde una distancia de unos pocos metros, podía ver movimientos rápidos; pececitos tal vez asustados por la vibración de mis pasos, tal vez por mi sombra. O cangrejos, quizás, buscando la grieta más oscura bajo la roca. Cuando llegaba a la orilla de la poza, nada se movía. Esperé algunas veces, imitando la roca. Los peces demonstraban más paciencia que la que tenía yo.

Las algas marinas no se esconden. Y las anémonas siguen buscando alimento mientras haya agua.

1. Algas marinas roja, verde, marrón. Toalla turquesa, lechuga de mar (Ulva sp.), Sargassum multicum.
2. Anémonas Anthopleura artemisia, verdes y color de rosa pálida. Y un cangrejo sin apuros.
3. Ensalada mixta. Un collar de arena, que es una masa de huevos producido por el caracol luna. Con algas verdes (lechuga de mar, Ulva sp.) y ramitas de un alga roja.
4. Dos anémonas plumosas (Metridium senile) colgadas de una roca. Como el agua todavía les llega a la boca, siguen con los tentáculos abiertos.
5. ¡Que bueno es ver las estrellas de mar sanas ahora! Ulva sp., un alga roja, y otra anémona verde.
6. Otra anémona plumosa, esta con los tentáculos retraídos, ya que está fuera del agua. Las cosas anaranjadas pueden ser esponjas.

Para mañana: criaturas en la arena.

Do they get overtime pay?

 Anemones at low tide. When the water recedes, they shrink into themselves, becoming greenish circles in the sand or soft lumps on the side of a rock. But between the rocks, where the sand dips and a few inches of water still cover them, they stay open and feeding. Do they grow bigger in these spots, or reproduce more enthusiastically? I wonder.

Pink-tipped green anemone, Anthopleura elegantissima, very pale, with bubbles.

Burrowing anemone, Anthopleura artemisia. With red feathery seaweed, with bleached tips.

This burrowing anemone has been eating mussels.

A small family grouping. "Colonies of clones actually war against each other." (Marine Life PNW)

Next: colonies on dry rock, waiting out the low tide.

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Unas anémonas, vistas durante la marea baja. Normalmente, cuando el agua desaparece, las anémonas se encogen, haciéndose apenas unos circulitos entre la arena, o cojines suaves en los lados protegidos de las rocas. Pero entre las rocas, en los espacios donde las corrientes hacen pocitos en la arena, y el agua sigue cubriéndolas, se quedan abiertas, comiendo. ¿Será que aquí crecen más, o se reproducen más rapidamente?

Fotos: 

1. Una anémona verde con las puntas color de rosa; ésta es muy pálida. Anthopleura elegantissima.
2. Una anémona verde, Anthopleura artemisia. Con un alga marina roja, pero con las ramitas blanqueadas por el sol.
3. Otra anémona verde; este ha estado comiendo mejillones.
4. Un grupo familiar. "Las colonias compuestas de clones hasta llegan a hacer guerra contra otras." (De la enciclopedia Marine Life PNW)

Mañana; otras colonias situadas en roca donde la marea baja las deja en seco.

Underwater flowers

And anemones. Like yesterday's starfish, brightly coloured, some underwater, some out in the open, waiting for the tide to come back in.

The white lines on the tentacles and the location, half-buried in sand, mark these as Burrowing Anemones, Anthopleura artemisia. The one in the shade may be as brilliant as the other, when the sunlight reaches it.

Dark green, neon green. Again, it depends on the light. When the water recedes, they draw the tentacles in, sometimes hiding completely under the sand.

Very few markings on this one, among rocks. The same species, or another?

A bright green one, swept by the waves.

Pink-tipped green anemones, Anthopleura elegantissima, on the side of a long line of rocks. Thousands of them, clones all crammed together.

A closer look. The columns are green, covered with "goosebumps", and the tentacles have pink tips, here retracted until the water comes back.

