Aiptasia or feather duster how do you know?

[acrouse]

I have started to see a few tiny additions on my live rock(approx. 10 wks old). At first i thought they were new feather dusters, until I started reading the threads on Aiptasia and looking at the pictures in Bertoni's thread. Now I dont know if its aiptasia or feather dusters-too small to get a picture-. Is there anyway to tell for sure? Should I be safe and treat as Aiptasia if unable to tell? Just noticed that one of my ceriths has what looks like 30-40 little pink dusters hanging on his side like a skirt-could this be the start of Aiptasia? Any suggestions would be very helpful.

thanks Jolene

 

[ChunksInClemson]

If it hasn't grown much, then its probably a feather duster. Aiptasia grows pretty fast. Also, aiptasia looks more like an anemone, its soft. Feather dusters look like feathers coming out of a opaque tube. They are pretty easy to tell a difference in my opinion. You might have neither one, there are so many little hitch hikers out there!

If you put something near it, does it suck into a tube? This would be some kind of filter feeder. If it gets any bigger, try to get a picture. You could take the rock out for just a quick second to get a closeup pic-just an idea. A lot of people who dont know would say that aiptasia looks like small long tentacle anemones, if you know what those look like. Enough rambling, keep us updated!


HTH, Chris

 

[acrouse]

The small ones on the rock suck in with motion near it. Does not seem to be growing so I will have to watch it. How fast is fast? Would you notice it growing in a day, few days, or weekly? thanks for the info- Any suggestion on the cerith-they don't suck in at all. Thanks Jolene

 

[Sk8r]

There's a good id site: saltcorner.com. They have pictures of all the usual suspects, plus some.

 

[AquaReeferMan]

If it sucks in whenever something swims by it, its most likely a feather duster.

 

[acrouse]

I went to lfs today and saw an example of Aiptasia and thats not what I have! thankfully- I also took in my cerith snail to see what was pink and hanging off of it-they told me it was hermit snail eggs and not to worry about it. Anyone ever heard of this or experienced it? Thanks Jolene

 

[Randall_James]

Take a look at the pinned thread at top of this forum (Items Identified with Photos) good stuff

 

[acrouse]

I looked at the pictures before posting the thread and they are excellent!! Thats why I thought I might have Aiptasia after seeing the pictures. Very beneficial for newbeeies like myself! I just haven't had any luck finding anything about my cerith snail. Still not sure if its eggs or not-havent seen any pictures about them yet. Thanks again Jolene