holy carp Posted October 4, 2015 Share Posted October 4, 2015 I found this a few weeks ago, and it almost looked like a little detritus, but I thought it might be something... I put it in a plastic cup in the corner of the tank with a little sand and rubble. Is it a tiny polyp? It doesn't really seem to have attached to anything, so I thought I might glue it to a rock, but I have no idea how to determine which orientation... The view in my hand (and lower right zoom) is the opposite side from the photo taken in the plastic cup (top right insert). I'm curious what it might be, but I'm concerned that if it is coral, I don't want to glue it upside down... If it is a polyp, is there a chance it could survive? It has probably been in that cup for 3 weeks, and while I don't think it has grown, I don't think it has shrunk or deteriorated either... Link to comment
clownfitch Posted October 5, 2015 Share Posted October 5, 2015 Man who knows. Finding things we have no clue about is one of the cool things about the hobby though. I would leave it in the cup and see what happens. Link to comment
holy carp Posted October 17, 2015 Author Share Posted October 17, 2015 clownfitch - took your advice and left it in the cup for another week. It has gotten greener and looks like it might be a tiny radioactive green zoa. I could see a faint ring of bright dots around the perimeter. It actually stuck to a tiny rock, so I tried to take it out to glue it to a rock, but after about 30 seconds out of water, it detached from the rock, so now it's back in that plastic cup (which I can't wait to get out of that tank). Patience can be trying... Link to comment
Murphs_Reef Posted October 20, 2015 Share Posted October 20, 2015 You must have one hell of a pair of eyes in that head man! Link to comment
Nano sapiens Posted October 20, 2015 Share Posted October 20, 2015 I've been experimenting with micro-frags a bit and it's best to leave it in the cup when that small. I'd wait until it's at least 1/4" across before trying to glue it to something since it's way too easy to accidentally get glue on such a tiny creature. Link to comment
holy carp Posted October 20, 2015 Author Share Posted October 20, 2015 You must have one hell of a pair of eyes in that head man! Ha ha. That or just way too much staring at the tank. Actually, I noticed something tumbling along the substrate and thought it looked weird and round for a poop. Then I barely saw a little speck of green. At first I thought it someone ate some coral and pooped fluorescent, but decided to throw it in the cup where my yuma was dying because it refused to attach to anything and then barfed out its zoox. That yuma guy disintigrated long ago, but look, the little green guy grows! It's hard to see under 10" of water, but I didn't want to disturb the cup so soon to pull it up. The zoom is of the portion of the cup around 1 o'clock, which you can easily see in the photo, but not in the thumbnail. (and please excuse the cyano and the flatworms. They both seem to like the low flow in the back corner there...) @ nano sapiens: I really want that ugly cup out of there, but I'll leave it be for a while. 1/4" may be almost fully grown if it is in fact a zoa, but if that's the case, I think I'll have an ID before then... Link to comment
Nano sapiens Posted October 20, 2015 Share Posted October 20, 2015 @ nano sapiens: I really want that ugly cup out of there, but I'll leave it be for a while. 1/4" may be almost fully grown if it is in fact a zoa, but if that's the case, I think I'll have an ID before then... Maybe, 3/16" Link to comment
charnelhouse Posted October 21, 2015 Share Posted October 21, 2015 Find a nice shot glass to use instead of the ugly plastic cup. Link to comment
holy carp Posted October 22, 2015 Author Share Posted October 22, 2015 Find a nice shot glass to use instead of the ugly plastic cup. Brilliant! That looks so much better. Link to comment
charnelhouse Posted October 22, 2015 Share Posted October 22, 2015 Brilliant! That looks so much better. Not my idea, have seen it in others tanks Link to comment
holy carp Posted October 28, 2015 Author Share Posted October 28, 2015 Dog Gamnit! That little tiny zoa seemed to reattach to a little pebble and was actually growing pretty well over the last week. Then all of a sudden it disappeared over night. Something must've eaten it, but I don't know whom to blame! All that I could find were a few little fluorescent green specs in the shot glass with the rubble. Peppermint... Link to comment
holy carp Posted November 7, 2015 Author Share Posted November 7, 2015 Well, it turns out that it was actually alive the whole time, but got pushed under the rubble. Probably one of the snails went in and shifted everything around. Today, the rubble was all pushed to one side and the coral is open again. Surprisingly, it doesn't look any worse for the wear. What a trooper that little thing turned out to be. Link to comment
dandelion Posted November 7, 2015 Share Posted November 7, 2015 It looks really cute. Did it hitchhike on some live sand or something?? Link to comment
holy carp Posted November 7, 2015 Author Share Posted November 7, 2015 I had picked up a couple little clusters of radioactive and some eagle-eye zoas a while back. I have a little a-hole of an emerald crab that tore up the lot in a few days. I figured he ate them all. I had one radioactive left where I mounted them. I relocated the crab to the fuge - he was also attacking 2 of my fish and their fins were shredded. Then about a month later, I saw this tiny speck tumbling across the sand. Of course, when I first saw it, I didn't make a connection with the zoas, since it had been so long. At the time I had a yuma that go detached, and was slowly dying. I thought this might have been a little ball of ricordea, but apparently zoas have much more will to live. Link to comment
holy carp Posted January 10, 2016 Author Share Posted January 10, 2016 OK - I wanted to post a quick update / conclusion on this thread, since it's become a pet peeve of mine to read older threads that never have a follow-up post telling what happened. A couple weeks after the last shot glass photo, when that little polyp seemed pretty well connected to a pebble, I glued the pebble to a piece of dead coral skeleton. Now it has 2 'children' that are almost grown up. Here's a photo of the little trio, though the 3rd member is on the back and difficult to see. Maybe I'll sell this little guy some day - could be my first frag for sale Link to comment
BRN Posted January 10, 2016 Share Posted January 10, 2016 Thats look epic. let me know if you plan on selling it Link to comment
Nola Bear Posted January 18, 2016 Share Posted January 18, 2016 If that guy doesn't buy, i'd consider it. Great colors~ Link to comment
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