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Y unas anémonas de mar. Como las estrellas de mar que subí ayer, algunas están bajo el agua, otras en las rocas expuestas al aire y al sol, esperando a que regrese la marea.

Fotos:

1. Las lineas blancas en los tentáculos y el sitio donde se encuentran las marcan como la anémona excavadora, Anthopleura artemisia. La que se halla en sombra puede ser tan brillante como la otra, una vez que le lleguen los rayos del sol.
2. Dos tonos de verde. Depende de si la luz le ilumine. Cuando la marea baja dejándolas fuera del agua, retraen los tentáculos y a veces desaparecen completamente bajo la arena.
3. No se ven lineas blancas en esta, situada entre rocas. ¿Es una de la misma especie, u otra?
4. Otra anémona muy verde, bailando bajo las olas.
5. Estas son las anémonas verdes con puntos color de rosa, Anthopleura elegantissima. Cubren casi por completo un lado de una hilera larga de piedras. Miles y miles de anémonas, todas clones.
6. Acercándonos un poco. Las columnas son verdes y llevan "piel de gallina", y los tentáculos tienen las puntas color de rosa. Aquí los han retraído hasta que vuelva el agua.

Shy sand dwellers

 When I arrived at Stories Beach, the tide was on its way down. I followed it as it went, walking along the edge of the water, peering under and behind rocks, staring into tide pools to watch tiny fish, counting whelks and starfish...

A girl asked me about the circles she saw in the sand; squishy circles, just sand, but it sunk away from her finger when she touched them. Anemones. There are two common species on this shore that do this, hiding away when the water drops.

Pink-tipped green anemone, Anthopleura elegantissima.

I often see these, crowds of them, in sandstone, where they dig themselves a hole. At low tide, they look like pock marks on the stone; as soon as the water covers them again, they spread out their pink tentacles.

In the photo there are also a couple of hairy hermit crabs in periwinkle shells. And a limpet: there are always limpets.

Burrowing anemone, Anthopleura artemisia.

The other anemone that retreats under the sand on this beach is the burrowing anemone. This one lives in sand, especially near rocks. Sometimes they hide themselves completely; sometimes they still wave the tentacles about as long as they're wet. It depends. On their mood, maybe?

The burrowing anemones come in a variety of colours. There are at least 7 in this photo.

Also in the photo, look for the tube worm's tube with a drop of water on the tip. The other pinkish projections from the sand could be algae; I should have dug one up to see.

A small burrowing anemone, in a vivid lime-green.

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Cuando llegué a la playa, la marea ya bajaba. La seguí, caminando al borde del agua mientras se alejaba, mirando debajo y alrededor de las rocas, deteniéndome para observar las peces en las pozas de marea, contando caracoles marinos y estrellas de mar...

Una muchacha me preguntó acerca de los pocitos de arena que encontraba; círculos de arena que respondían cuando los tocaba, retrayéndose aun más en la arena. Anémonas, le dije. Hay dos especies de anémona en esta playa que se esconden cuando el agua huye.

Primera foto: Una anémona agregante, Anthopleura elegantissima.

Veo estas frecuentemente; multitudes, colonias enteras. Se excavan hoyos en la arenisca, una piedra muy suave. Cuando la marea está baja, estos hoyos parecen cráteres miniaturas llenas de arena; cuando regresa el agua, vuelven a extender sus tentáculos color de rosa.

En esta foto también hay dos cangrejos ermitaños "peludos", Pagurus hirsutiusculus. Y una lapa. Siempre hay lapas.

Fotos 2 a 4: Anémonas excavadoras, Anthopleura artemisia.

La segunda anémona que se esconde bajo la arena es la anémona excavadora. Esta vive en la arena, generalmente cerca de las rocas. A veces se esconden completamente cuando la marea baja; a veces mantienen los tentáculos al descubierto, mientras todavía permanecen húmedos. Todo depende. De su idea al momento, parece.

