Long tentacle anemone
Macrodactyla doreensis
Also known as LTA, Corkscrew Anemone, Corkscrew Tentacle Anemone
SaltwaterAnemone
Care at a glance
- Temperature
- 75–81°F
- 24–27°C
- pH
- 8.1–8.4
- Adult size
- 15.7 in
- 40 cm
- Minimum tank
- 40 gal
- 150 L
- Temperament
- Peaceful
- Social behavior
- Solitary
- Swim level
- Bottom
- Difficulty
- Medium
- Breeding
- No record
- Rarity
- Common
- Reef safe
- Reef safe with caution
- Family
- Actiniidae
- Origin
- Indo-Pacific (Japan to northern Australia)
Overview
Needs moderate to high lighting and gentle to moderate flow across the sand bed rather than a direct blast, since strong current can dislodge a foot that has not fully buried itself yet. Offer chopped shrimp or silverside once or twice a week. It is a true anemone, so it can and will relocate itself across the sand looking for a better spot; keep it away from powerhead intakes and give any nearby corals a wide berth since it can sting them in passing. In the wild it hosts clark's, pink skunk, orange fin, and ocellaris clownfish, and it is one of the more reliable sand anemone hosts in the aquarium too. Float and drip acclimate it slowly, and only add it to a tank with a deep, mature sand bed already in place.
In the wild
Native to the Indo-Pacific from Japan down through New Guinea to northern Australia, where it buries its column in sand or muddy rubble on shallow reef flats and lagoons with just the oral disc and tentacle crown showing. In the aquarium it needs the same setup: a soft sand bed at least 10 cm deep so its long foot can anchor properly, placed where strong light reaches the substrate rather than tucked under an overhang. It is a popular host anemone, particularly for clark's and ocellaris clownfish.
Good to know
Macrodactyla doreensis is the only species in its genus, though some recent molecular work would fold it into Heteractis (Radianthus). Its tentacles are relatively few and often take on a distinctive twisted, corkscrew shape, especially when the anemone is not fully expanded, which is where the corkscrew anemone nickname comes from. Like other host anemones it carries symbiotic zooxanthellae in its tissue and supplements that energy by catching zooplankton and small prey with its tentacles.
Did you know
The long tentacle anemone buries its foot so deep that an unhappy specimen can seem to vanish into the sand entirely, only to reappear somewhere else in the tank days later once it finds better light or flow.
Symbiotic relationships
Clownfish and their host anemones
A clownfish lives inside an anemone that stings and eats other fish its size. Its mucus coat keeps the anemone's stinging cells from firing, and a new fish builds that protection up over hours of brief touches. The fish gets a refuge no predator will follow it into and a nest site at the anemone's base. The anemone gets a guard that drives off the butterflyfish that would graze its tentacles, a steady supply of nitrogen from the fish's waste, and water movement at night, when the fish fans its fins among the tentacles and the anemone takes up more oxygen. Only ten anemone species host clownfish in the wild, and each clownfish species uses its own short list of them.
Captive-bred clownfish have never seen an anemone and do not need one; they settle for a coral, a powerhead or a corner of the tank. If you want the pairing, the anemone is the harder animal by far and goes in first, into a mature tank with strong light and stable water, at the tank size its own profile lists. The bubble tip anemone is the hardy host, and the one most clownfish accept in captivity even when it is not a natural host, so a clownfish profile lists it as the usual tank host where that is the case. The sebae, magnificent and carpet anemones are marked difficult, and the carpets eat fish. Expect a paired clownfish to defend its anemone against everything else in the tank.
Shrimp and crabs that live in anemones
Several small crustaceans live where almost nothing else can: among the tentacles of an anemone. Sexy shrimp perch in the tentacles in a cluster, bobbing their tails in the display that named them. The white-spot anemone shrimp is near transparent apart from its spots and lives on carpet anemones. The porcelain anemone crab sits at the anemone's edge and filters plankton from the water with two fan-like arms. Pederson's cleaner shrimp lives in the Caribbean corkscrew anemone and cleans fish from there. In every case the anemone is a bodyguard: its sting keeps off the small fish that would eat the shrimp. The anemone gains little, and the white-spot shrimp will nibble its host's tentacles when it is hungry.
Give each of them its anemone. Sexy shrimp take a rock flower anemone, a bubble tip or a carpet. The white-spot shrimp and the porcelain crab want a carpet anemone or a long tentacle anemone, both of which need a mature tank at the tank size their profiles list. Pederson's shrimp wants a corkscrew anemone or a condy. Without a host they perch on a coral or hide in the rock and are picked off by any fish that eats shrimp, so they suit a peaceful nano reef. A clownfish will evict them from an anemone it has claimed.
Common questions
What size tank does a Long tentacle anemone need?
A Long tentacle anemone needs at least 40 gal (150 L). It spends most of its time in the bottom.
What temperature and pH does a Long tentacle anemone need?
A Long tentacle anemone is comfortable at 75–81°F (24–27°C) with a pH of 8.1–8.4.
How big does a Long tentacle anemone get?
An adult Long tentacle anemone reaches about 15.7 in (40 cm).
