it must be a... something?

[Mihai]

I have no idea what can that be. It looks somewhat like an anemone, but that's about it. It lives in a hole in my rock and all day it hides in it. It waits for the night to come out (even a TV in the room would prevent it from coming out). Once out (it takes 30-60 minutes to come out) it takes at least 30seconds to a minute to get back in once I put the flashlight on it.

It looks somewhat like an anemone with tentacles around what seems to be a mouth (I never saw it eat something, as soon as I come up with the smallest light it hides away). The small white feather duster that lives right at the hole entrance has a few of its feathers broken. I know that its this creature that broke them because I have some 10-50 dusters and none of the others has any feathers broken.

I'm sorry that the pictures are not too good, it's hard to focus fast in the dark.

Thanks a lot for any hints,
Mihai

PS I know that it looks somewhat like apatsia, but I don't think that it is apatsia (in 3 months no other appeared, it moves very slow in/out the hole and is out only at night).

 

[seatom]

Hello Mihai,

maybe that's an Aiptasia sp.

 

[John_Brandt]

Looks like an anemone. There are some species that only emerge at night. I don't think it is Aiptasia.

 

[Mihai]

I don't think it's aiptasia either: I saw lots of them at my LFS and they don't look like this one.

If it is an anemone, do I need to feed it (pretty hard as it's up only in the middle of the night).
My tank is now crawling with pods (all types) as it has been setup for about 3 months and I don't have any fishes in.

Mihai
M.

 

[John_Brandt]

I doubt that you will need to feed it if you have plankton moving around at night. It will probably capture them. That's about all that a nocturnal anemone can feed upon.

If it seems to shrink over time you could experiment with feeding it a tiny bit of food and see how it reacts.