Vienen en una variedad de colores, desde un gris algo roseáceo hasta verde o anaranjado. La anémona chica en la última foto es lo más verde que he visto.

En la tercera foto también se ve un gusano de tubo, alzado sobre la arena, con una gota de agua encima. Hay por lo menos 7 anémonas en la foto. Las otras cosas que sobresalen de la arena pueden ser algas; no se me ocurrió desenterrar una para ver si así era.

Green and pink anemones

I managed a long walk at the low tide level yesterday, the first since my knee injury. Lots to show for it!

For now, here's a green anemone.

Probably the burrowing anemone, Anthopleura artemisia. Surrounded by pink-tipped green anemones, Anthopleura elegantissima. Stories beach, low tide line.

Next: hidden starfish.

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Pude salir ayer a la playa con la marea baja, la primera vez desde que me lastimé la rodilla. ¡Una muy buena visita; encontré mucho de interés!

Por ahora, una anémona verde, Anthopleura artemisia, con algunas anémonas de punta rosa, Anthopleura elegantissima. El próximo post: estrellas de mar escondidas.

A few anemones

The tide was low. And it was still daylight. And it wasn't raining! I had a chance to do a bit of tidepooling. I found these anemones, still wet, still exposing their tentacles.

Bright green colour, stripped tentacles. Burrowing anemone, Anthopleura artemisia.

The big anemone in my tank is one of these, but much paler; sunlight feeds the green algae that these anemones harbour in their tentacles and oral disc. The algae converts sunlight to sugars, feeding both itself and the anemone.

Another burrowing anemone; this one has a bit of orange pigment.

And a few inches away, this peach-coloured anemone is open for business under an inch of water. I'm not sure of the species.

And while I'm at it, here's my plumose anemone, at home in the tank.

"Metty"; Metridium senile, happily reaching out to the light.

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La marea estaba baja. Y los dias son más largos ahora; todavía había luz. ¡Y no estaba lloviendo! Pude pasar unas horas buscando entre pozas de marea. Encontré estas anémonas, apenas fuera del alcance de las olas, todavía mojadas, todavía con los tentáculos abiertos.

La primera es una anémona de las que llamamos "excavadoras", la Anthopleura artemisia, de un color verde fuerte y con las rayitas blancas en los tentáculos.

La anémona grande que vive en mi acuario es de esta especie, pero está mucho más pálida. Estas anémonas contienen algas verdes, viviendo en sus tentáculos y la superfice alrededor de la boca; estas contienen clorofilo y con la luz del sol producen azúcares que comparten con la anémona. La que vive en mi casa no recibe tanta luz del sol.

La segunda foto es de otra de la misma especie, pero con un poco de pigmento anaranjado.

La tercera es una anémona anaranjada; no sé a cual especie pertenece. Está totalmente abierta, ya que la cubre una pulgada de agua.

Y ya que estoy mirando anémonas, la cuarta foto es de mi anémona emplumada, Metridium senile, en mi tanque.

Anemones doing what anemones do.

(This one's for Lucy.)

Living with sea creatures especially invertebrates, there's a routine: chill, feed, clean, chill, change water, clean, feed, chill, change filters, chill ... After a few years, it becomes almost mindless, a chore like washing the dishes or sweeping the floor. It could lead to boredom.

Except: day after day, as I watch, there's always something new to learn. Even apparently passive beasties, like anemones, have their likes and dislikes; they get grumpy if things are not just right; they wave enthusiastic approval when life is good.

Pink-tipped green anemones, two days ago. Today, the one on the left is twice as long; she's splitting into two.

The small colony of these pink anemones has been multiplying since I started hand feeding them, rather than letting the water bring them goodies. Out in the ocean, they congregate in the cracks at the base of rocks, where detritus brought in by the tide gets trapped. In my tank, since it gets cleaned out regularly, there are no wonderful treasure troves, and the current sweeps good food right past their open mouths, too fast to be grabbed; they survived here, but they didn't grow or multiply. Now they do. And their colours are brighter. They're happy!

