• Help identify the wildlife.

  • Erica

On live rock (10 days after launch), these fellows have "hatched." I couldn't capture them in better quality. They are 4-6 mm tall, with umbrella diameters of up to 5 mm. Please let me know what this is. If they are parasites, it's still not a problem to remove them now... but what if they are something beneficial... They don't look like aiptasia. It's not visible in the photo, but each antenna (or tentacle, whatever it is...) is covered with tiny cilia.

William1830

One more detail to add. After the lights go out, they all close up in literally about five minutes. P.S.: They resemble a coralline algae (a significantly smaller version of it). But can coralline algae be that size? That color? And end up in an aquarium with live rocks?

Stacey4437

I can assume that these are Parazoanthus, as I also received some with live rocks. But it's hard to see from the photo, and these are just guesses. Usually, Parazoanthus are found in colonies, but here they are solitary, just like Aiptasia. Check where they are growing from. Try touching the little bush with your finger; if it hides in a crevice, it's likely Aiptasia (they like crevices). Still, a better photo is needed.

Jeremy

I can't take a better photo. I made another attempt, but the picture is still not great. I found a magnifying glass and looked more closely. This is definitely not aiptasia (I already know what aiptasia looks like, as I have it too). There is a stalk, with eight tentacles with cilia in the socket, and a mouth in the middle (?). I took the second photo (this is Clavularia) from the S.a. website. It looks very similar. Only mine are much smaller and without the green color.

Justin9867

quality, to hug and cry. if they are far apart, then most likely small fan worms, do they not look like blue light on cornflowers?

Anne4851

Looks like something like that in the lower left corner of the neighboring topic?

Dana4701

I think it's a clavularia, or one of its close relatives (look, I recently provided a link in your topic with a similar theme, and compare the photos from there with your animal). This is a cornularia, or a knoplia.

Andrew7823

By the way, yes, it looks like number three from that topic. But mine are smaller. Significantly smaller.

John3165

They can, but just in case, keep an eye on them... They might also change color later (if anything happens, I'll know who to turn to for advice!!)))