i discovered this little guy in the fuge of my cycling tank....do i take him out or leave him there?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v607/jazzy-junk/Picture744.jpg

its up to you really..
personally i am not a fan of Zoanthids, as they spread to much for me.
but if you want to keep them, put it on a small rock and before you know it you will have a whole munch.. :)

it wouldn't feel right not saving his little butt...even if i don't keep him, i can wait for there to be more & then take him to the LFS, they can find him a home

it this one of those that i can just superglue?

i agree, grow yourself a little frag rock and if you dont want it, take it back.. :)

as far as super glue, i have used super glue on these larger polyps, you have to keep the base dry or it wont work.

you can try to set it on a rock in your fuge where there is low flow and it should attach all on its own.

use a rock with a crevice, or use some wedding veil to hold it down. you can try a rubber band, but i have not done this with polyps

Rob - it kind of looks like a little mushroom anenome, rather than a zoo....whatcha think?

well, it is stuck to the cheato....so, i rubber-banbed the cheato to a rock...so, it is kinda sitting in a gully in the rock

i have a top view of it...i'll post it....not a great pic, tho

sry about the bad pic, kept getting glare off the water.....it immediately deflated when i removed it from the water

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v607/jazzy-junk/Picture740.jpg

yep, it looks like a mushroom anenome to me....

should i move it to better lighting?....right now it is sitting by some other zoos, not a very bright area....also, it won't move, right?....they are kinda a combination of mushroom & anemone, yes?

They tend to kind of move to a spot where they feel good and get sufficient light. If they dont' get enough light, they tend to lengthen their body in order to reach towards the light. But, they don't move fast and when they do move, they often tend to leave a little baby behind. :-) I think in a fuge they'd be fine....

thanks for the help:-)

no problem! :-)

yep.. with the new pic i would say definitely a mushroom coral.. Discosoma spp.
mushrooms are a funny thing.
they are classified in the hobby as a type of soft coral

now time for a little biology lesson.. :)
mushrooms corals are actually more related to stony coral and anemones than they are to soft coral. and since they "look" more like anemones than stony coral, i think this is where people started calling them mushroom anemones but since they are as closely related to anemones as they are to stonies it not really accurate either

see, mushrooms, soft coral, and stony coral start at the same point
Domain: Eukaryote (U-Kar-y-ote) - this refers to those that have complex cells or cell in which genetic material is DNA in the form of multiple linear chromosomes (Updated, thanks Reefbaby) (http://www.talkingreef.com/forums/showpost.php?p=12806&postcount=17)
Kingdom: Animalia - this generally refers to them as an animal, In that they are multi cellular, responsive to their environment, and feed by consuming other organisms.
Phylum: Cnidaria - (nid-ar-ea) - this refers exclusively to aquatic organisms that contain stinging cells called cnidocyst (aka nematocysts)
Class: Anthozoa - this contains all Cnidaria that do not under go a medusa stage, instead the are capable of releasing sperm and eggs

so now we see the similarities of all of these corals and anemones, but this is where they break off in the tree.

Anemones and stony coral fall into a sub-class of Hexacorallia: which simply put refers to them having tentacles in multiple of 6 (hex) or that they have 6-way symmetry

Stony coral then fall into the Order of Scleractinia (skler-ac-tinia): these are actually species that are very similar to anemones expect that they produce hard skeletons.

Anemones fall into the Order of Actiniaria: which refers to all sea anemones

and mushrooms fall into the Order of Corallimorpharia: which refers to the "mushrooms"

and for what its worth zoanthids also fit in here under Hexacorallia in the order of Zooanthidae

so as you see, soft corals split a while back so lets see where they go
going back up 2 levels is where soft corals split off...
where stonies, anemones, mushrroms and zoathids fall into the subclass Hexacorallia, soft corals fall into a subclass of Octacorallia: which refers to them having tentacles in multiple of 8 (octal) or that they have 8-way symmetry

they then fall into the order Alcyonacea, and this is where all soft corals then break into there own family, genus, then species. its really remarkable when you take a moment to see how biologically different octacorals (corals that fall into the subclass Octacorallia)

so while they the differences are not "night and day" it does show a bit why i try to refer to "stony coral", "soft coral", "Zoanthids", and "mushrooms" (Corallimorphs) as distinct types..

