Can you ID this anenome?

[phender]

From the picture, it looks like it might have a skeleton at its base. Like Cindy said, it might not be an anemone at all. It could be a coral.

 

[OCDP]

Sorry if I missed.. but why can't you take out the trumpet coral to inspect this further? If that's an option.. just remove it from where it is and inspect it ... ?

 

[elwaine]

As for the possibility that this creature is a coral - and not an anemone - as I posted above, a friend of mine who has published several books on marine aquarium (Alf J. Nilsen) said

it could even be a juvenile anthocaulus and asked me to check the base to see if it had a solid skeleton at the base.

I can't do that at this point in time because I can't see the base all that well. It is partially hidden by the trumpet coral. In any case, it is definitely not a torch coral... I've had them before and know what they look like.

As for why I can't remove the trumpet coral... it is firmly attached to the live rock.

Anyway, I now hate you guys! .:rollface: Your lack of knowledge is going to cost me a lot of money. I've been closely studying my tank in an effort to determine just what it is I have growing there. The more I observed, the more convinced I became that I really want to redesign the aquascape of my aquarium... remove some of the live rock... open it up a bit (I have too much rock in my 36 gal tank anyway. And to top it off, I'm replacing my CF lighting with a combo CF and Metal Halide light.

I will send pics when done... and hopefully have a much better image to show of the thing in my aquarium.

Best regards to all... elwaine

 

[elwaine]

And the answer is: Heliiofungia actiformis- a long tentacle plate or disk coral (which is exactly what Alf Nilsen thought it was). There is a picture of its twin on page 258 of Eric Borneman's book Aquarium Corals - Selection, Husbandry, and Natural History.