A few pictures and questions

[Foody]

I recently got a new coral from a friend on trade. He called it an Open Brain. Can anybody share any thoughts about this coral? It's quite pretty. Supposedly it puts out feeder tentacles at night but I have yet to witness that behavior.

This is a picture of some blue zoas or palys that I got several months ago. My question is this: most of the polyps are the same but there is one polyp clearly visible in the center of the picture that has different tentacles. Occasionally it seems to "sting" the polyps closest to it. Is it a rogue? Is this normal?

Lastly is a picture of a piece of live rock in my system. When I first got it there appeared to be a small black growth on it with a purplish tip. In the last 6 months it has grown (and grown) and now as you can see is quite long with a forked tip. My wife asks me just about every day what it is. Does anybody know what this thing is? You can also see another piece of it growing on the right side of the picture just above the mushroom.

 

[mr.maroonsalty]

First is a beautiful Trachyphylia. It'll almost turn inside out to eat-very kool. Second, a stray of some kind perhaps a paly in with zoas. Last, looks like a calerpa ready to start taking over.

 

[tmz]

2nd is an aiptasia; kill it. Scrape it off at the base and blot the area with a paper towel ;get all of it. Alternatively, inject it or cover it with a commercial aiptasia killer , kalk paste o vinegar.

3rd could be a sponge or maybe a nake polyp of some sort.

 

[Foody]

Not aiptasia. Closer to a blue polyp.

 

[Foody]

Ok so I looked up Caulerpa. I can't see any similarity between the two. This is really just a growing stick. Any other thoughts? Should I get rid of it? How?

 

[EllieSuz]

I agree with Tom. It sure looks like aiptasia to me too. He and I have seen plenty of this crap. Get rid of it asap. It can be disastrous.

 

[Stusdesktop]

Third on the aiptasia, nuke it

 

[Foody]

It is not an aiptasia. I know what they are. I have eradicated them before. If you had purchased it and seen the colony glued to only a ceramic plug the diameter of a quarter you (too) would understand what I'm saying.

 

[zooman72]

1) Nice brain...

2) Looks like a brown paly - don't panic...

3) Maybe Codium algae?

 

[Randrew215]

Take that second rock out and nuke that portion of it. out. Those brown polyps look like protopalythoa to me and they'll grow like crazy and are next to impossible to eradicate. Once your tank is better established you may wish you didn't let a bunch of brown polyps spread all over it. I agree that the middle looks like aiptasia.

 

[magdelan]

The third pic looks like black sponge.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

Last pic is a sponge. No need to kill the sponge.

 

[mr.maroonsalty]

I still see calerpa when I look at the growth tips of #3; not grown out and ready to be sexual, but just creeping around with its little vine.... Hmm ok it's sponge I knew a tank with black sponge and cant remember what the owner disliked sooo much about them; is it they would sting him?

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

there's a tendency to want to kill the misunderstood or unknown

 

[mr.maroonsalty]

Most certainly people do. Diversity seems to be too much for many to handle. Came across this I thought it interesting: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1144588

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

no doubt many sponges are highly toxic and people PAY to put them in their reef aquarium :headwally:

the type of sponge in foody's pic is a harmless freebie!

 

[Foody]

Here is a different look at the odd paly mixed in with the zoas. As you can better see, the stem is identical to those of the zoas. I'm thinking I want to excise this one from the middle of the colony. The only difficulty I can think of is that when the entire rock is pulled from the water it obviously shrivels up. The upside is that they are actually on a frag plug (as opposed to growing right on the rock.). Any ideas?

 

[Foody]

For what it's worth, the base of the stray paly is different than the others. Whereas the normal zoanthid colony's "base" is smooth and consistent, the base of this one odd polyp looks like the texture of a hairy wart. It is surrounded by a cluster of short "hairs." Kinda weird really.