I'm Baaaaaaaack!!!! With a question

[dow]

Well, it's been a while (7, 8, 9, months?!?!?), but I'm finally taking some time to log into MAAST and try to catch up, at least a little. Anyway, for those of you that remember me, HI!, and for the rest, well, I guess we'll get acquainted sooner or later.

Some of you may remember my girlfriend, Beth. Well we got married in December, and are buying a house and will be doing some work on it ans hopefully be moving in sometime soon.

Anyway, now to my question. I've had some weird anemonies showing up in my tank (since I haven't added anything in forever, I can only assume that they were already there, but are just now making their presence felt). This one is about an inch to an inch and a quarter across, with a stalk of about the same height, and is nocturnal. I had to stand a rock up to photograph it. It's smaller neighbor (maybe 3/8 inch across) ate a pretty fat bristle worm yesterday. Does anybody know what this is? If so, should I be worried, or just enjoy the variety, or drain the tank and take up rock gardenning?

Your thoughts are welcome and appreciated.

[dow]

Hey Joshua,

This seems to be the grandaddy of them. I guess that they've been hiding out under my bigger rocks, and for some reason have decided to move. I've spotted several of them. I wasn't too concerned until I saw the one eating the bristle worm. I figure that it it'll eat one of those, then maybe not much is safe.

[dow]

Well, that's solved. It's called Pseudocorynactis cribbeorum and you can read about it here:

Aquarium Advice (http://www.aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?t=9256&highlight=pseudocorynactis+cr ibbeorum)

and here:
Advanced Aquarist (http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/oct2002/invert.htm), all the way at the bottom.

Obviously it's a meat eater, so now I need to decide whether or not to keep them or try to get rid of them.

[dan]

hello dow : cool looking pics. are they good or bad?

[dow]

Good question, Dan. The Advanced Aquarist article said 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.

[Instar]

I have what originally was a cave dwelling club anemone. Have never found it in any book and its not this species.
It kills fish on contact and, although used to be nocturnal, is down at the bottom, behind the rocks and open all day long too.
It eats everything. Don't know how the tangs, clowns and blennies in the tank have learned to stay away from it. It varies
from 2 to 4 inches on the oral disk. From the carribean and started out as a little piece of slime in a sheath within a cave
in that rock. Its killed 5 gobies so far. Dangerous little monsters if you ask me, especially if they eat large bristle worms.
Good for a little specie tank perhaps.