Phyllodiscus Semoni Feueranemone (Night Anemone)

Here is my experience of this anemone.


This was the day when I introduce the nennie to my tank.
Day time:

During day time this anemone seems harmless. I saw on several occations fish touching it with no after effects. The whole stem with the mouth is drawn back inside the body.

Night time:
This is where the fun starts.

The stem and disc is out (Feeding Mode)


The tentacles is longer and in the open.

I feed the nennie every night. The stem and disc only comes out at night. I feed it krill or stint. It has the same reaction as any nennie, the long thin tentacles pull the food to the mouth. The reddish part of the body does not transport the food to the mouth. I think that part of the body is to draw the prey to the tentacles. There is little white balls that might be seen as fish eggs.

Once it has taken the food, it draws the dics back inside the body.

Observations:

During day time, the body is big about 100mm to 150mm in diameter and a disc shape. During night time, the body is around half the size and more off a baloon shape.

It is right next to button polys and the polys touch it constant during day time. The polys does not react to nennie at all.

I have seen my arrow crab steel food out of it's mouth. I have seen the Copper band stolen mysis from it's tencackles. All this happens during day time.

I have lost the same arrow crab during night time. The arrow crab changed it's skeleton. I found that night the skeleton on the nennie and the crab sitting right next to the nennie. The following day the arrow crab died.

The next casualty was my cleaner shrimp. I also saw it close to the nennie. It's tentckles looked like you burn it with a flame. It was black on the tips an very short. The shrimp never came close to the nennie except for that night. He aslo died during the next day.

The third casualty was my Copper band. There was a funny mark on it's body. He also loved to swim neat the nennie.

All my casualties was of night dwellers. The rest of my fish are still fine. The hide at night.

Conclution:

This nennie is dangerous only at night during hunting time.
The dangerous venum sits in the little ball on the body.
The venum does not dilute in the water colum. (Therefore not one of my corals or fish died in my tank thus far)
The venum is off a jelly tipe. (I handled it in the beginnig. I went underneath the live rock and was difficult to feed. I put on gloves and sort of drag it out underneath the live rock. It have not attached at that stage. My gloves were very slippery as if you put a jelly on the gloves. Remember nothing died from that).

It is a very peace full nennie as long as you stay away at night and you do not irritate it.


I Have the following in my sytem:
Feather star fish, Zoa's, Mushrooms, Finger Leather Coral, Frog Spawn, Torch Coral, Button poly's, Sun Corals, Star polys, Gorgonian, Pesilla Pora, Acropora, Disticopora, Ricordia, Tube Anemone, Chilly Coral, Spunges, Rock anemones, Cabbage Corals.

Fish and Invertabrates
Solar Fairy wrasse, Banna Wrasse, Midas Blenny, Clown fish, Lawnmower Blenny, Bi-colour angel, Pajama Cardinal, Fire Cracker, Hermad Crabs, Snails and Sea stars.

All off this share the same system and live happely ever after.



A full tank shot.

Attached an articale from the web.

The American Journal of Pathology, Vol. 171, No. 2, August 2007
Copyright © American Society for Investigative Pathology​

DOI: 10.2353/ajpath.2007.060984

A Protein Toxin from the Sea Anemone ​

​

​

​

Phyllodiscus
semoni Targets the Kidney and Causes a Severe
Renal Injury with Predominant Glomerular Endothelial​

Damage

Thanks for this info

Hennie

Very nice write-up, thanks for the info.

Wow, nice Freek. Did not even know about a night nennie until I saw your post. Thank you for sharing

Very interesting anemone, i also was not aware of it, It seems like it is designed to catch nocturnal prey and therefore most of the daytime fish are probably safe if they dont bump into it but i would think it would pose a danger to nocturnal fish like cardinals, etc

It seems to be rare and has a powerful sting that hurts even human skin.Thank you for your experience in keeping it please let us know more about it!Is it hardy? Does it use light for food as well?

Achilles,

No it doesn't seem to use light for food. The change in shape is to accomodate the tube with the disc. This morning 02:10 the disc was the biggest I have seen it and the tube was not that long extended. I haven't seen the redish part react on any food in the water colum. Not even to mysis or cyclopece. Normally the corals that use light close at night and reacts when the lights is on. The colour and the shape of the "brancehs" on the body is always the same. So, I assume that light does not have any effect on the nennie. It looks hardy at his stage.

Thank you for the info and keeping us updated on this anemone!

Achilles said:

Very interesting anemone, i also was not aware of it, It seems like it is designed to catch nocturnal prey and therefore most of the daytime fish are probably safe if they dont bump into it but i would think it would pose a danger to nocturnal fish like cardinals, etc

It seems to be rare and has a powerful sting that hurts even human skin.Thank you for your experience in keeping it please let us know more about it!Is it hardy? Does it use light for food as well?