ok, enough of my ranting...
what was the question???
to keep it?? yeah, keep it.. :) lol

Rob, do you sleep with encylopedias?

of course...
under my pillow, every night..
i learn by osmosis.. :D

osmosis - Diffusion of fluid through a semipermeable membrane from a solution with a low solute concentration to a solution with a higher solute concentration until there is an equal concentration of fluid on both sides of the membrane.

oh wait, that was from last week when i was sleeping with my dictionaries.. ;)

osmosis - Diffusion of fluid through a semipermeable membrane from a solution with a low solute concentration to a solution with a higher solute concentration until there is an equal concentration of fluid on both sides of the membrane.



osmosis - a process perfected by producers of FROZEN CONCENTRATED ORANGE JUICE. no encylopedias or dictionaries. just one smartass watching too much TV. LOL

Domain: Eukaryote (U-Kar-y-ote) - this refers to those that have complex cells or cell in which genetic material is DNA in the form of chromosomes


Explanation and biology lesson was great Rob! Just have to correct one thing: The big difference between Eukaryotes and Prokaryotes is that Eukaryotes have a cell nucleus. Both contain their DNA in the form of chromosomes. It's just that Prokaryotes are unicellular and package their DNA in circular form, within a nucleoid usually (or plasmids); whereas Eukaryotes have multiple linear chromosomes.

http://www.cybergifs.com/faces/lookitup.gif sorry...it's the geek in me! :-)

OMG, I feel like I should start taking notes! In all seriousness I have a question on this, I was trying to figure out what Genus my button polyps belonged too. I think they are Protopalythoa, but I am confused, are Protopalythoa Zoanthids or is that another classification all to itself?

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i233/wildeone/P1010056.jpg

christi, you rock.. thanks for the correction...

i will update my post later this morning when i get a moment, dont have much time now..

OMG... I'm actually hot and bothered by Christi and her vast, geeky knowledge.. off to walk in the cold New England rain ;)

Dave

http://www.cybergifs.com/faces/blushsmile2.gif oh man...you guys are embarassing me!

http://www.cybergifs.com/faces/smiley-kiss.gif

http://www.cybergifs.com/faces/blushsmile2.gif oh man...you guys are embarassing me!
be proud of your inner geek...

"Geek is Sheik".. :D

I'll take that http://www.cybergifs.com/faces/smiley-kiss.gif and raise you one http://www.cybergifs.com/faces/smiley-kiss.gif

speaking of one lonely polyp, last night I was at the LFS ordering my live sand since my LR cycle just ended (sorry Rob mean "balaced" ;) ) and saw a poor little polyp on a piece of thier cured LR rubble. I asked for the rock all 0.5 pounds of it, took it home put it in my tank thinking to myself "Hey who knows it's better then them tossing it out". Skip ahead to when I got home a couple hours ago.... my little guy Herb (yes I named the single polyp) has about 30 brothers and sisters with him.

They are all REALLY tiny still will try to get a pic but I am guessing they are pink stars.

Lets see... I got a freebie too... but it ended up being hydroids :(

and my free polyps turned out to be aiptasia or bubble algae!!

hehehe they are most definately pink starbursts (people say they are "tan" but they sure look pink to me!) 8 arms, white center spot, colonial (sp?), and encrusting type not branching.

Wendy- how is your polyp doing?

lol...i was gunna do an update on this....so, i lose the little guy....thought he got sucked into filter and felt horrible about it, especially since i thought i was doing him a favor

so anyways, the other day, i am looking in the tank, checking out all the pods....and there he is, about 4 times the size he was....the decided to attach to the bottom of the tank

seems happy, so i am leaving him there:-)

I love happy endings!