They like the hermit crabs' shrimp pellets, so I have to feed them twice or three times each day; once or twice, and the hermits steal the pellets out of their mouths, even though they (the hermits) have already been fed. (They're greedy little things, and someone else's food is always preferable to what they already have in hand.) By the third mouthful, the anemones are usually allowed to swallow.

If you look closely at the space in between them, on the old oyster shell, there's a spot with a back-and-forth pattern; snail or maybe limpet scrapings.

The oyster shell is ridged or layered, as in the area at the top; this bottom pattern is new.

The big burrowing anemone has her own quirks.

My burrowing anemone, fishing for plankton. She also likes shrimp pellets, and waves her tentacles enthusiastically for two days after a good feed. Then she hunkers down and sulks until I change and chill the water again.

Bits of shell, grains of sand, and random "stuff" stick to the anemone's column. Small hermit crabs, assorted snails, and courting amphipods like to hide around the base, but never seem to get stuck. Or stung. (Crabs do get stung. She's not a friend to crabs.) I've never seen a limpet touch her.

The greenish yellow spots are algae growing on the glass, not on the anemone itself. No matter how often I scrape them off, they're always there.

Swallow!

She has to be quick ...

Or the hermit will get her lunch.

The burrowing anemone will sting any crab that touches her tentacles, and eat a snail or limpet that gets too close. But she tolerates hermit crabs. So they climb all over her, and when she finds food, they reach into her mouth to grab it before she finishes swallowing.

It's not quite fair.

Brave little crab

A crab in the aquarium tries to steal food from the anemone. Trouble is, the anemone fights back.

The anemone tolerates hermit crabs crawling all over her, stealing food, scratching at her sides, just resting. But crabs are not allowed. Her stinging cells (nematocysts) react to the touch of a crab and attempt to trap or poison the invader.

Each nematocyst contains a small venom vesicle filled with actinotoxins, an inner filament, and an external sensory hair. A touch to the hair mechanically triggers a cell explosion, which launches a harpoon-like structure that attaches to the organism that triggered it, and injects a dose of venom in the flesh of the aggressor or prey. This gives the anemone its characteristic sticky feeling. (Wikipedia)

When the crab is large, it is seen as an agressor. A small crab is prey; if caught it is quickly swallowed. The next day, the anemone spits out a clean crab carapace.

Comparing anemones

One basic capture and swallow system, three different styles.

A head full of hair. Metridium senile.

M. senile adheres to rocks, boulders, man-made structures, pebbles and shells. It favours places where the current is strong. (Wikipedia)

No matter where I put "Metty's" shell, she moves back under the pump again. She likes that current. But she is extremely sensitive to touch and shrinks back into a lump if anything too big brushes her tentacles.

Pink fringe. Pink-tipped green anemone, Anthopleura elegantissima. 

There are four of these in my tank. They spend most of their time on the oyster shells, near the sand and out of the strongest current. They get walked on all the time, and don't like it much, but never move to a "safe" place.

Long, fleshy tentacles, very sensitive, sticky. Doesn't bother hermit crabs, but gives shore crabs a nasty sting. "Val", the burrowing anemone, Anthopleura artemisia.

"Val" seems to like being jammed into a corner. She sticks to the glass underneath the sand, so has to put up with the weekly tank scrub, instead of being moved to a safe place. She doesn't seem to mind all kinds of action around her, even being mounded with sand; she keeps on feeding throughout the procedure.

I wonder if it's edible

Or maybe I could play with it, roll it around a bit. It's wriggly!

And I think it's unkind of my human to keep it in the water like that, where I can't reach it.

... says Chia.

Her human here: I'm working on a crab video, and a hermit crab sequence, so posting may be light for a couple of days.

Makeover

It's as if she's objecting to the extra attention her rival got last week. Val, the big burrowing anemone, has been open to her fullest extent, waving her tentacles about, grabbing everything that passes, all week, ever since I reported on the plumose anemone's adventures.