Click to expand...

That is actually quite a good question... I am not sure, so maybe the other Anemone guru's can help, but does a RBTA or LTA also "hunt" at night? There is no visible evidence that this night anemone is in fact photosynthetic (however I would not try and take all light off it just for experimenting...)

If it is "open" during the day and hunt during the night, then it MAY be a non photosynthetic anemone. No evidence to prove this though as I said, but does / would a RBTA also "hunt" at night, or does it "go to sleep" like other corals?

Some night photo's at feeding time

This photo was taken at night with the metal haylite swithed on for the photo. This showed that the nennie is capable of moving his stem in the direction of the pray. The stem is to his back. He never did that before or after that incident. What you can't see is that the fire cracher sits at the back of the live rock where the blue mushroom is.

A snail died. The nennie extent his stem in the direction of the snail during daytime (That is unusual). The moment I removed the snail, the nennie pulled back it's stem. The snail did not smell, so the nennie sense prey on a way humans can't smell.

This is a amazing journey

Thanks for the info Freek very intereSTING

This is during day time and shows that this nennies were peaceful to the button polys. However the two did not touch at night, This also gives the indication that this baby is only active and deadly at night. I also came oppon a article warning divers against this nennie espesially at night.

Nice photo!!! That must have been a proffessional photographer that has won many awards for photography that took it?

(**persoonlike grappie...)

there is one in a lfs for R60!!! i like it so much!

my substrate is VERY shallow. how do i house it?

my tank mates are:

Blackspot angelfish
carpenter wrasse and
chromis thus far..

what you guys think?

Some info I got from other forums :

http://www.thereeftank.com/forums/showthread.php?t=155875&goto=newpost

Here is the message that has just been posted:
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I haven't kept one, I actually won't keep one. So I can only tell you what I've learned from others who have. I don't think you're going to find many experts in terms of tank care of these anemone.

It seems like you pretty much know what you need to know about feeding habits, whole fish at night and nightly.

They host shrimp, but not fish.

Not getting stung is an understatement! Their toxin leaves ulcers in the skin and in rare cases can cause renal failure.

I think the reason you aren't going to find much information on this animals is that most people wouldn't keep it. It's like keeping a cobra!
***************


There may also be other replies, but you will not receive any more notifications until you visit the forum again.

All the best,
The Reef Tank

Freek, nice thread bud, you can have some cred for your help, where did it come from, indo, philipines........nice nemmie, I thought I was rambo with a carpet in my DT, not anymore

Some more info on this nennie for those interested.

I upgrade my system from a 1m to a 1,8m tank. In the process I bought new fish. To ensure they don't become nennie food, I moved the nennie to by sump/algea scrubber. Here the nennie was under energy saver light with little flow. When I the nennie was not doing good I just add more flow. The nennie was fully open and did well. Out of this can we assume that this nennie doesn't need the light that other nennies does and not near the flow that other nennies does.

When I changed over to the new tank, I was forced to move the nennie aswell. I picked it out of the water, walk about 10 meters with it and put it in my refriguim while moving the rest. At first it releases its clear jellotine tipe venom. After a couple of seconds I think it realese the big guns because I really peed it off, That was a dark brown venom and it forms strings in my the water. I took it out immediately because I realised that I might loose my whole system now. I walked with it the same 10 meters (Out of water) and put it back in its old position. The nennie stabelise and was forced to change my plan.

A week later I moved the nennie to my new DT but this time I kept it under water. The nennie did not even leases any venom. I put it in the corner of the tank with the least flow and light. The nennie is now as happy as ever.

Conclusion:

The night anemone might be non-photosinthetic
Very hardy
Very easy to keep as long as you feed it properly. (Rember I feed it at night)
I has 2 visual tipes of venom. I clear gellotine tipe which stays on the body and this dark brown strings. (This was the firts time I saw it)
Very friendly to certain neighbours (Look at photo earlier in this thread)

If I could summirise in one sentence. Very nice nennie to keep with two golden rules. Feed properly at night and always wear gloves.

freek said:

I upgrade my system from a 1m to a 1,8m tank. In the process I bought new fish. To ensure they don't become nennie food, I moved the nennie to by sump/algea scrubber. Here the nennie was under energy saver light with little flow. When I the nennie was not doing good I just add more flow. The nennie was fully open and did well. Out of this can we assume that this nennie doesn't need the light that other nennies does and not near the flow that other nennies does.

Click to expand...

If you told me that the anemone was in darkness (without issue) for months I would says possibly.

@sihaya, have you seen this anemone on any dive trips? Do you have any input?

No, I haven't... but damn is that cool.