Help with an ID please...

[jrgilles]

I've found 3 of these little guys in my tank. They are now a little less than half of a dime in diameter, and appear to be growing. Its very small, so pictures might be a bit tough. Hard to tell the exact color as they are in the back of my tank, but appear brownish, maybe slightly orange or green.

Almost looks like some little corals starting up from scratch, but really hard to tell. Any ideas?

http://picasaweb.google.com/jrgilles/ID06202010?feat=directlink

 

[jrgilles]

They do not move, but have some decent sized tenticles for their size

 

[broskie]

It could be Majano but hard to tell from the pics

 

[jrgilles]

the don't appear to have a visible mouth that I can see. Oval shaped with a bunch of very fine tenticles. No stalk either, attached right to the rock.

 

[jrgilles]

I'll touch it and see if its squishy or not...

Its hard, and when I touch it, the tenticles retract kind of like an sps

 

[TJL]

Hey Rob, I'd venture to guess Pocillopora buds if you have a colony in there somewhere. They can expand by polyp bail-out all over your tank.

Todd

 

[psb]

Thanks for the frag from the bbq. What what the name of it again so i can write it down. On the pics have you ruled out a baby sponge of some type. They can look odd to start.

 

[jrgilles]

haven't ruled that out. I'll watch em grow and see what they become. I think todd might be right, that its some sort of coral buds. thats what it looks like to me. Distribution is across the whole tank too, not concentrated in one area.

The frag I gave you was a pocillopora (what todd just said might have budded in my tank). Its a propagation of one of bob moore's frags, I was told.

Hows it doing? Let me know if it is happy. Supposed to be pretty hardy. Has big purple polyps.

Fragged that about a week ago because the mother colony was bleaching in one arm. Chopped it into 9 frags. One of those frags bleached, but the rest looked unaffected by whatever attacked the arm. All the other frags of it are in my tank and looking good.

 

[psb]

Thanks for the frag. It is very happy. A few minutes ago it smiled for the first time when I was talking to it about you.

 

[jrgilles]

here's pictures of the mother colony

http://picasaweb.google.com/jrgilles/PurplePocillopora?feat=directlink

 

[eww]

Rob,

It looks identical to what we have in our tank. There are two actually but one looks like it is getting eaten by something. The other one seems healthy and we noticed it is actually glowing under the LED's at night. We did some research and it seems it might be a rock anemone of some sort. We are just watching ours and if it gets out of hand we will probably remove it unless it turns out to be something else. Ours were hitch hikers on some LR we got.

 

[mimosa]

Hey Rob, I'd venture to guess Pocillopora buds if you have a colony in there somewhere. They can expand by polyp bail-out all over your tank.

Todd

Agreed with Todd, they are pocillopora buds, especially after you described all the struggles the mother colony had; it probably had lots of polyp bail-out.

 

[jrgilles]

Neat. Really don't think its any rock anemone since it appears to have a stony base.

I'll keep a close eye on them, but I'm really hoping you guys are right. Things line up for it to be pocillopora buds, with the trouble with the mother colony, and the wide distribution in my tank.

Pretty cool stuff. I'll take some pics as they grow, hopefully into corals instead of pests.