A few things unidentified... (56k run away)

[Crab Rangoon]

I am currently housing all my corals and clams in a friends tank, and he has an algae and a coral that we can't properly identify. I, too, have a coral that I can't remember the name of, as well as a hitchhiker coral that I can't quite put my finger on (other than a general hydroid or callimorph).
There are about a dozen stalks of the algae, they were originally tiny green stubs, and have grown since then, and the green tip is about 1" of the whole stalk. The LPS is just confusing because I haven't seen a skeleton build of that type before, and my SPS/LPS (green) I just can't remember the name of, but it builds similar to Capricornis, but covered in ridges from which REALLY small metallic green tentacles/polyps come out. The hitchhiker was originaly about the size of the blunt end of a writing pen, and are now about the size of a dime (skeleton, not polyp). Since spotting them in 12/04, they've multiplied and grown significantly, they look really great, but I just dont know what it is, and it doesnt seem to sting/burn nearby coral colonies of any kind.

The following pictures are: 1) Algae ; 2) LPS ??? ; 3) S/L PS ??? ; 4) Mystery

http://www.atxdubs.com/~puredrive/media/Tank/IMG_2392.JPG
http://www.atxdubs.com/~puredrive/media/Tank/IMG_2393.JPG
http://www.atxdubs.com/~puredrive/media/Tank/IMG_2394.JPG
http://www.atxdubs.com/~puredrive/media/Tank/IMG_2395.JPG

Sorry for the huge pics, but it's all I could do to make sure to get 1 good close/clear picture of each thing, trying to help in IDing these. Also, Canon Rebel XT's rock :D

Thanks in advance, to any who can help out :D

[discuspro]

I know I'm wrong but the first pic looks alot like bare mangrove roots some how.

[taldrich13]

I have a couple of those green stalks too but mine are just barely starting...just a couple millimeters at best. I'd like them ID'ed also.

[GaryP]

The first one is a macro algae. I have had it in my tank before. It didn't spread or grow very quickly like hair algae. I couldn't find it in my algae reference book.

The last one is a glass anemone (aiptasia). That's a bad guy. It can spread quickly and has a powerful sting.

[thedude]

I disagree Gary, the last one doesn't look like a glass anemone to me. It looks like corals that often hitchhike on florida live rock. The closest way of describing it is a solitary sun polyp.

[puredrive]

I disagree Gary, the last one doesn't look like a glass anemone to me. It looks like corals that often hitchhike on florida live rock. The closest way of describing it is a solitary sun polyp.

well this is my tank..


so should I yank the algae and the sun polyp?

[Shark_Bait]

The last pic is a cup coral. Kinda like a sunpolyp... but not :wacko

Pics on melev site (http://melevsreef.com/id/kritter1.html)

[Jeff]

the second pcture lookslike a ball of loose hair algea and the last i believe is a sunpolyp withoutany color just look at the base, but who knows i could be wrong.

[akm]

The second picture looks like a pectinia either paeonia or alcicornis.

[GaryP]

Now that I look at it again I can see the stony base. It could be a sun coral. Good catch.

[MikeP]

My guesses.

1. Neomeris annulata calcerous green algae that waxes and wanes - I have it, it dissapears then pops up again a year later for 2 weeks.

2. Pectinia sp.

3. Possibly Hydnophora sp. - encrusting variant?

4. Either Phyllangia or Cladocora sp. - a.k.a. hidden cup corals.

[coffey]

might be relative Gracilaria Salicornia I have kept a green form of this algae was easy to control




coffey

[coffey]

guess I should have said a little more about gracilaria it is growing out of controll in Hawaii ,in the wild ,but easy to controll
in the aquarium.


coffey

[Crab Rangoon]

Yeah, the algae started as a few sprouts like 7 months ago when the tank was started, now it hasn't completely doubled in amount, but it has
definately packed on a few inches. The 2nd picture has always had that algae on it, and tangs and blennys never touched it in the tank it was
previously housed in, but also, it's not growing fast or even spreading, just living at it's current size for months and months. 3rd pic still throws
me off because we've recieved "miscellanious" pieces or frags from people once in a blue moon of that species, but it's never been 100% named
as far as I can remember (at least by the sources we've got it from). All other specimens we've recieved at the store are about 5"+ colonies, and
rather than encrusting on rock, or branching, it grows in similar form to Capricornis, in that it just keeps growing out as a flat plate, no long
sweepers, but I noticed it looks as if it has a few little sweepers during the day only, about 2cm at max. Only reason I wouldn't think its a Hydno
morph is because the other Hydno pieces in the same tank have turned brownish, and this one never inflates the way my Hydno's have, it only
has a carpet like complete covering of TINY polyps/tentacles. The last one did indeed come from my first batch of liverock, which was Fiji and
Florida rock. The only tricky part about it, though, is that it's structure isn't like that of Tubinaria, Scroll, Pagoda, Cup, or Sun Polyps, beacuse it's
nothing but a stony mouth (like a little Cynarina) surrounded with teeth, with med/large clear polyp tentacles that extend anywhere from 1-6cm
during the day, and up to 2x that at night (no sweepers with rounded nematocyst tips, though). It also never closes completely, its open at all
times, and instead of being a concave structure from which polyps extend from the inside, its a convex skeleton, so a good bit different than the
Sun Polyps in build. They are also very aggressive when it comes to feeding, as soon as they grace any type of food, it is strongly adhered to
and I'd say each mouth downs a whole piece of frozen krill in no longer than 15-30 minutes from start to finish. Maybe these details will help in
finalizing any IDing :D thanks for the help so far.