Awesome! Sometimes I get frags from the reef club meetings that get lost in my system and I wonder if I will see them again, but much bigger. With 150+ hermit crabs always turning things over, it's hard to keep the really small frags alive in my tank.

I have this super pink zoanthid polyp from the Borneman/Calfo fragging session at SWU. Well the polyp managed to get loose and I kept searching in my tank hoping I would see it.... and eventually I did. So I reattached it, it came loose again. And now I have it sitting in a measuring cup in my tank hoping to nurse it back. I look at this as my prize polyp and I just can't loose it. I also have another single zoa polyp in there with it- it was a 2 polyped zoanthid until my hairy crab got to munchin.

Wish me luck! Glad to hear your frag is doing ok ;)

Gwen - do you seriously have 150+ hermits in your NANO?! Wow!

My tuxedo urchin likes to take zoanthids and other small frags for a tour o' da tank. Pain in the pincushion!!!

D

Gwen - do you seriously have 150+ hermits in your NANO?! Wow!

no no no!! Those are in the 72g, got about 25 in the nano.

Oh, okay! :-) I guess I've only ever seen pics of your nano....could that be?

Oh, okay! :-) I guess I've only ever seen pics of your nano....could that be?

yes quite possible- I guess I better start a thread for the 72g

yes quite possible- I guess I better start a thread for the 72g

um....YES YES YES YES YES!!! http://www.talkingreef.com/forums/images/smilies/tease.gif

2 things....i moved this guy to my fuge, along w/ some red zoas.....shouldn't be a problem...yes?

also, do i need to feed him?.....seems to be doing pretty good without me feeding him

are you talking about the original mushroom? what is your fuge lighting?

yea, the original mushroom...i have a plant light down there

they should do okay in the refugium.

thanks walrus...do i need to feed the mushrom at all?

not really, whatever makes it down to the refugium is generally enough. just keep an eye on it to make sure it is not shrinking.

dude, that sucks...he he. Speaking of LR rubble, I tossed some in mine and wholla.....Bryopsis! now thats FUN!!!!

dude, that sucks...he he. Speaking of LR rubble, I tossed some in mine and wholla.....Bryopsis! now thats FUN!!!!
what are you talking about?

i think it is doing pretty good.....prolly just me, but it looks bigger everyday

that's awesome dreams, i am absolutely sure that you can accomplish anything you wish for in your tank, sometimes regardless of what anyone else says......and sometimes because of what someone said.

you are a sweetie!

you are a sweetie!
you're too kind, in the end....you will always be everyone's dreams.:agree:

arrrr shucks!:blush:

wheres my kisses>???

arrrr shucks!:blush:

wheres my kisses>???
there's always a few kisses left for you.... my favorite bush.:cool:

group hug!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v607/jazzy-junk/grouphug.gif

group hug!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v607/jazzy-junk/grouphug.gif

thats a great gif

thats a great gif
does anyone realize what is involved in a group hug involving a walrus?:eek:

does anyone realize what is involved in a group hug involving a walrus?:eek:
lol.. i'll watch from over here.. :)

:blush: lol.. i'll watch from over here.. :)
no way Rob, you have to be front and center in that tight powder blue flying costume.:rolleyes:

:yikes:

im running.... walruses scare me up close.. ;)

how could anyone not want to hug one of these

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v607/jazzy-junk/walrus.jpg

thanks dreams, totally awesome picture, i feel like hugging.

aww that is a cute picture!! Lets hug!!

:love: <--- feeling all lovey dovey now!!

{{{hugs}}}

It happened again...... the way my tank is set up I used 4 bigger pieces (bottom front,right and left, then one on top) for the main "base" and some smaller cunks to fill in making some solid caves, the last piece that had the starbursts on it was on the tippy top. I wanted to make some shelves out of small flat bits so I went down to the LFS and snagged 2 smallish half pound flat live rocks so I had a place to add corals later. 2 hours after getting them in I went back and looked at the pieces, I now have a single button on one and a bullseye mushy on the other.... grand total my 3 corals have cost me 8 bucks U.S.

way to go Raggamuffin! building that reef one polyp at a time!