dazzerleigh Posted March 27, 2014 Share Posted March 27, 2014 I need to draw on your experience with an anemone that has popped up out of nowhere, I don't think it is aiptasia, it is pink and not round, it appears to arrange itself as a strip rather than a round anemone - pic attached.... Link to comment
Horerczy Posted March 27, 2014 Share Posted March 27, 2014 Not an aiptasia. Doesn't resemble any of the glass anemone family for that matter. Looks like a purple long tentacle or condy only with a long base. Wierd but cool. Link to comment
dazzerleigh Posted March 27, 2014 Author Share Posted March 27, 2014 Thanks Horeczy, am intrigued to find out as I have little experience with anemones and the speed at which this one has grown/come out of nowhere has me a little worried! Link to comment
Horerczy Posted March 27, 2014 Share Posted March 27, 2014 Keep a good eye on out for a while. I'm not a hundred percent on whether or not it's a good nem. Link to comment
hypostatic Posted March 29, 2014 Share Posted March 29, 2014 Got any other pics from another angle? Link to comment
dazzerleigh Posted May 23, 2014 Author Share Posted May 23, 2014 Identification made! - I looked it up and thanks to wetwebmedia.com they had an amazing ID section... heres what they said if you have one... Unidentified Nudibranch: Phyllodesmium briareum -- 9/6/08 Hello folks! <Hi there, Allison!> I'm having difficulty identifying this creature which came in on a chunk of green star polyps. At first, I actually thought it was a Condy that moved a lot trying to settle down! <It does look similar doesn't it!> Picture quality is the best I can get with my camera...I hope it is sufficient for identification. <It's great, thanks.> I THINK from as much as I can find on the 'net that it is a Nudibranch, possibly a Flabellina -type species. <Good work, you're in the right neighborhood (suborder (Aeolidina). What you have is a Nudibranch in the family Aeolidiidae, most likely Phyllodesmium briareum.> Nothing looks exactly like it (isn't that always the case?) <Yep, it's frustrating, isn't it!> ..but I hope if I can get a fairly confident ID, I can then research and find out if it can stay in my tank, and if so how to take care of it! <I'd remove it. These are obligate soft coral predators -- known to eat Green Star Polyps (Pachyclavularia violacea).> Behaviors I've observed so far: the tentacles(?) <cerata> along the length of the animal are light greenish-purple, with fluorescence at the tips. <Yep, all the better to blend in with what it's eating!> When gently prodded, all tentacles quickly wrap around the object--but it will not "hold on" to flakes of shrimp offered in this fashion <Understandable. The cerata are used for defense rather than for grasping food. Nudibranchs in the genus Phyllodesmium have a particularly neat adaptation for defense. Instead of being armed with potent stinging cells in the tips of their cerata (like most Aeolids), they instead release a sticky substance from the tips and, if push comes to shove, can detach the wriggling cerata - much like a lizard dropping part of its tail. The predator is left with an easy target, thereby giving the little Nudibranch a chance to get away.> (seriously--at first I thought it was an anemone!). <I can understand that. It's a pretty bizarre looking little creature!> It reacts to light, with tentacles gently stretching towards the light source, but is not a strong reaction, and doesn't position itself in relation to the available light. <Great observations! These Nudibranchs are 'solar-powered', that is they use light to sustain the symbiotic zooxanthellae within their bodies that help sustain the Nudibranch (like many corals)> Its body is long and narrow, with no discernible demarcation of head. It does have two lower "feelers" tipped with green (visible on one of the photos) and two more "horns" on top of the head. It moves about, but stays close or on the green star polyps. <That's typical. You, my friend, have made a terrific study of this neat little animal. Thank you so much for sharing it with us! For more information on Phyllodesmium briareum, please see this link: http://www.seaslugforum.net/showall.cfm?base=phylbria > I have not seen any damage to the polyps from this presence. <Not yet, but you will if it's allowed to remain.> Probably not important for this, but my tank is a 29g with CSL power compacts, live rock, and mushrooms and star polyps. Some snails, and a brittle star ("Bruce"),,,and one fan worm. Thank you so much! --Allison <You're very welcome and again, thanks for writing us! Take care --Lynn> Link to comment
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