Are there different types of aiptasia?

Theulli

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So I am used to occasionally nuking the brownish aiptasia that pop up in the tank, but over the weekend suddenly I have this guy growing from under a rock. The tentacles are white, and thicker than the whispy aiptasia tentacles. Is this just some other type of aiptasia or a different hitchhiker entirely?

3A2BDE47-8400-4756-AF3A-4F1B59367F5D.jpeg
 

ThRoewer

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There are different species that are usually called "Aiptasia", but the one we are usually dealing with is Exaiptasia pallida from the Gulf of Mexico/Caribbean. Under different conditions these can look very different and the one in the picture above is what I would call the low light & high flow form. So I would say that's a "common" Aiptasia.
I also encountered a species of mini Aiptasia that were most definitely a different species and Berghia would not touch them.
And I would think there may be also Indo-Pacific equivalents to the Atlantic Exaiptasia pallida.
But the one you have there looks like the common Aiptasia.
 

Reefing Madness

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  • Brown Glass Anemone, Pale Anemone.
  • Glass Anemone.
  • Small Rock Anemone.
  • Rock Anemone, Trumpet Anemone.
  • Ball Anemone
  • Strawberry Anemone
 

ThRoewer

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  • Brown Glass Anemone, Pale Anemone.
  • Glass Anemone.
  • Small Rock Anemone.
  • Rock Anemone, Trumpet Anemone.
  • Ball Anemone
  • Strawberry Anemone
Different common names don't make different species.
And Ball Anemones (Pseudocorynactis sp.) and Strawberry Anemones (Corynactis californica)
are not even anemones but actually a form of mushroom coral:
And they are so distinctly different from Aiptasia that it is near impossible to confuse the two.
 
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Theulli

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There are different species that are usually called "Aiptasia", but the one we are usually dealing with is Exaiptasia pallida from the Gulf of Mexico/Caribbean. Under different conditions these can look very different and the one in the picture above is what I would call the low light & high flow form. So I would say that's a "common" Aiptasia.
I also encountered a species of mini Aiptasia that were most definitely a different species and Berghia would not touch them.
And I would think there may be also Indo-Pacific equivalents to the Atlantic Exaiptasia pallida.
But the one you have there looks like the common Aiptasia.

Excellent, I mostly wanted to make sure it wasn't something neat before I nuked it. Now its doom is sealed.
 

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