I.D Please As These Guys Are Taking Over
 

Boy I wish these guys had some better color as they are popping up everywhere and just taking over a couple of bigger rocks.. What are they? Palys? Zoanthids?

[IMG]http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii274/_-Efrain_-/Brown-Zoes.jpg[/IMG]

Look like paly's to me.

based on the thick tenticals I am thinking an anemonie, tulip, maj...
Does it sting other corals? Test it out and see. Might be something to watch. Whatever it is if it is spreeding quick it may over grow something with color.

It was touching a small acro frag and was not doing any damage.

Efrain try to get some pics without flash and also a bit more zoomed out so we can check them out better? It sure looks like some type of paly. In my experience majanos dont really bunch up like that so i would no on the anemones.

This as close as my camera allows..

[IMG]http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii274/_-Efrain_-/Polys.jpg[/IMG]

They are paly's. They are much better looking in the second picture.

Is it ok to just leave these guys alone. I mean so far they have not done any damage to anything but man are they multiplying fast.

its fine to leave them alone but now you know why some people think palys/zoas are pests. I have read about people having your very same problem, i no longer keep zoas. I just noticed a couple polyps on my bali blue hoke so im going to be cutting them off with a razor since i dont want any in my tank, i need all my real estate for acros :)

you can try to put some kalk paste on them and see if that will reduce their numbers. you make some room for more corals. your running out of room in your tank :D

Those are palythoas hands down....

Mbunaman are you certain? Those pictures look like majanos to me.

Those are paly's. :)

majano
[IMG]http://genvmunix.com/reeftank/slides/DSCN4889.JPG[/IMG]

[IMG]http://www.pirx.com/gallery/albums/cnidarians/majano.jpg[/IMG]

Efrain: a simple test to tell for sure, thanks to another board:

The ones you'll need to be concerned about will have a few characteristics to set them apart from Palythoa spp.:
most Anemonea cf majano have clubbed tentacles
they will pull back into the rock when stimulated. Palythoa spp. will close, but not retract (at least, not quickly)
Anemonea will have (as it grows) more than a single ring of tentacles, at times almost covering the entire disc as they get very large. Even when they have a single ring, they tend to stay open all night, most Palythoa close at night (but not all).

Ive never seen majano's group like that. That grouping is definitely a characteristic of a zoanthus species.

I have to admit that they are grouped like zoes would.. I took my plastic rod and started to touch them and they retracted instantly. Here is a pic.

[IMG]http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii274/_-Efrain_-/Polys-Retracted.jpg[/IMG]

Those are absolutely zoas, palys whatever you want to call them.

I think they're zoas. Where did you get the rock from?

--Bucky

Palys...... without a doubt.