Baby rock flower anemone (RFA) or pest?

[lotekfish]

Posted this in the Anemone forum but it might get more attention here:
Hoping the RFA experts could help me confirm some possible offspring. I've noticed about a dozen of these guys in my tank recently, almost all of them on the sandbed. I thought they were pests at first, either majano or aiptasia, but I haven't added anything to my display tank in months and everything goes in QT for 6 weeks first. I have none of these in my QT which makes me hopeful for baby RFAs. Sorry for blurry photo, these are only the size of a pencil eraser so I had to zoom in close. FTS shows RFA group that I've had for 1-2 years.

 

[saltyhog]

I don't think that's a baby RFA, looks more like a majano to me. Let's see if one of our RFA experts can give an opinion. @Ron Reefman

 

[Pistondog]

thats the ugliest baby rock flower....
No its something else behind that rock.

 

[lotekfish]

Agreed...it's an ugly baby but maybe it'll bloom later in life Found another possbility, a hermit crab anemone Calliactis Polypus. The striped arms are similar anyway.

 

[Nburg's Reef]

Looks like a baby RFA to me. In had a spawning event that left me with 20-30 all over my tank last year. They were all colorful like the parents but looked just like your pic. Only 1 baby made it thru my move tho. If you look hard, you’ll probably find more

 

[homer1475]

I've had many spawning events in my tank, all babies look very similar to their respective parents, but smaller(like the size of a pencil eraser). I've had about 10 grow into adults.

That looks like a majano to me.

 

[Nburg's Reef]

Majano’s typically have smooth tentacles, or at least the ones I have seen... this is the same knobby texture of an adult RFA.

 

[Ron Reefman]

It's a bit hard to tell from that photo. I'd say it could go either way. Some baby RFAs can look a lot like majano or other anemones.

Do the other RFAs you have fluoresce color under blue or UV light? Then the babies should too. Majano anemones don't.

 

[lotekfish]

It's a bit hard to tell from that photo. I'd say it could go either way. Some baby RFAs can look a lot like majano or other anemones.

Do the other RFAs you have fluoresce color under blue or UV light? Then the babies should too. Majano anemones don't.

The reddish RFAs do fluoresce but the green one on the right front of my FTS does not. The tentacles on the tiny ones also resemble the green RFA and have a knobby texture with stripes. I'll keep an eye on them and maybe buy a macro lens for my phone to take better photos. I keep finding more and more of these the closer I look. I either have a bumper crop of RFAs or a lot of pest removal in my future.

 

[lotekfish]

Looks like a baby RFA to me. In had a spawning event that left me with 20-30 all over my tank last year. They were all colorful like the parents but looked just like your pic. Only 1 baby made it thru my move tho. If you look hard, you’ll probably find more

By the way, I'm pretty sure I bought my green (sinularia? nephthea?) frag from you when you were in Columbus if I remember your user name correctly. If so, it's doing great. It's in the back left of my tank, plus a few other smaller frags in there.

 

[Nburg's Reef]

By the way, I'm pretty sure I bought my green (sinularia? nephthea?) frag from you when you were in Columbus if I remember your user name correctly. If so, it's doing great. It's in the back left of my tank, plus a few other smaller frags in there.

Lol, yep that would be me! Glad it’s doing well!

 

[bsn_rn_cen]

I'm not an expert but I am leaning toward rfa baby. I had a spawn and most were bright yellow but I had a couple that look just like that. While some say it is ugly it is so different from what I have that I'm kind of partial to it. I have some crappy photos from when I found them.

 

[tankstudy]

It's a baby rfa.

Even if the parents fluoresce, their offspring may not inherit those traits. I'm sure we've all seen the $5 and $10 RFAs which are very drab looking. My rainbows produce some pretty drab looking offspring all the time.

 

[lotekfish]

Thanks for the responses everyone. bsn_rn_cen, thanks for the photos, some of mine look a lot like your center photo. I'm not surprised my offspring might look drab, I don't buy ultras but I still think they look nice. The good news today is I'm pretty sure I can see some red fluorescence in a couple of them. They are still so small it's hard to see, and almost impossible to photograph.

 

[bsn_rn_cen]

Thats why I apologized for the bad pics. They were so small and I am using a cell phone. After finding the initial one I was shocked by how many others I found.

 

[Ron Reefman]

It's a baby rfa.

Even if the parents fluoresce, their offspring may not inherit those traits. I'm sure we've all seen the $5 and $10 RFAs which are very drab looking. My rainbows produce some pretty drab looking offspring all the time.

A) It depends on who it mates with.
B) There are lots of drab RFAs, mostly in shallow water in the Keys.