nocturnal - translucent - bubble tipped - anenome ??? looking creature in fuge

[WarrenAmy&Maddy]

hard to get a close up picture of this thing
my wife might try later today then see if she cant enlarge it enough to get a good visual using photoshop or something.

found it one nite looking in the fuge w/ lites off
using a flashlite (yes - i am a nerd! )... it is attached to a small piece of LR rubble...

it clearly looks like some type of anenome
has opening in center like a mouth... then all these bubble tipped feelers that really spread out at nite and about triple its size...

it translucent - clear looking
when its closed it looks pink or red on the rock yet the bubble tips still look translucent or white... during the daytime or when lite is shined on it - then it starts to close up... completely closed when the lites come on the tank and stays that way until nite

initially tried to see if it needed lite
and set it high up on another piece of LR - didnt like it and have noticed it stays closed during the daytime.

only about total 1/4" around
and the main body area is about 1/8" - where the mouth sits



originally worried it might be a juvenile majano
separated the piece from rest and have been monitoring it (had majanos in past - and vigilantly on the lookout for anything that even resembles them)


know a pic would help but until/IF we can get one - does anyone have any idea what/where i might begin searching for the name of this and learn more about it ???

thanks and regards

[kiknchikn]

Just a guess, but it may be a pseudocorynactis or corynactis:

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issu...002/invert.htm

[Anemone]

Yep, that would be my guess as well. Actually a corallimorph (more closely related to mushrooms than anemones). The white ball tips are a pretty defining characteristic.

Kevin

[WarrenAmy&Maddy]

Originally posted by kiknchikn
Just a guess, but it may be a pseudocorynactis or corynactis:

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issu...002/invert.htm

how much of a luxury is
it to be able to post a question and have the answer in less then 5 minutes from posting the original reply!

thanks to kiknchikn for the link and to RC for the privilege!




from the pics and the description on the above link
it appears to be the following (pic is from the site) w/ the description below





it would appear the one we have is
Pseudocorynactis caribbaeorum

it reacts/closes to lite and opens at nite

any ideas on how best to feed this ?



Pseudocorynactis

Pseudocorynactis spp. are like Corynactis but are much larger (to about six inches (15 cm) diameter, and usually not colonial. They also reproduce by fission, but it is unusual to find more than about six clones together as a group. The so-called orange ball anemones that can be observed on coral reefs at night are Pseudocorynactis spp. The column varies in color from cryptic shades of brown to orange, red and magenta. The tips of the tentacles are commonly bright orange, but they can also be white. These tentacle tips are extremely sticky, like flypaper, due to the presence of powerful nematocysts. This fact makes the larger species from the Indo Pacific region unsuitable for aquariums housing fishes, which they readily capture. They also can catch mobile invertebrates such as shrimps and snails, and sometimes "attack" sessile invertebrates growing on adjacent rocks, enveloping them in the gastric cavity through a widely opened mouth. Pseudocorynactis spp. can be fed daily, but only require twice weekly feeding to keep them healthy. If they are not fed frequently enough, they shrink. There is a marked behavioral difference between the common Caribbean and Indo-Pacific species.

The Caribbean species, Pseudocorynactis caribbaeorum mainly opens its tentacles at night, and closes rapidly when it senses light. The Indo-Pacific species remains open both day and night, and is not sensitive to light. The presence of food smells (dissolved amino acids) in the water stimulates either species to open up and extend the tentacles, and the caribbean species can be trained to open in the light by feeding it during daylight hours. The mechanism for its apparent memory is not known.
Whether you have a large reef aquarium or a simple small aquarium, any of the corallimorphs can be easily maintained and enjoyed for decades.

[kiknchikn]

Hey, no problem I'm a big fan of corallimorphs, so I'm decent at IDing them.

I'd feed it meaty foods like mysis or silversides. I'm sure it'll take anything you would feed a fish though.

[WarrenAmy&Maddy]

Originally posted by kiknchikn
Hey, no problem I'm a big fan of corallimorphs, so I'm decent at IDing them.

I'd feed it meaty foods like mysis or silversides. I'm sure it'll take anything you would feed a fish though.

will have to try feeding it today to see how it responds
the article said even the carribean variety will open up during daytime if offerred food or can learn to do so.

out of curiosity - what peaked your interest in these? and do you collect them?




few quests for you or anyone who might know:

are these sold online anywhere?

is it possible for them to grow into pest proportions say like majanos do/can?


thanks again for the link!



we cant help but think about how educational this is all going to be for our little daughter as she gets older - studying the many different myriads of this hobby (and the very interesting things that pop up here or there inside the tank!)

regards




for anyone else interested or following this thread -
here is more info from the link posted by kiknchikn


Mushrooms, Elephants Ears, and False Corals: A review of the Corallimorpharia

The order corallimorpharia, in the phylum Cnidaria, class Anthozoa, includes anemone-like and coral-like creatures that are very popular in the aquarium hobby due to their hardiness and fantastic range of color and form. Corallimorphs are, as their name implies, very coral-like, but they do not secrete a skeleton. They have radially arranged tentacles or pseudo tentacles, if present. The most popular varieties contain symbiotic zooxanthellae, so their maintenance involves providing sufficient light for photosynthesis by the zooxanthellae. This is not too difficult to achieve for most species, as many of them seem to prefer low light levels or indirect light. Standard fluorescent lights are fine for many, but not all varieties.

Even the symbiotic species feed on a variety of external food sources. All feed on dissolved and particulate matter, some feed on zooplankton, and some even trap and eat fishes! Tiny cilia on the surface of the oral disc help transport trapped dissolved and particulate material to the mouth. Larger prey are trapped by the formation of a sac when the edges of the oral disc fold upwards and meet at a central point. The genera that lack symbiotic zooxanthellae feed actively on large and small prey, mostly zooplankton, using potent nematocysts located on numerous long tentacles.

Reproduction in Corallimorphs is achieved mainly vegetatively (budding, fission, pedal laceration), and the formation of colonies of clones is common for most species. Though it certainly occurs in nature, sexual reproduction involving the release of eggs and sperm by polyps of separate sexes is not well documented. Aquarium observations have so far been of egg release only, and there have not been any reports of new recruits of sexually produced offspring.

Only a few specialists have attempted to classify the corallimorpharia, and the systematics for them is presently incomplete. For example, there is not a clear dividing line between some forms classified as Discosoma and some forms classified as Rhodactis. The two genera seem to merge, and the taxonomist J.C. DEN Hartog tended to group them together as Discosoma, though he still recognized Rhodactis as valid for at least some species.

[kiknchikn]

I dont have any of those type of corallimorphs, no, but I do have alot of ricordeas and discosomas, and a few rhodactis corallimorphs

I became interested in them when i learned they were mostly easy to keep and I saw how beautiful a colony of ricordea can be.

[WarrenAmy&Maddy]

i just fed it some mysis shrimp
it sits in a higher flow area of the fuge - and didnt think it was going to be able to get the food - that article spoke about the bubble tips being 'sticky' and the first piece that rubbed against it - stuck to it and was slowly eaten!

pretty kewl!

[Anemone]

The ones I have all came in as hitch hikers. I have translucent reddish-pink ones in my anemone tank and translucent yellow in my 80 gallon mixed reef.

They generally stay small (less than 1" when expanded), spread by fission or pedal laceration (like aiptasia and corallimorphs in general), and stay pretty cyptic (keep to the darker caves and crevices). Since they stay in the darker areas of the tank, they've never been a problem (as far as conflicts with other corals or tank inhabitants). I've never target fed them, but I imagine they get leftovers from my fish feedings.

FWIW,
Kevin