Urticina eques

Erling Svensen We have very, very bigg Bolocera's in the fjords here in Norway. But in the fjords also the Urticina eques grows very, very big. I have some that are close to 30 cm across. And they can be old. One I knows about are more than 30 years old. Nice...

Meg Daly Beautiful!

Erling Svensen Have any of you ever seen gonads/eggs in the anemones? I have many pictures with this in the anemone Urticina eques and Urticina felina. Very nice.

Meg Daly This is a lovely picture! I have seen eggs in Anthopleura spp. and in a few others, but the color contrast was not so nice as these...

Holvoet Bart Olympus Pen E-PL1;60mm macrolens;1/160;f/4.0;200iso

Scubashooters Dot Net Hi Bart!!! Nice one! What's that???

Annette Graves Could be urticina eques, only guessing though, definately not my area of expertise!

Annette Graves Beautiful shot though!

Yutaka Takizawa Fantastic Shoot!

Holvoet Bart i'll look for the latin name!!

Yutaka Takizawa Cute Shoot!

Holvoet Bart Urticina felina

Annette Graves Well at least I got the Genus right, as I say not my area of expertise :)

Bernd Lipsius warty column? dahlia

Steven Barnard Yep Urticina felina

Liz Morris Bernd Lipsius and Shôn Roberts, this could be either ... its a bit suspect that it doesnt have any gravel stuck to its column. Both species have warts, but Urticina felina's are adhesive so usually has gravel attached. One of your other photos looks more like Urticina eques, and I'm sure that both are present in the area. See more info on http://www.habitas.org.uk/marinelife/index.html for both species. If unsure put it down as Urticina sp, or both if you think both were present.

Bernd Lipsius

Liz Morris Nice dahlia - did you have a look to see if it had a sticky column? I think there were two species in the area - Urticina eques doesnt have sticky warts on its column, and is therefore clean compared to Urticina felina.

Erling Svensen Just want you to see how nice it can be in minus 1,7 C at Svalbard, Norway. Lots of Gersemia corals and Gorgonocephalus and many other nice things.

Becky Hitchin gorgeous!

Andy Horton I have changed my computer wallpaper to the top one. Must be a good view.

Penny Martin I have spent some time in Svalbard in 2009 and 2010 but never thought of diving there ... where were you ... near to Longyearbyen ??

Penny Martin and how deep ??

Keith Hiscock So, you know where the good reef diving sites are: will you write the guide please?

Andy Horton Are the anemone-like looking critters the Gersemia corals ? Or are they anemones?

David Kipling Do you mean the basket star in the top pic or those light brown large blobs to the right in the bottom pic, Andy?

Andy Horton Not the Gorgon!

Andy Horton I have got the top picture as my wallpaper. Because of the sea anemones and echinoderm.

David Kipling So the lower blobs then ;)

Andy Horton So what sea anemones are they?

David Kipling I have no idea - some weird and wonderful coldwater species I expect ;)

Andy Horton Urticina eques ?

Cath Waller Fantastic images. Would love to dive there. Out of interest what is the intertidal fauna (if any) like? Be an interesting comparison with southern polar.

Erling Svensen Hi everybody. I have been diving all around Svalbard on cruise with the University. The best diving are at Sagaskjeret in Isfjord and in Hinlopen on the East side. The anemones are Urticina eques, also commen here in Egersund. The Gersemia corals are brown, white, yellow and red and there are two kinds. The best stuff starts at 10 meter and down where the ice not is hard to the biology in the winter. Have you seen my book about the biology in Svalbard? I van make an album one day with cold water stuff from Svalbard if you want.

Andy Horton My guess is intertidal fauna is exiguous because of the meltwater, abrasive nature of ice and the extreme cold. Urticina eques, I have seen and the anemones do not match exactly but close. There is a sea anemone with a generic name beginning with B but that does not match either.

Andy Horton I think the explanation of the difference is that Urticina felina is sometimes identified as Urticina eques. This would certainly be true if these are typical U. eques.

Erling Svensen The u. eques at Svalbard grow to 30cm+ in diameter, and I have nice pictures with eggs inside the arms. Also the Urticina felina grows very big in the cold water, and the Cyanea capillata can be 2 meter in disk diameter and they lives for at least 3 years. So svalbard is special and a nice place to dive.

Erling Svensen If you want high res. pictures for desktop or what ever, just mail me and I can send some.

Andy Horton Erling Svenson: thanks. My computer equipment does not need a better picture right now. It is a bit late at night for me right now. Thinking though about the differences between A eques and U felina apart from size. The tentacles in the photograph are not so stubby and thick in dimension as I would normally expect from Urticina. The eggs U eques picture would be most interesting. I do not have a record of the reproduction in U felina. I think I read somewhere it is noted as probably sexual.

Andy Horton I have seen Urticina of 20 cm diameter at the Dove Laboratory Aquarium at Cullercoats, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Rare colour schemes. And no warts on the column.

Andy Horton The group photograph shows the U felina I normally see with tubercules (if that is the right term?) on the column that attach gravel. But I do not know if this is definitive? I have got an older book (British Anthozoa by Dick Manuel) but my eyes get tired late at night.

Erling Svensen Erling Svensen 3 years at least for Cyanea, and more than 30 cm for eques. In Svalbard the armes are more slim than the ones we have here, and they looks quite different. I better go to sleep to, quite late in Norway now.

Andy Horton Dark even in Svalbard?

Erling Svensen 3 months with complete darkness and 3 months in summer with midnithg sun. Right now very nice with midnight sun and fine conditions. Even in Egersund it do not get dark - really dark in the nights.

Rachel Shucksmith Hi this anemone is from North Rona, Scotland at a depth of 20m. This anemone was relatively common. Is it just a beadlet anemone? The column was smooth no warts.

Andy Horton My inclination is to suspect this is Urticina rather than Actinia. I cannot be sure from the photograph.

Wilfried Bay-Nouailhat It's deep 20 meters, but with the blue mark on the mouth and around the foot I rather think of Actinia equina

Rachel Shucksmith Hi Wilfried Bay-Nouailhat, I have a photo of another individual and it also has the blue marks on its mouth. The only thing at these isles/ rocks is that they are likely to be subject to 10m waves in the winter, even in the summer in perfect conditions there was a little bit of a washing machine effect at 15m.

Wilfried Bay-Nouailhat yes, this species lives in hard conditions often in exposed areas.

Andy Horton At what depth (below Chart Datum) is Actinia equina found do you know? It could very well be this species.

Claire Goodwin Urticina eques? but unusual to get one all in one colour like this. How big was it?

Andy Horton I have seen lots of Urticina in one colour at the Dove Laboratory. Not red though. I have changed my mind and gone for Beadlet. I think it might be in an area of strong currents?

Wilfried Bay-Nouailhat Yes, No doubt, it is Actinia equina

Rachel Shucksmith Hi Claire, they were up to 5cm

Rachel Shucksmith Hi yes strong surge related current, moderate tidal flow.

Claire Goodwin In that case I'd agree with Wilfred.

Andy Horton If there are lots of them the same colour it makes it 100% Actinia equina.

Bernard Picton Rachel, look at the top of the column, just below the tentacles. Actinia has large warts, called acrorhagi, which it uses to fight any other anemones which get too close.

Andy Horton http://www.glaucus.org.uk/Beadlet.htm