Anemone or feather duster??

[kerriann]

Alright, so my boyfriend and I have just started our 75 gal tank. We've been cycling the water/live rocks for about 2 weeks and we just noticed over the weekend that we have two things growing on our rocks that he thinks are anemones and I think they're just feather dusters. I can't get a good picture of them because they are so small and in awkward places. He's noticed that they've moved some of the past couple of days. They are greenish-pinkish in color and if they are anems have two rows of what would be bubble tips and a little circle in the middle that could possibly be the mouth. However, I thought anems reproduced by splitting - is it possible for our live rock to have baby anems on it??? Also, they have a diameter of about 1/4 of an inch. I still maintain that its some sort of odd feather duster but it just seems odd because the ends of it are bubble-like. Any thoughts or has anyone had something like this before?

 

[rldavisou]

Sounds like anemones, based on the fact that they moved. Feather dusters attach themselves to rocks, plumbing, any hard surface and do not move from there. You can instantly tell a feather duster by the hard tube that covers its main body (it's actually a worm) that's parallel to the surface it's attached to. Some are really, really tiny. In any case, I don't think it's a problem. The feather dusters won't do any harm, and if it's a pest anemone, they're fairly easy to control. I'd wait to see it when it gets bigger.
If it definitely moves, it's definitely an anemone, not a duster.

 

[kerriann]

what are pest anems??

 

[dragonzim]

Pest anemones can be either Aiptasia or Majano anemones. Do a search on the site and you'll find tons of pictures of them that you can compare against to see if that's what's in your tank.

 

[kerriann]

oh geez, i'm hoping it's not! it looks just like a little BTA but there was only one in the beginning and i think my boyfriend found 2 more the other day...lucky we don't have any real livestock in there yet!