New member, live rock hitchhiker, last resort ID

[hodgie1013]

Hello everyone, I'm new to this forum, but not to forums in general. I'll try to give everyone a break from the typical under-descriptive, undetailed noob post looking for specific answers to unspecific questions. I am new to saltwater, but not to aquariums. I come from a heavily planted and regulated "high-tech", soft water, amazon aquarium background. Typically I will research to no end to answer my questions before posting to any forums, but I've been trying to identify this new organism for close to 3 weeks without any positive results. My aquarium has been up and running for about 3 months and I am currently in the waxing and waning of various invasive macroalgaes phase while things stabilize. I have a 20 long, 3" sand/crushed coral bed, 35 or so lbs live rock, 130w 50/50 power compacts (new bulbs) with about 35 watts of led supplement running 10for hrs daily. SG 1.024, NO2/3 - 0, etc... perfect. Bi-weekly 2-4 gallon water changes using Fluval sea salt and Ro/Di only. About 3 weeks ago I started seeing small (1/16" to 1/8"), bright green with white centers, flower or star shaped creatures, sprouting from small stems that are maybe 1/8" to 1/4" long. They have 11-12 points on each head. They are solitary, and sprout in random locations, but only in high lighting areas which makes me think they're photosynthetic. They don't retract at night or react to any kind of stimuli. Definitely not any kind of feather duster, sponge, anemone, polyp, or any other type of organism that I have been able to identify through researching threads and academic articles. There are at least 50 of them and none have died since I noticed the first ones. I will post pictures if I'm able to get any decent ones, which is tough since they're so small. These things are definitely harmless otherwise, but are the only thing I can't ID in my tank so I'm extra curious. Anyone who can point me in the right direction would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!
Matthew

 

[al&burke]

Can you get a picture?

 

[hodgie1013]

I'm going try. There's no other way to describe them. I tried before with my DSLR but wasn't successful. I'll have to mess with my manual settings a bit to find something that works.

 

[flower]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Hodgie1013 http:///t/394332/new-member-live-rock-hitchhiker-last-resort-id#post_3509811
Hello everyone, I'm new to this forum, but not to forums in general. I'll try to give everyone a break from the typical under-descriptive, undetailed noob post looking for specific answers to unspecific questions. I am new to saltwater, but not to aquariums. I come from a heavily planted and regulated "high-tech", soft water, amazon aquarium background. Typically I will research to no end to answer my questions before posting to any forums, but I've been trying to identify this new organism for close to 3 weeks without any positive results. My aquarium has been up and running for about 3 months and I am currently in the waxing and waning of various invasive macroalgaes phase while things stabilize. I have a 20 long, 3" sand/crushed coral bed, 35 or so lbs live rock, 130w 50/50 power compacts (new bulbs) with about 35 watts of led supplement running 10for hrs daily. SG 1.024, NO2/3 - 0, etc... perfect. Bi-weekly 2-4 gallon water changes using Fluval sea salt and Ro/Di only. About 3 weeks ago I started seeing small (1/16" to 1/8"), bright green with white centers, flower or star shaped creatures, sprouting from small stems that are maybe 1/8" to 1/4" long. They have 11-12 points on each head. They are solitary, and sprout in random locations, but only in high lighting areas which makes me think they're photosynthetic. They don't retract at night or react to any kind of stimuli. Definitely not any kind of feather duster, sponge, anemone, polyp, or any other type of organism that I have been able to identify through researching threads and academic articles. There are at least 50 of them and none have died since I noticed the first ones. I will post pictures if I'm able to get any decent ones, which is tough since they're so small. These things are definitely harmless otherwise, but are the only thing I can't ID in my tank so I'm extra curious. Anyone who can point me in the right direction would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!
Matthew
Hi, welcom to the site.
You can always just log on to chat about fish, you don't have to only post when there is a problem.
What you have sounds like green star polyps. It's a good hitchhiker coral.

 

[hodgie1013]

Thanks for the reply Flower. I have kept posting under the macro section since we're still unsure. There are pictures there. Definitely not GSP though.