What is it, what eats it, help it just ate and arm off my star fish!

[fppf]

Folks
I have these things on my live rock. There some type of anemone. It is not aiptasia for sure.

Very hard to get a picture I will try again later.

They are about the size of a dime or so, translucent, that have a very short trunk, maybe an 1/8" or so. Then a center section with short thin arms off it with white bulbs at the very tips. Looks like a ring of little white balls.

I just saw an arm of my serpent star get stuck on one and it fought for its life and ended up loosing half an arm.

Any ideas what they where, I did not think they where that harmful. Anything out there to eat them?

 

[SushiGirl]

Sounds like ball anemones. No anemone is "harmless."

 

[fppf]

Yeah, that could be it.

I never dreamed one of those little tiny buggers could eat the arm off my star fish! I mean Really?

So, does anything eat these?

 

[SushiGirl]

I don't know of anything that eats them. I've injected them with lemon juice and then with kalk paste & haven't killed one yet. I have more then 20 in my 55.

 

[KeiferTheReefer]

Sounds like Mojanos!

I had 2 of them on a piece of LR. I took out the live rock, scraped the mojano off as best I could, then covered the area with super glue. That was almost a year ago, and I have not seen one since! Oh, and the super glue is now coralline covered, so I can't even tell it's there!

 

[teamdulski]

Ball nems have longer tentacles normally.. If the tentacles are nubby i would have to say mojano. Both can be a pain in the butt. Super glue usually works if you cover the ENTIRE area it is on, or just take a hammer and a flat head screwdriver (or chisel) and break off that piece of rock.

 

[fppf]

Yeah, mechanical removal would require tearing the whole tank down.

These are not Mojanos, they have almost no stalk and they are translucent, almost no color except for the white tips at the end of the tentacles.

Maybe I will try kalk and a syringe to kill some off. But they tend to grow in dark places, none are in direct light.

 

[Cptn Spaulding]

If none are in direct light... definitely a ball nem.

 

[Ron Reefman]

I've never had any ball anemones, but my laser works great on majano anemones. Even better than on aiptasia. If the ball anemones are translucent, the lazer may not do a very good job. I think they work better on majano because they are more of a solid color and the laser focuses on them well. The stem of an aiptasia kind of disperses the light and it lights up like a tiny neon or fluorscent light bulb rather than heat up and die.

 

[fppf]

If I ever by a laser powerful enough I will give it a try, but not likely.

 

[Whip316]

i would use something stronger than kalk or vinegar. see if you can find acetic acid. its vinegar only concentrated very high. still safe to use in a tank. you could try Hydrogen Peroxide to.

 

[SushiGirl]

i would use something stronger than kalk or vinegar. see if you can find acetic acid. its vinegar only concentrated very high. still safe to use in a tank. you could try Hydrogen Peroxide to.

Didn't think of either of those, and have both. Gonna have to give that a try, thanks! I think all I did with the kalk round was make more...

 

[fppf]

Thanks I will try that
But reaching them is the issue.

 

[Flame_Angel]

The description sounds almost like a Light Bulb Anemone. My rock has a ton of them on it, and everything I've ever heard about them is that they're harmless, and personal experience backs that up.

 

[fppf]

Nope, they don't look like that.

 

[pootiethetang]

Might be a Jewel anemone.

They come in many different shades of translucent color with white ball tips.

http://www.biodiversitysnapshots.net.au/BDRS/images/mv/species/389640.jpg

Is your rock from the Florida coast or carribean by chance?

Mine was and I had a bunch of jewel anemonies on my rock. They tend to lay almost flat on the rock like they are part of it, rather than having a "stalk"

 

[gweston]

I have some ball/jewel nems in my tank. Slow growers. They can move around, but tend to stick to the shadows. Filter feeder. I consider them beneficial as they haven't harmed anything as far as I am aware.

Though.. I did have a missing sand sifter star (they are notorious for burying themselves and well.. just dying). But I doubt it was the nems.

I recently moved my serpent star to a new tank. In process of moving/acclimating it, the star 'broke' one of it's arms in my hand while I was transferring it. My guess is it may be a defense mechanism? Think gecko tails.

The star will eventually grow it's leg back, which is certainly good.