And she's dressed herself up in a new batch of multicoloured seaweeds, pink and tan, yellow and green. And dyed her tentacles pink.

Nice jacket, Val!

Up to now, she has usually shown up in ghostly tones of blue and grey, with a slightly green disc and mouth. But now her colours are stronger, and she's picked up a hint of pink. This is encouraging; in the wild, these anemones are more colourful, and even though she was badly damaged when I rescued her, she was pink and green back then.

Here she is, just a small blob, healing, September of 2012.

In the tank, she gradually lost her colour. I did everything I could to help; provided lots of light, since she was found on an open, sunny beach. It seemed to make no difference. I gave her a variety of good food, live and preserved; I surrounded her with assorted seaweeds, red and green. And she seemed healthy and hungry, but as pale as a medieval maiden languishing in a tower.

And now, she's slightly pink. And definitely green.

Wide, green mouth. And even in bright light from two flashes, the hint of pink is there.

I think the difference is that here, in her new location, the aquarium is directly beneath a big, sunny window. Back in Delta, the window faced north into a row of evergreens; the sun never reached the window, and the tank was on the far side of the room. There was twice the amount of artificial light, but something must have been missing.

I wonder what she'll be like once the days are longer and the sun is farther north.

It's a dog eat dog world out there.

About that family that Val ate ...

The eelgrass beds last week held a large population of proliferating anemones, riding high on the grass, feeding on the small animals in the diatom and hydroid fuzz.

Proliferating anemone, Epiactis prolifera, proliferating.

Like this one, most were adults carrying a column-full of babies and youngsters. Where they have been hiding up until now, I'm not sure; maybe half-buried in the sandy bottom, and now they have midgrated to the eelgrass to feed.

Another family, with one youngster already out on his own. The young stay on the mother's column for 3 months, then crawl away.

I transferred this blade of eelgrass to a bottle of water, and brought it home to the aquarium, where the family settled in happily.

The babies come in a range of sizes; they're not all birthed the same day.

Another view. The anemone in back has captured a chunk of hermit crab food.

Then their troubles began. The hermit crabs ripped the end of the eelgrass out of the clamshell I'd anchored it in, and it floated away. I moved it around to rest against the glass, and the mother anemone started to transfer to the wall. She would be safe there, but again, the hermits yanked the eelgrass away. I found her later, up against the back wall, busy moving onto a stone. That would have been perfect; only the crabs move stones around, and the three in the tank now are very small.

And then, before she was glued down, something moved her again and left her and her brood at the mercy of the current. Which was flowing towards the big burrowing anemone, Val, and her hungry tentacles.

Next thing I knew, Val's mouth was full. And the ends of the eelgrass were protruding. The only sign of the whole blue family was the hint of blue around Val's mouth.

Val's blue mouth. And a young hermit, trying to get at the crumbs from Val's dinner.

This morning, Val spit out the rest of the eelgrass blade, with a bit of slime, all that remains of the entire blue family.

Luckily, before the first move, two of the youngsters decided to leave home, and established themselves on the wall of the tank. They're still there, waving pale blue tentacles, eating and growing.

Young brooding anemone, not old enough to brood yet. 5 mm across the base.

Poppies, purple crawlers, and blue lips

My big anemone, Val, just ate a whole family, mother and kiddies all together! Val's looking fat and happy, if a bit blue around the lips.

I'll tell the whole story tomorrow, with photos of the family in happier days.

For now, here's the mystery ten-legged thing I posted the other day. (I shouldn't really have called it a critter in the title, should I? Not exactly fair.)

No, not a sunflower sea star.

And here's the photo, with background.

Poppy seed pod, half ripe.

And here are a few younger poppies, not gone to seed yet:

Saturated sunlight.

A flaming cradle for that ten-legged, purple "thingie" in the centre.

Poppy and a half. With buds and ferns.

So, tomorrow, then, the sad loss of an entire blue family.