Unusual Finds on the beach

[ozparagod]

So last Sunday (11 October 2015) I took my kids to the rock pools at Merewether (Newcastle), with the aim of collecting snails. We also found some brown seaweed washed up on the shore, and as I am setting up a temperate species tank, we grabbed it and into the bucket it went.

Imagine my surprise last night when we find a small anemone attached to the weed! Very pretty little thing, peach in colour, with peach/light pink tentacles, with purple/blue tips. Off to google to find out what it is, and after several hours of looking, we may have identified it as an Actinia Australiensis (no common name for it either). I have emailed the Sydney Institute of Marine Science and they are going to get one of their marine biology scientists to have a look for more information for me about it, as very little is known about this species. Happily eating a mixture of frozen zoo plankton, rotifers and continuum zoo blast (target fed this morning, would grab the food, draw it in, and a minute or so later extend out looking for more. I am also going to introduce some lobster eggs into the mix to see how it goes. Hopefully I can keep it going!

Of course, you can't have a post like this without pictures, I apologise for the quality (we have HD pics on the camera that I will download later) and these were taken on the windows pad this morning....

http://imgur.com/a/pBlSG