Not your normal aptasia question..

[weatherby]

Hi all,
i was at a pet store in Robinson about a week ago and noticed what at first appeared to be a tube anemone in one of their nano-tank displays. Then upon further inspection i noticed that it looked, for lack of better description, like the Sarlaac pit monster from return of the jedi... It had the outer ring of long tentacles but then had a ring of inner tentacles facing inwards like barbs.... Now i own a pair of tube anemones and neither one has barbs/fangs to keep prey in.. And this one at the pet store had wavy sort of tentacles rather than the smooth ones of a tube anemone...
Now, after picking up a shell covered with xenia from a different tank, i've noticed what appears to be a very small one of those 'Sarlaac' things peeking out from the underside of the shell... These don't really look like the photos I've seen of aptasia so I was wondering if they were? Also, are aptasia capable of getting as large as a medium tube anemone? (like 4 inches across but the tentacles are much longer than that) The one in my tank is aboug the size of a quarter around and it's tentacles are less than an inch i believe... but it looks like it has the lighter colored inward facing tentacles/fangs like the other.... Any ideas? As soon as i can I'll post a photo, but as i mentioned it's hiding under a clam shell that is the anchor for a colony of Xenia atm....

 

[poniegirl]

Aptasia is capable of getting as large as 4", for sure!
My own aptasia story is my 55 gal. I have not added any LR for about 2 years, the tank has been up for 3 years. I recently moved and upset (mildly put) some things and now have aptasia that is growing like, well, weeds. The only other changes/additions that I made was the switch from "kit" lighting to T5, that was last fall, I think. And I added some xenia that came on little shell fragments, again, last fall..I can only assume this was the source

. It's that easy!
I'll get a picture at noon today, when I power up the lights.