What on earth kind of coral is this??

[VvGorgonia90vV]

I found this on a piece of my live rock earlier, and when I saw it I assumed they were Zoanthids. At day, they look just like zoos, they are dark green with slightly lighter green skirt. However i decided to look around the tank at night and I see them like this. This is nothing like my actual zoas, which close up all the way at night. Any clue what it could be?

 

[mndfreeze]

could be a type of aiptasia or other pest anemone, or maybe some oddball palythoas. hard for me to tell.

 

[norfolkgarden]

Guessing aptasia. Aptasia-X worked for me. But you need to be vigilant.
If it is on a small rock and it is the only thing on the rock, I would toss the rock.
It's just easier than checking and double checking constantly after using the Aptasia-X.
Once you have them they can explode fairly quickly.

It is one of the few things I have been successful about keeping out of this tank rebuild.

If only I was that good about keeping out bubble algae.....
[emoji17]

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

 

[VvGorgonia90vV]

Thanks for the input! It very well could be aiptasia, but im still skeptical about the features of it. At day time, it rolls is tentacles back and makes a skirt that looks identical to a zoanthid. Its dark green with a very bright green around the mouth, and the tentacles at day are green, not brown. Not only this, but when I poke one with a stick it closes into its stalk, as opposed to going into the rock, which I read aiptasia do. Heres a very bad picture of them at day, but just so you kind of get the idea. Also, they are all touching each other. Not seperate.

 

[mndfreeze]

If it's more flat on the top like a disc then its most likely a paly or zoa. I've seen some weird oddball ones that have long lashes and can get a bit aiptasia looking. Technically zoa's and palys are related to nems, and there are a ton of other polyp corals in that same family.

All that matters is that you like it and it doesn't spread and take over the tank. Even good, desired corals can go awry, I'm looking at you, pulsing xenia!

 

[VvGorgonia90vV]

If it's more flat on the top like a disc then its most likely a paly or zoa. I've seen some weird oddball ones that have long lashes and can get a bit aiptasia looking. Technically zoa's and palys are related to nems, and there are a ton of other polyp corals in that same family.

All that matters is that you like it and it doesn't spread and take over the tank. Even good, desired corals can go awry, I'm looking at you, pulsing xenia!

I asked the LFS that i got it from and he said he had palys in that tank. He even showed a frag of the exact coral, so it's definitely a paly. Its in the back of the tank, which i currently have no coral in. So im gonna keep it

 

[mndfreeze]

Cool. Be careful when working in the tank. Palytoxin is a nasty mofo and there have been some mainstream news articles lately about families getting sick from tank maintenance and stuff.