Clinocottus Globiceps + Anthopleura Xanthogrammica = Dinner

[AquaticEngineer]

On my last trip collecting I brought home a good sized Mosshead Sculpin (Clinocottus Globiceps)

 

I also brought home quite a few Giant Green Anemones (Anthopleura Xanthogrammica)

 

Now most people would assume that a Giant green anemone would just swallow up a even a good sized sculpin right?

 

Wrong.

 

Turns out that the Mosshead Sculpin is one of a handful of predators that the Giant Greens have in the wild.

 

I couldn't figure out why a few anemones that I have had in the established lobster tank for over a year just completely closed up since I introduced all the new inhabitants. I had assumed maybe it was a nudibranch that I just had not seen yet or something, until I remembered a research paper I read online a while back when I was trying to identify the first mosshead sculpin I caught about a year ago.

 

Just to verify this, I moved the large mosshead into the newly established tank that is holding all of my Giant Green Anemones and within minutes he was taking bights of tentacles. So he has now been banished to the holding tank with all the little guys until I figure out what to do with him.

[C-Rad]

Because there is so little information available about the husbandry of cold water animals, we can expect to learn this sort of thing the hard way. Thanks for sharing.

 

While we're on the topic. I found out the hard way that if a chestnut cowrie is attacked (by an octopus for example) it will produce vast amounts of thick slime as a defense mechanism. My 18" long overflow was 75% blocked by slime from a 1" long cowrie. An adult cowrie would probably have caused a flood. Cowries are "slime-bombs", so don't keep them with anything that might bother them, or your carpet might get wet.

[AquaticEngineer]

Because there is so little information available about the husbandry of cold water animals, we can expect to learn this sort of thing the hard way. Thanks for sharing.

 

While we're on the topic. I found out the hard way that if a chestnut cowrie is attacked (by an octopus for example) it will produce vast amounts of thick slime as a defense mechanism. My 18" long overflow was 75% blocked by slime from a 1" long cowrie. An adult cowrie would probably have caused a flood. Cowries are "slime-bombs", so don't keep them with anything that might bother them, or your carpet might get wet.

 

Indeed Gotta keep blazing trails right. Hopefully all my anemones make a nice healthy comeback before that guy comes to shoot the video of my tank

[wombat]

They also will consume tentacles of A. elegantissima. Check out this paper which shows they prefer to graze on zooxanthellate tentacles...

 

http://www.jstor.org/pss/2839080

 

Pretty crazy, because the anemones will definitely consume the fish if given the chance.

 

I'm not sure if consuming A. xanthogrammica is a natural behavior for them or an artifact of captivity.

[AquaticEngineer]

They also will consume tentacles of A. elegantissima. Check out this paper which shows they prefer to graze on zooxanthellate tentacles...

 

http://www.jstor.org/pss/2839080

 

Pretty crazy, because the anemones will definitely consume the fish if given the chance.

 

I'm not sure if consuming A. xanthogrammica is a natural behavior for them or an artifact of captivity.

 

Yeah I read that same paper a while back and thats what triggered the connection after I identified those sculpins as mossheads. We thought they were just tidal sculpins at first.

 

We've since stopped collecting them altogether when we go tidepooling since we would rather have the anemones than the fish anyday.

[AquaticEngineer]

This is also a good paper about the Mossheads.

 

http://www.mendeley.com/research/laborator...a-anemone-prey/

 

Mosshead sculpins, Clinocottus globiceps, of the North American Pacific coast commonly feed upon sea anemones and in doing so make frequent body contact with the anemone tentacles. An attempt was made to determine if some sort of acclimation process, as seen in certain pomacentrid anemone fishes, is necessary for C. globiceps to engage in such repeated contacts. The laboratory experiments with C. globiceps and three species of anemones (Anthopleura xanthogrammica, A. elegantissima, Urticina crassicornis) revealed no obvious and consistent acclimatory behaviours by the fish toward anemones following a period of enforced isolation from anemones. Actions by C. globiceps toward anemones included frequent bites to tentacles, touches to tentacles without biting (whether intentional or not), and bites to the anemone's base or column. Tentacle bites occurred, on average, significantly earlier than tentacle touches in trials with Anthopleura elegantissima. There was no evidence that either tentacle bites or tentacle touches occurred earlier than the other in trials with A. xanthogrammica and LI. crassicornis. In paired trials where individual C. globiceps were tested first with A. xanthogrammica and then with U. crassicornis, the fish showed no significant difference in response to the two anemone species, either in the frequencies of different types of actions (bites or touches) or in the average order in which tentacle bites or tentacle touches occurred. Experiments were also conducted to compare the degree to which different sculpin species avoided contact with anemone (A. elegantissima) tentacles. Clinocottus globiceps seemed more tolerant of contact with tentacles than were the other sculpins, and only C. globiceps appeared intentionally to touch tentacles, sometimes leaning against or biting them. Ascelichthys rhodorus and Oligocottus maculosus were tolerant of incidental contact with tentacles, while Oligocottus snyderi showed an apparent, pronounced aversion to such contact

[animalmaster6]

That sculpin is awesome!

[RBS5]

That is interesting about the chestnut cowrie (cypraea spadicea). I'm not familiar with any other species of cowrie exhibiting that behavior. I do know that in california they can be thick on the group and are prey for octopus. Of course, it is one of the few cowrie species that is found in cold temperatures.