Help me identify this?

[onlyjames]

Ok so I'm new to marine aquariums. so excuse my ignorance. I grew up with freshwater tanks my entire life and thought I would try something different.

I cycled the tank 3 months with just the LR. then added just a small handful of snails and a couple hermits to help keep the algae in check. nothing else in there except what came on the LR.

Only exception if my LFS sold me a rock with some cool stuff on it for $25. they couldnt be specific as to requirements other than saying it should do fine under lower lighting (I only have power compact 50/50 on the tank)

can someone help me identify it so I know if I need any special care requirements?




hopefully its not something that needs to be "fed".

anyway thats the only thing I bought from the LFS. there are however a few things I am unsure about that have cropped up in the tank.

forgive the picture here but its fairly small and i'm using my iphone camera so its not very in focus.




this came on the larger rock I bought from the LFS. I think its an anemone. its fairly nocturnal in that it generally hides during the day and comes out at night. its got a red/orange center area and little arms that end in white balls or dots.


my last question is in my sump/fuge Ive got some chaeto. recently its started getting taken over by some white stringy stuff growing all over it.

there are some small sponges I think are called pineapple sponges too. but this white stuff is causing me some concern.

I can't post a picture because Ive been unable to get one in focus enough to even help so I'll just describe it best as I can.

theres a larger central mass to the white stuff in one area of the chaeto and then white strings branching out from there. I'm concerned it may be some sort of fungus or something?

i;ve noticed TONS of little "bugs" all over which as I understand is generally a good thing.

last I have a small white crab. its got some reddish areas on it that are very small. its not hairy which I have heard can be a "bad crab". again no picture because he's HIGHLY afraid of the light so he only comes out at night. and I gave up trying to get a photo of him under those conditions.

any thoughts?

[Padanky]

this came on the larger rock I bought from the LFS. I think its an anemone. its fairly nocturnal in that it generally hides during the day and comes out at night. its got a red/orange center area and little arms that end in white balls or dots.

there are some small sponges I think are called pineapple sponges too. but this white stuff is causing me some concern.

any thoughts?

Wow, almost like you were looking into my tank. Been set-up for a little over a week, bought on Craigslist already set-up I just had to move it and set-up.

I have all of the above too, just started spotting them . First thing above is kinda cool looking, doesn't look harmful (hard to spot, surprised your camera picked it up).

I do have white fungus starting to pop up on the bottom sides of rocks, spreading faster than I would want it to, should I remove it?

[peacock]

first pics looks like aiptasia (bad guy) unsure bout the second pic

[zhenya]

Polyps in the first image may or may not be Aiptasia sp. anemones. Picture is too small for me to make positive identification. What is the true color of those polyps? If it yellowish it may be the yellow polyps that I once had as well, long long time ago. Here's an image of them.

In the second image what you have (again a small image for my lousy eyes) is Pseudocorynactis sp. mushroom anemone. The Corynactis anemone are temperate species and I don't think it would survive for any length of time in the reef aquarium temperatures.
Image of one could be found here.

[Padanky]

Thanks for the quick responce, I don't have whats in the first pic. But I have many of the Pseudocorynactis sp. mushroom anemone that Zheyna spotted. My tank temp is stable at around 77degress, at night they really open up and pretty much close or tighten up when the lights are on, every time I pull the flash light out at night I find more. I would like them to stay, are they benificial or bad news?

[bautiSTUD73]

First pic to me might be some palythoas if not the polyps.