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[cindre2000]

Hey, we got some 'flower anemones' in at the store I work at. However, they look almost like different species. Thus I was wondering, how can I tell apart a Epicystis crucifer and a Heteractis aurora?

[Kez432]

Heteractis aurora usually will have beaded tentacles as for thr color usually grayish white with white banding on thecentral part of the oral disc




Epicystis crucifer(which you most likly have) come in a very wide veriety of colors.green brown orange gray with white stripped patterns.Although most are probably brown. their most distinguishing charateristic are red verruce on the column

Ive worked at a few stores and shipment sorting with Corals and Anemones can be a chore I know Best to order one type of unknown at a time. Much easier to sort out that way.

Varied numbers also can help to Identify

[cindre2000]

One of them I am sure was a Epicystis crucifer. It had alternating green and white tentacles that I could easily recognize as a common color pattern of this species.

The other one, however, was a whiteish brown over all with clearly beaded tentacles. Additionally, I personnally have a very similar anemone; however it is a fluorescent green color. The beading originally made me think they are Heteractis aurora; however, I have seen images of 'Epicystis crucifer' that had beaded tentacles.

When you say red verruce, do you mean the bright pink/purple dots on column? Does Heteractic aurora have unique patterning on the column?

Varied numbers also can help to Identify

What do you mean by this?

Ive worked at a few stores and shipment sorting with Corals and Anemones can be a chore I know Best to order one type of unknown at a time. Much easier to sort out that way.

I rarely order an "unknown" species of animal. More often, such as this case, I get shipped a different species than I ordered and thus I must identify it. However, I may occasionally order 'assorted' varieties, but only for certain groups of animals (eg. damsels).

[Kez432]

Think of the red Verrucce as red squiggled lines sometimes spotted.

As far as the picture of a "Beaded Epicystis" I am skeptical. Who authored the book? Or article? However it is unwise to ever out rule the possibility

I generally rely on Julian Sprung. However having said that I would always try to have more than one source to make a definitive confermation. Even the experts have to at times rethink their clasifications as Marine Taxononmy is difficult (especially cnidarians) at best .


varied numbers,,when I would order more than one unknown of things that were similar(Tetras are a good example of this as they are a pain to identify when the first come in) I would order 6 of one 12 of another as to ditinguish one from another