Aptasia? Feather duster? Tunicate?

fladiver · Thursday at 9:25 PM

Hoping you’re going to tell me it isn’t…not sure how it would have gotten here. This is near an old frag plug on upper rockwork.

Thanks in advance!

fladiver · Thursday at 9:52 PM

I am now thinking this is a tube worm. Doesn’t look like tentacles you’d see on aptasia and I also don’t see a central disc. Any thoughts??

Sam7 · Thursday at 9:59 PM

to hard to tell to far away.....i dont think its a tube worm...

fladiver · Thursday at 10:06 PM

Sam7 said:
to hard to tell to far away.....i dont think its a tube worm...

Thanks. I’m now thinking it’s not tube worm. Leaning more towards colonial hydroid now.

Lights went off right as I was seeing this. Will try to get better pic tomorrow with more light.

fladiver · Friday at 8:11 AM

If I didn’t know any better, I’d think it could be a clove polyp of some sort. The arms don’t appear to be anemone/tentacle like. They also appear to have perpendicular fine ridges or hairs on the arms.

I don’t have any clove polyps in my tank though.

Gumbies R Us · Friday at 8:34 AM

Are you able to get another picture of it?

fladiver · Friday at 8:49 AM

Here is a pic and video.

20261016_084843_0C2242B8-72B2-450A-A5AF-1F5D71D89B2D.png

fladiver · Friday at 8:50 AM

Trying video again here.

fladiver · Friday at 1:56 PM

Anyone else? I did count and confirm that it has 8 arms/branches. Which could be more indicative of clove polyp?

saltwaterfish.com · 2026-10-19T18:52:34-0400

I would say clove polyp based off all the information. Not sure which exact species but it could have hitchhiked in from some rock or sand added to the tank.

fladiver · 2026-10-19T20:23:07-0400

saltwaterfish.com said:
I would say clove polyp based off all the information. Not sure which exact species but it could have hitchhiked in from some rock or sand added to the tank.

Thanks a lot for weighing in. I appreciate it.

I think that is also the right ID…it seems to be most similar to a clove polyp. Besides the fact I don’t have any! I did just add 10 or so frags, so I guess a hitchhiker could be the culprit?

saltwaterfish.com · 2026-10-19T20:34:55-0400

fladiver said:
Thanks a lot for weighing in. I appreciate it.

I think that is also the right ID…it seems to be most similar to a clove polyp. Besides the fact I don’t have any! I did just add 10 or so frags, so I guess a hitchhiker could be the culprit?

Most likely, even if one had been scraped off if there's even a little bit of tissue left on the plug it will regrow in time.