What are these?

[Fanof49ASU]

And are they bad?
It seems that I recall have a 'cluster' of these at one time, but I can't remember what they are.

 

[mamagoose45]

I have no idea what it is, but we had a similar something or other come in on some rock from the critter when they started getting all the crazy new rock in a while ago. Ours looked to be more like a coral, where as yours kind of looks like an anemone of some sorts... Clearly your zoos don't look to be a fan of it either way!

Does is actually have that neon green tint to it like the picture shows, or is that something screwy happening with lighting/reflection?

 

[Fanof49ASU]

It does have a neon glow....it reminds me of a frogspawn.

 

[gsusfreak]

it looks like a frogspawn at the early stages....but i have no idea what that thing is

 

[Fanof49ASU]

I've had them before (and knew the name)....but for the life of me, I can't remember it. I do recall the little ball-tip ends are stingers....though, I don't think they're very strong. My zoas have opened and are covering them now.

 

[gflat65]

I've seen them called cup corals from the Caribbean. I can't remember much about the classification, though.

 

[DMBillies]

Gary, could be wrong, but I think the cup corals have more translucent tentacles with less of a ball on them... and are an LPS with a base that they can retract into. Not that I want to go head to head with the coral ID guru

We've had (probably still do) quite a few of these. I know I looked around before for what they were and couldn't recall it off the top of my head (although I remembered the ID surprising me). So, I went after it again.

Although I may be wrong (disclaimer), my guess is that it is a corallimorph, not an anemone or LPS (which is surprising to me), that goes by the name Pseudocorynactis caribbeorum (a.k.a., Orange Ball Corallimorph, Orange Ball Coral Anemone). The common name is a bit misleading because they definitely aren't all orange. I found someone who posted about one with a green sheen (which yours has) but nobody had an ID for it on that page and I can't seem to find the picture of it again. Links below...

http://www.poppe-images.com/images/image_info.php?picid=915675
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/mushridf3.htm
http://www.deepseaimages.com/dsilibrary/showphoto.php?photo=476

 

[gflat65]

Ahh. It very well could be. I couldn't tell if it had the small calcarous base of the cup coral I was talking about, but the tentacles looked similar. They are longer than what I was thinking of and looks like a corallimorph I saw in Coral magazine, when they did the spread on rics, I think.

 

[Fanof49ASU]

Thanks guys.....that looks like it.

The biggest problem is that I can't see the base. On the bam bam rock, it appears that the tentacles are just randomly spread across the underside of the rock.....or, they're extremely long tentacles.

This weekend, I'll be rearranging to fit the new corals, so I'll try and get a better look and hopefully a better photo.

 

[Mikeyjer]

I've got a bunch of those guys in both of my tanks.....Mine prefers darker area so I take it that it does not like a lot of lighting....IF it's in a area where there's a lot of lighting, it closes up until lights goes out....

 

[DMBillies]

Mike - What I was reading says they are nocturnal and, although they may learn to come out during the day, they usually extend at night. So, where you might be seeing them in the darker areas is probably just where they've "learned" to come out during the day.

 

[Mikeyjer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11619680#post11619680 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by DMBillies
Mike - What I was reading says they are nocturnal and, although they may learn to come out during the day, they usually extend at night. So, where you might be seeing them in the darker areas is probably just where they've "learned" to come out during the day.

That's what I've read in the past as well.....I read up om them about 3 years ago when I first saw them in my tank...

 

[Fanof49ASU]

Yeah, they're in the shade.