baby coral?

[ileolai]

found this thing on the underside of a rock i flipped over when rescaping the tank. some kind of baby coral? it's smaller than my pinky nail. i have mushrooms and leathers in the tank.

 

[ileolai]

top view. please tell me it's not a baby majano

 

[rayadog]

It honestly doesn’t scream majano to me. But it would have to be a mushroom if it was one of your others. From the same order as mushrooms… But it kinda looks like Paracorynactis hoplite; which I don’t think would track. You usually find ball anemones/Corynactis (not paracorynactis) anemones under rocks and such like that. So I don’t think that’d be a stretch. Honestly it’s so tiny every time I look at it, it looks like something else but I guess I’d have to place my bets on ball anemone

 

[dedragon]

any plate corals in the tank? cud have dropped a bud

 

[rayadog]

any plate corals in the tank? cud have dropped a bud

This was the first thing I thought too but figured there weren’t

 

[ileolai]

any plate corals in the tank? cud have dropped a bud

nope. i have leathers, mushrooms and some clove polyps. i had an elegance in there for like a week, but i took it out because one of my fish kept harassing it. tank is 2-3 years old and i havent introduced any new live rock or anything recently

eta: could a baby elegance coral have popped up from the bits of elegance coral my fish was throwing around the tank? that would be wild

 

[ileolai]

It honestly doesn’t scream majano to me. But it would have to be a mushroom if it was one of your others. From the same order as mushrooms… But it kinda looks like Paracorynactis hoplite; which I don’t think would track. You usually find ball anemones/Corynactis (not paracorynactis) anemones under rocks and such like that. So I don’t think that’d be a stretch. Honestly it’s so tiny every time I look at it, it looks like something else but I guess I’d have to place my bets on ball anemone

i think ball anemone might be it. the white thing in the center seems to be a mouth. the way the rock was turned over it would have been completely shaded, so i was suprised to find anything coral-like growing there.

 

[Tahoe61]

Does it have a skeleton?
Did you use live rock, if so what was the source?

 

[ileolai]

Does it have a skeleton?
Did you use live rock, if so what was the source?

its like 5mm by 5mm across so i can't tell. it has some kind of foot. excuse my photobombing stripey

i used live rock to establish the tank, it's Australian live rock

 

[bradleym]

It’s definitely not like any majano I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen several. My bet is baby coral of some kind. If it relocates to a different spot on the rock that will determine coral vs. anemone.

 

[Tikki]

Feed it and see what happens

 

[Tahoe61]

its like 5mm by 5mm across so i can't tell. it has some kind of foot. excuse my photobombing stripey

i used live rock to establish the tank, it's Australian live rock

It looks like an LPS, but you will know for sure if you blow some water at it and it closes up to show a column versus a stoney skeleton. Calling in the expert.

@thamnasteroid

 

[thamnasteroid]

Would need a better photo to tell, don't zoom in but bring both your phone and the rock as close to the glass as possible

 

[ileolai]

Would need a better photo to tell, don't zoom in but bring both your phone and the rock as close to the glass as possible

best i can do with my phone camera. my dslr is buried in the garage somewhere. i can try and dig it up tomorrow if needed.

 

[ileolai]

It looks like an LPS, but you will know for sure if you blow some water at it and it closes up to show a column versus a stoney skeleton. Calling in the expert.

@thamnasteroid

i blew some water at it because i thought the white thing might have been sand stuck on it, before realizing that was its mouth. it didn't really react much

 

[ileolai]

Feed it and see what happens

great idea

it extended purple feeder tentacles and sucked the food into its mouth. it looked like it could turn its mouth towards the food to pick it up. it didn't fold itself into a ball the way a mushroom coral does.

 

[Tikki]

Feed it and see what happens

great idea

it extended purple feeder tentacles and sucked the food into its mouth. it looked like it could turn its mouth towards the food to pick it up. it didn't fold itself into a ball the way a mushroom coral does.

Neat! That’s a cool little hitchhiker

 

[X-37B]

Looks like a baby plate coral. Only time will tell. Nice hitchiker!

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Baby plate corals is what it looks like to me!

@AstroMelly what do you think?


https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/raising-baby-plate-corals-from-the-dead.903110/post-14105415

 

[thamnasteroid]

Likely a juvenile fungiid