Anemone? Aiptasia? on bottom of lobo skeleton

reefshack01 · Sep 21, 2022

Hello first post for me. I'm 15 months in with my 1st tank a 65gal w/sump(filter sock, skimmer). I have mainly softies and lps (one small sps) 3 medium size fish and the general inverts (minus crabs). The coral in the picture is a lobo I added around 3 months ago, which was dipped before adding but just a normal dip not hydrogen peroxide or anything aggressive. I noticed these red anemone's (?) on the shaded side of it's skeleton. Anybody know exactly what they are? Red tube anemone's of some sort? Aiptasia? And how concerned should I be? I do plan on removing the coral dipping in hydrogen peroxide and quarantining.

Ron Reefman · Sep 21, 2022

A better photo might be helpful with the ID.

That said, it looks like aiptasia.

Is the coral easy to remove from the tank? If so, get it out and treat the aiptasia. If you have access to kalkwasser, a paste of it, or any aiptasia pastes, can be applied with a good size syringe. It can be in the tank or when pulled out.

Dreminon · Sep 21, 2022

Welcome to the Salty crew

Can not help on the id sorry

WheatToast · Sep 21, 2022

If they are completely solid, they are probably benthic foraminifera. These are filter-feeding protozoans and are harmless.

reefshack01 · Sep 22, 2022

WheatToast said:
If they are completely solid, they are probably benthic foraminifera. These are filter-feeding protozoans and are harmless.

That does look similar to how they looked at the base, but there was also what appeared to be fleshy tentacles protruding out. I can't say that I saw movement but they definitely retracted shrank after removing and dipping.

WheatToast · Sep 23, 2022

reefshack01 said:
That does look similar to how they looked at the base, but there was also what appeared to be fleshy tentacles protruding out. I can't say that I saw movement but they definitely retracted shrank after removing and dipping.

Benthic foraminifera do have little feeding fibers that extend out of their bodies, called reticulopodia, though I do not recall them being very fleshy nor capable of retracting very quickly, at least when I comes to the ones I have.