Is This Aiptasia?

[FishinAround]

I know these aren't the best pictures but can you experts tell if this is aiptasia. I only have it on one piece of rock in the corner of my tank. When the lights go off it shrinks back to nothing.

 

[Phyxius]

Looks almost like green star polyps. Did you get the rock from someone elses tank? It could have come on that

 

[Cutiewitbooty]

yeah that does look like gsp, not like aiptasia

 

[FishinAround]

Yes the rock came from someone elses tank. It was a very established tank. Attached is a picture of that exact same rock once the metal halide lights went out and only the PC's were on.

 

[sir_dudeguy]

Definately not aptasia. Aptasia is a type of anemone thing and they're single...these are some sort of star polyp, my guess is that its a somewhat stressed green star. I say stessed because its all white. And you can tell its a star polyp due to the rubbery mat thing they grow on. And that too is white...mine is all purple (the mat part i mean) and the polyps that come out are really nice green. Either yours is some other veriety of star polyp, or its a stressed green star, but i dont know why it'd be losing its color under metal halides...check all your parameters. I've heard that these guys are often used as an indicator to nitrates and stuff. And i have to say that they sure worked for me. When my nitrates shot up they closed up for a month while everything else stayed somewhat normal...but then after i thought they were dead they came back and are growing fast now.

 

[Phyxius]

If it looks like a purple mat that is on the rock where you see the polyps out its the GSP. It spreads like a weed if conditions are right so you may end up with more if wanted or not. If you dont want it you can try and peel that purple mat off but if you dont get every bit of it you will see it again.....

 

[sir_dudeguy]

imo when they're looking nice they're a really cool coral. Right now i've got a piece that when it covers the rock i want it to will look really cool. Also you can play around with these a bit more than other corals. These guys grow really easily on the back glass and make a cool lookin background or cover the overflows. Also someone meantioned this in another thread today, and i think that i'll try it some day when i get a bare bottom tank. Put a piece on the bottom and let it grow over the bottom glass to make the bottom less unsightly. I think that would be very cool looking.

 

[FishinAround]

When I first put the rock in the tank I didn't see anything on the rock so it's actually sitting in the back corner kinda between the overflow and the end of the tank so the light is probably not hitting it full strength, would this cause it to look like this? Don't mind star polyps, if that's what it is I may move to a better spot and try to keep under control.

 

[sir_dudeguy]

it probably would be causing it to be like that. I know the lfs keeps them with no lighitng at all and they look kinda like that, except for really realy white...from the pics, yours kinda have a yellowish color (there might be a yellow star, but i dont think it would be that shade of yellow....)

put them out in the light and see what happens after a week. Other than the color, they look really healthy tho.

I'll post a pic of mine as soon as i can find it on photobucket (i got too much stuff on there lol)

 

[sir_dudeguy]

well i seemed to have deleted (or cant find) my gsp pics, but here's a pic of one...

another thing tho, gsp's often arent very "photogenic" so they often look more yellow than they actually are. Do yours look like your pics?