ID please

[Hope_L]

It does not have a skeleton, I got it out of the bottom of the drag tank at the LFS. I glued t to a plug because it was so light weight it just got blown around my tank. It was attached to a rock at the LFS but not very well, as soon as he touched it it came off.

This is what it looked like before I put it on the plug

 

[Tweaked]

I'm thinking e. parancora

 

[Hope_L]

I'm thinking e. parancora

Thanks tweaked! I thought maybe hammer coral as well, it's just so tiny right now. I suppose time will tell. If it doesn't look like a hammer when it grows some more then I will post another image down the road.

 

[Tweaked]

Just to further this, you stated it was at the bottom and has no skeleton? Is there a branching hammer in the tank you got this from? Reason I ask is they are known to bailout or fall of the skeleton under stress etc.

 

[Hope_L]

Just to further this, you stated it was at the bottom and has no skeleton? Is there a branching hammer in the tank you got this from? Reason I ask is they are known to bailout or fall of the skeleton under stress etc.

There may have been a hammer in there at some point but there wasn't the day I got it. It was sitting on a rock under the frag tank and when he got it out it literally fell off the rock. The under side of it looked like brains, or guts for lack of better terminology. Do you think that it will survive? Is there anything I can do to help it?

 

[Tweaked]

Unfortunately without it's skeletal base, its a lost cause IMO

 

[Hope_L]

:0( that's sad, it was free so nothing lost there but I haven't had anything die yet.

 

[spcpettit22]

It is possible for coral to grow its skeletal base back, I believe, as long as the perimeters are where they should be.

 

[Hope_L]

It is possible for coral to grow its skeletal base back, I believe, as long as the perimeters are where they should be.

I've been looking into this off and on today while I was at work. Also another reefer on here told me it is possible. Right now it is glued to a frag plug and it really doesn't seem to like that, like it may sound crazy but it looks like it is rocking back and forth trying to get off of it, it has pulled part of itself loose. I read somewhere that if you place it in a crevice in your rock it can attach and grow a new skeletal base. Also I was thinking... My mom had a torch that died and she still has the base from it, I don't know why lol, but anyway I was thinking maybe if I put it on that it would attach to it easier, like a transplant lol! For now I'm leaving it alone but the way it is acting I think it may only be a matter of time before it pulls itself loose from the plug.

 

[spcpettit22]

I would put it in a low flow area, the rocking is mostly likely from the flow pushing it around seeming as these corals don't move on their own. That's what I would try. But after moving it I would leave it alone and see if it works. I'm sure that the 'transplant' idea would not work seeing as it has to grow its own.

 

[Hope_L]

I would put it in a low flow area, the rocking is mostly likely from the flow pushing it around seeming as these corals don't move on their own. That's what I would try. But after moving it I would leave it alone and see if it works. I'm sure that the 'transplant' idea would not work seeing as it has to grow its own.

It is in the lowest flow part of my tank I think I can find. As for transplantation it sounded good in theory lol... I may try to find a better spot for it later tonight I'm trying not to stress it any more than it already has been but at the same time I don't want it to blow away.

 

[spcpettit22]

Perhaps have it hide near a rock so it'll block most of the flow. And then leave it alone

 

[Hope_L]

A little update, this thing is doing well and I showed a picture to the guy that gave it to me and he thinks he may have accidentally given me a bounce mushroom. Here are a few updated pictures

Here is an image off google of a green bounce mushroom

The lighting on that one is a lot different from mine but they do resemble each other

 

[Tweaked]

Hmm. interesting. You stated you glued this down? Is that correct? Mushrooms are anemones and just can't be glued down, so I highly doubt were looking at a mushroom. On that note, I am second guessing my first ID, but still see rumbles of what looks to be hammer polyps. Time will tell, great job it looks to be surviving. Do you see a mouth?

 

[Hope_L]

I did glue it down because I thought it was probably a hammer, from that moment forward it seems to be trying to get off of the plug, but it also seems to be growing. Should I try to take a razor blade and get it off the plug? It seems like it is ok so I have just left it alone. Today I looked at it closer and it does appear to have a mouth but it's tiny so honestly I'm not 100% sure. Another thing I haven't mentioned, it stinks, like from day one it has always smelled funky and it still does. I do try to target feed it a little but I can't tell if it is actually eating other than that it puffs up when I feed the tank. I feed reef roids once a week, fresh hatched brine shrimp once to twice a week and I feed my dendro a frozen mix daily.

 

[Hope_L]

Do you think that's it's mouth? Or can you even tell from the picture? It isn't as fluffed up right this second as it usually is but this may give you another perspective anyway.

 

[Hope_L]

 

[Tweaked]

Still stumped lol

 

[Hope_L]

Still stumped lol

Me too! I guess time will tell!

 

[alb_56]

This looks like a mushroom for sure to me. I'm thinking maybe a St. Thomas.