finnerman
Community Member
OK, at first look this appears to be a paly. I even have some palys that look like what these are pretending to be. But, these are different (at least different from any that I can find info on). The first and most important difference is that these are mobile like an anemone, and like an anemone, once they find a spot they like, they tend to stay put. About 9 months ago, I purchased a rock with about 25 of these on it. I put the rock in a nice place in my new tank and was horrified the next morning when about 10 of these had "walked" to new positions all over my tank. The rock was still fully covered with the "mother colony". Just in case these guys turned out to be bad news, I removed the rock and placed in my old tank which I had for sale at the time. The new purchaser bought the old tank, moved it to their house and she even contacted me asking if it was normal for them to move as she was watching it crawl at the time of the conversation. She indicated that it moved about the speed of a snail. I assured her it was OK and that mine did that as well.
The second thing that seems to be different than the similar looking proto-paly (for lack of a better term) is that these do not seem to be invasive and have not spread in the nine months since I have had them. The other proto-paly colonies I have had in this tank have all tried to spread like wildfire. I have been meticulously battling the other proto-paly colonies and have kept them under control. These "walking" palys are not fast multipliers.
Difference number three is light. The similar looking proto-palys have a wide range of lighting tolerance and seem to do well in most any normal lighting whereas these "walking palys" seem to do well in mid to low light but do not do well at all in high light. I had about three that stopped their journeys in well-lit parts of the tank. Two have withered to nothing and one is a bleached little shadow of its former self.
Difference number four is one I just discovered. I am a professional photographer and spend a lot of time photographing my tank and learning ways to photograph it better. Since these are not the most spectacular corals in my tank I do not spend a lot of time photographing them but I have been inquiring about and researching what these might be, as the mystery continues to eat at me. This time I used a longer extension tube and zeroed in on the mystery walking palys and to my surprise discovered that these have polka dots on the stems making them far more interesting than I originally thought. I can find NO information about any paly whatsoever regarding palys with iridescent spots on their stem. If this is common, it is well hidden from my research efforts so far.
These are different enough from what I know and have learned about palys that I am starting to suspect that they are not palys at all and might actually be anemones that are mimicking a paly but that is just a theory. Any help would be greatly
appreciated.
The second thing that seems to be different than the similar looking proto-paly (for lack of a better term) is that these do not seem to be invasive and have not spread in the nine months since I have had them. The other proto-paly colonies I have had in this tank have all tried to spread like wildfire. I have been meticulously battling the other proto-paly colonies and have kept them under control. These "walking" palys are not fast multipliers.
Difference number three is light. The similar looking proto-palys have a wide range of lighting tolerance and seem to do well in most any normal lighting whereas these "walking palys" seem to do well in mid to low light but do not do well at all in high light. I had about three that stopped their journeys in well-lit parts of the tank. Two have withered to nothing and one is a bleached little shadow of its former self.
Difference number four is one I just discovered. I am a professional photographer and spend a lot of time photographing my tank and learning ways to photograph it better. Since these are not the most spectacular corals in my tank I do not spend a lot of time photographing them but I have been inquiring about and researching what these might be, as the mystery continues to eat at me. This time I used a longer extension tube and zeroed in on the mystery walking palys and to my surprise discovered that these have polka dots on the stems making them far more interesting than I originally thought. I can find NO information about any paly whatsoever regarding palys with iridescent spots on their stem. If this is common, it is well hidden from my research efforts so far.
These are different enough from what I know and have learned about palys that I am starting to suspect that they are not palys at all and might actually be anemones that are mimicking a paly but that is just a theory. Any help would be greatly
