Aiptasia?

[Riverserver]

I noticed this guy on my sand today, he was attached to a piece of chaeto. He's not really skiddish, he can close up into him self some, but not completely. I manged to get him off the chaeto and onto the glass, where I thought he was moving, so I put a black dot in the middle of him and sure enough, he's moving!

http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u255/riverserver/DSCN1066.jpg
http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u255/riverserver/DSCN1077.jpg

Aiptasia or some other anemone?

[jagr200]

Dosent look like an aiptasia to me. It looks like a condy or maybe a LT anemone.

[Riverserver]

He's moved about 4 more inches away from the dot.

[animalman]

I've had aiptasia and it didn't look like that. Not sure that is aiptasia, though I could be wrong. take a look through this page maybe you will find one that looks like what you have http://actiniaria.com/cribrinopsis_albopunctata.php wish i could help more.

[Riverserver]

Nevermind, I moved it to my nano to keep an eye on it and my peppermint shrimp tore it to pieces. :(

[fastbackgly]

That's okay. It might've been a pest. They can spread exponentially. Usually peppermints don't go after the larger anems.

[journey0820]

Another naive question...why don't we like aiptasia?

[blasterman_]

Because it spreads like crazy, and the larger specimens can damage smaller fish because they sting. Even clowns tend to hate it and avoid it, and even my coral banded shrimp won't take a food bit stuck in aiptasia for fear of getting an antenna stung.

Only thing know one thing that will eat aiptasia, and that's copperbanded butterflies. They'll nibble at the smaller ones.

The small species of Rock Anemone which I think is pictured originally is generally considered a pest, but certainly less of a pain than aiptasia. They don't have as much capacity to sting and generally don't breed as fast. I just ignore them and consider them part of the ecology.