help! baby anenome?

Hey so My tank is probably a good 7 or 8 months old now.

I have 2 clowns, a 6line wrasse, pistol shrimp and a goby.

My red legged hermits didn't work out.

I also have a bunnnnnch of little featherdusters that came along with some live rock that are really starting to get long now. I thought that since I had maybe 10 or so baby featherdusters that maybe it could support a larger feather duster so I bought one. It didn't survive

It did come with what seems to be an anenome attached to it. It was maybe 1mm tall when I got it and it's not maybe 3 or 4 and growing fast. Since the featherduster died, I removed the remains and just tonight the baby anenome (?) detached and was stuck in my sand. I moved it carefully up onto a rock so it seems safer.

What does this thing need to eat/survive? Is it an anenome? Any ideas?

It's brown with lots of little tentacle looking things. It retracts into a little ball if you poke it.

I'll try to snag a picture, but it's pretty small still..

 

what color is this "baby anenome" brown you say ?
( i have a feeling its aptaisa ,a nuesence in a reef set up and those things will multiply )
and they can move on their own' ie, detaching their foot and let the water motion move them or by actualy slowly crawling.
So "it most likely" desired to move it's self , not beacuse it fell off the rock by accicdent.

some times feather dusters just dont make it some times and yours may have came out of it protective sheath they make if their disturbed/hassled
( they deisire lite / indirect water flow around them, theyll extend their head of feathers out and filter the water )

feather dusters are "worms" inside that mucus looking tube, and the "feathers" is nothing more than a head in which they grow to catch particulates in the water column ( thats how they feed )

If your water quality is real good you may find the "worm" is lerking some where , and it might attempt to secreet mucus and make another tube for its self to live in.
and yes it will regrow its "feathers" .
look real close in that tank, you may see something ugly and brownish looking worm .
( not to be mistaken for a bristle worm ) in a decent sized feather duster almost resemble a large earth worm ,
thats him naked !lol

but you have a 40 gal. ok so there may not be enough food's for all those feather dusters to take from the water
and some will starve.
( depends on how much you feed your fish )

I dont suggest so many in such a small tank , it would require you to feed to often and make for bad water quality
in the end.
which of course makes it hard on the other inhabitants.

 

to me from your description of the nem it sounds like it may be aiptista I would sugest aking it out of the tank asap and putting it into isolation till this can be confirmed or disputed

as for the feather duster the little babie ones are a different type that wont get big and can multiply fairly easy not to mention I have some that survived a 4+ reading of ammonia during my initial cycle

good luck

 

Rarely do you get "nice" little anems as hitchhikers...

If not aptasia, could be majano...equally as nasty.

Not worth taking chance...or you will get really lucky and soon have hundreds...


Rgds,


Scott

 

I have about 5 now after another 9 months has gone by... the original one stopped growing at about 3/4". Everyone still think it's Aptasia? They don't seem to be bothering anything, I just put in some peppermint shrimp, which I later found out may eat them...

 

I agree with everyone else from your description and the multiplicity. I would try to get a picture before making any assumptions though.

Reguards,
Opt

 

picture

here's a photo... it's a little hard to see though...

 

aiptasia for sure

 

ok... well there's about 8 or so now... It's been about 9 months since the first one. I suppose it's time to start killing them off then, huh?