ID please - came in with sand..

[Anonymous]

I think I may have seen this somewhere before, but I don't know where/what it was called.. I think it might be a single polyp of some sort, the only other thing I can think is some kind of anem. (Which makes more sense to me since it's open during the lighted cycle. (Closed it looks like a brown spot of substrate...)

Any/all help greatly appreciated..

 

[Will C1]

could be a sand anemone or a polyp let it grow if it gets bigger than a quarter then its an anemone if it stays small and spreads its a polyp.

 

[Anonymous]

could be a sand anemone or a polyp let it grow if it gets bigger than a quarter then its an anemone if it stays small and spreads its a polyp.

Pardon my ignorance, but how DO polyps spread? Do smaller ones just sprout alongside?

It does seem to be growing fairly rapid (but it's still fairly small, 3/4's dime-size maybe). It's probably increased in diameter by about 25% over the last 3 days.

Someone on another board mentioned it could possibly be aiptasia. I don't know how many varieties there are, (need to study that) but what I've seen of it (mostly at the LFS I got the sand from) it doesn't look anything like the variety they were having problems with.

The sand however was taken from one of their best coral display tanks... (I was amazed they stirred their sand bed up like that!) - So hopefully something nice slipped into the mix and not something nasty..

Thanks for your thoughts... I guess I'll just have to be patient and see how it goes..

 

[Will C1]

yes it will sprout a little one right next to it, they should look identicul. it dosent look like aptasia to me but just watch it, i believe its some sort of sand annemone.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Will, I'll watch it and let you know what I find..

 

[Anonymous]

could be a sand anemone or a polyp let it grow if it gets bigger than a quarter then its an anemone if it stays small and spreads its a polyp.

Pardon my ignorance, but how DO polyps spread? Do smaller ones just sprout alongside?

It does seem to be growing fairly rapid (but it's still fairly small, 3/4's dime-size maybe). It's probably increased in diameter by about 25% over the last 3 days.

Someone on another board mentioned it could possibly be aiptasia. I don't know how many varieties there are, (need to study that) but what I've seen of it (mostly at the LFS I got the sand from) it doesn't look anything like the variety they were having problems with.
The sand however was taken from one of their best coral display tanks... (I was amazed they stirred their sand bed up like that!) - So hopefully something nice slipped into the mix and not something nasty..

Thanks for your thoughts... I guess I'll just have to be patient and see how it goes..

one of the confusing things about aiptasia is how different a form they can take-even the same individual

i'm not sure if there are more than one species, or not, but the same aiptasia anemone can look remarkably different even from one day to the next-from long and 'stringy' to short and 'squat'

as the anemone contracts or expands, it's color also apparently changes-usually appearing lighter and more translucent when more enpanded, and darker when contracted - prob'ly due to the relative proximity of the pigment cells to each other, in those various expansion states

hth

 

[Anonymous]

I'm starting to guess it might be a zooanthid, at least it sure looks an awful lot like the ones here.

Hasn't changed much in the last couple of days.. Not quite dime-sized yet (but close)..

Thanks for the tips Vitz, as my LFS has had to battle aiptasia recently I'll need to keep an extra careful eye out for it.

 

[Anonymous]

Well, it's been a while, thought I'd update this and see if anyone can help me ID these little puppies now...

I'm sure they'd have been growing a lot better in someone else's tank all this time (I poisoned the water twice by using the wrong acrylic) but now that I think MAYBE I might be getting the beginnings of a clue on keeping the water in decent shape, they're starting to take off. - Polyps extend almost fully (still too bright for them I think) and three new polyps are budding out.

Any guesses?

 

[Anonymous]

those are zooanthids of some sort-mebbe palythoa

 

[Bleeding Blue]

The top picture kind of looks like majano anemones to me. Hard to tell in 2 dimensions.

Mike

 

[Anonymous]

here is a pic of majano:

http://www.reefs.org/hhfaq/pages/pictur ... monia.html

the pics you posted, G.D.-are almost definitely some type of zooanthid-one of the classic giveaways are the narrow tentacles around the edge of the disk, and the stripes on the disk

i'm 99% sure those are not majano :wink:

 

[liquid]

Those are zoanthids or palythoa. You can tell by the oral disk and the tentacles.

Shane

 

[Anonymous]

Yeah, the top pic is a bit deceiving, it was taken right after a feeding which these puppies do with a fervor!

Do zoos encrust or do they need to be glued? - I had to band these guys to a dead acro finger about 4 months ago and the last time I checked them (a month now) they hadn't encrusted it at all. They've grown a lot in this last month (and I'm FINALLY getting coralline growth now) so I don't know if they've finally attached or what, but I was wondering if they need to be glued if they're loose?

Thanks again!

 

[liquid]

Most of the time I glue mine. YMMV of course.

Shane

 

[Anonymous]

you can place zoos on a rock, and wrap a small piece of fiberglass window screen, w/rubberbands, around the rock-they should attach w/in a few weeks

i usually take two small pieces of rubble, place the zoos in between, and rubberband them together-creating a light and constant pressure on the zoos on both sides

as soon as they spread to both rocks, i slice them apart w/a razor-two new frags! :wink:

 

[Anonymous]

Sweet! - Thanx guys!