tulip/majano anemone? aiptasia?

[Steveabg]

Found this thing on a piece of rock. It's huge! My best guess is that it looks like a tulip anemone to me.

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/158402anemone.jpg

Anyone have an opinion?

[Amphiprion]

Looks like a retracted Aiptasia spp., but how huge is "huge"?

[Steveabg]

When extended, the whole thing is about 3" long. The base is really long and fat, compared to the tentacles. Even when the tentacles are extended, the base is almost the same width. Don't aiptasia have a really thin base?

I'm guessing it's trouble either way, just trying to figure out how to attack it, because there are a couple more. :D

[BristlewormKing]

Was this a new piece of rock or did you add anything new to the tank within the last couple of weeks? If it is an aiptasia (that is what it looks like from the angle in the shot), there are probably several babies ones you haven't seen yet. You can get a couple of berghia nudibranches to take care of the problem without harming anything else in your tank and before the aiptasia overtake the tank.

[Steveabg]

It was on a rock with a bunch of hairy mushrooms a friend gave us on Wednesday. I was planning to try a Berghia is why I wanted to ID it. I know that Berghia won't eat majano anemones.

[Genin]

looks more like a majano to me. most apstasia I have seen have long very thin tentacles and a very thin base.

[GSMguy]

aptaisia i would assume doesnt look like mojano or tulip to me

brown mojano seem to usually have bubble tips

[Steveabg]

Another question that may help clarify. Do aiptasia move around much, or do they tend to stay stationary? This anemone was moving across the rock. It had moved about 6-8 inches in less than a day when I pulled the rock out and put it in the bowl.

[FishboyBT]

Stationary. Never seen one move.

[BristlewormKing]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10284638#post10284638 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Steveabg
Another question that may help clarify. Do aiptasia move around much, or do they tend to stay stationary? This anemone was moving across the rock. It had moved about 6-8 inches in less than a day when I pulled the rock out and put it in the bowl.
Yes, they can move...they definitely can move - take it from someone that once had a MAJOR infestation thanks to the kids' help with the fish feeding sessions.

In regards to the tenacles - depends on the water flow, etc. Like any anemone, they can get long and stringy or short and stubby. I have seen the base get up to the size of a nickel.

Also, you can try chiseling the mushrooms off the rock and get the rock out of the tank before some get loose and move to other areas in the tank (I now do that with any incoming specimen before it even goes into the QT tank).

[Steveabg]

Thanks, guys, for all your help. The stubbiness and the fact that it was moving were the factors that put it in doubt, and I didn't want to kill it if I didn't have to. There was another large aiptasia on the rocks he gave us, and that one more closely resembled the photos I've seen with the long, thin base and tentacles. This has been a good reminder that I bought that quarantine tank for a reason! Gonna have to use it on new rocks, as well. :)

[Yinepu]

personally... I would hang onto it for now... mainly because it looks a little like my LTAs... you can always kill it later if it does prove to be bad... if I were you I would put it into the quarantine tank until you get a positive ID...

[Steveabg]

Well, here's another picture of it in the quarantine tank. Extended, it looks more like aiptasia, but that base is just so fat...

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/158402anemone2.jpg

..compared to this (the other one looked exactly like this, and I squirted it with Aiptasia Control):

http://www.auburn.edu/~santosr/web%20photo/Aiptasia.jpg

[DarkStar76]

Looks like Aiptasia to me. I tried the berghia when my aips were a problem, and concluded that they were absolutely worthless in my 90 gallon reef... Drop them in... and they disappear. Peppermint shrimp, OTOH, have done the job more than once for me. I knew I was in trouble when my Aiptasia began taking silversides! D'oh!

http://distro.tomatillatech.com/images/aqua90/Anemone_Aiptasia_Eating_small.jpg

[Yinepu]

well.. the pic of it where it is extended does look more like Aiptasia... do you have a peppermint shrimp you can drop in with it?...

[Steveabg]

DarkStar: That's an aiptasia in your picture? That one looks nothing like any of these pictures, and it has white rings on the tentacles? If aiptasias can look that nice, I'm going to have a hard time killing aiptasias. :)

[DarkStar76]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10297280#post10297280 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Steveabg
DarkStar: That's an aiptasia in your picture?

Yep... it just seemed to get more interesting as it got bigger, so I kept feeding it. Here's a video of me messing with it before it grew up... It also moved from the location in this video to the location in the photo above.

<a href="http://distro.tomatillatech.com/Video/Aqua90/Aiptasia_Poke.wmv">Poking my Aiptasia</a>