Unknown coral developing in my tank

[Lavey29]

So I was excited to find what appears to be some type of coral developing in my zoa garden. I don't think it is a sponge. It is bright neon green. Kind of looks like a candy cane polyp. It has ridges all around the middle and a center mouth area. It is over the size of a quarter in diameter too. It is coming up through a crevice in the rocks from underneath. Any idea what it might be? It's not a giant zoa. I'm totally excited to see this thing unless it turns out to be some type of invasive coral killing pest. What do the experts think? It is low light.

You have to look past the leather coral down into the green zoa patch.

 

[Kasrift]

I think it is just a mushroom coral, not sure what type.

 

[Lavey29]

I think it is just a mushroom coral, not sure what type.

I have a variety of shrooms but this looks nothing like them. It is cone shaped kind of similar to a blasto in size and shape but deeper in depth in the middle

 

[Lavey29]

Actually now I think it might be a baby rock flower anemone

 

[Kasrift]

Actually now I think it might be a baby rock flower anemone

Could be, really hard to see from the photos and going by your description of a mouth in the center is why I went with shroom. Where did the rock come from? Is it Caribbean, RFA would make sense.

 

[Lavey29]

Could be, really hard to see from the photos and going by your description of a mouth in the center is why I went with shroom. Where did the rock come from? Is it Caribbean, RFA would make sense.

I have 4 RFA s in the tank I bought over last 1.5 years. Not sure how they do their thing and multiply though. I know shrooms split. My rocks are just dead caribe sea rocks but the tank is heavily stocked with coral and fish and very established at 2 years. I just have not had any surprise corals pop up in different places. I get lots of SPS and LPS growth but in their original mounting spots. Once I had a torch polyp show up on another side of the tank rock and take base in a crevice but it did not grow and survive.

The more I look at it the more I think it's a juvenile RFA but I have none with that neon green coloration in the tank.

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

It's hard to see to much angle with the glass, maybe put a red line to the coral in question, or a nice top down with a coral viewer, and a red circle around this possible coral.. hard to see but congrats if your happy with the new appearance, it's a jungle right there hard to think anything could sprout up through all that coral growth.

 

[Lavey29]

Could be, really hard to see from the photos and going by your description of a mouth in the center is why I went with shroom. Where did the rock come from? Is it Caribbean, RFA would make sense.

I had a clam show up to unexpectedly. Was looking at my tank and my zoas started rotation back and forth on the rock. Thought I was hallucinating but then a reefer on here suggested the zoas had covered a clam and he was right.

 

[Lavey29]

It's hard to see to much angle with the glass, maybe put a red line to the coral in question, or a nice top down with a coral viewer, and a red circle around this possible coral.. hard to see but congrats if your happy with the new appearance, it's a jungle right there hard to think anything could sprout up through all that coral growth.

Yea it's tucked in their tight and hard to get a pic outside the tank but you see my patch of green zoas and among the patch is a bright fluorescent green coral but it is probably a juvenile RFA setting up in the crevice

 

[vetteguy53081]

So I was excited to find what appears to be some type of coral developing in my zoa garden. I don't think it is a sponge. It is bright neon green. Kind of looks like a candy cane polyp. It has ridges all around the middle and a center mouth area. It is over the size of a quarter in diameter too. It is coming up through a crevice in the rocks from underneath. Any idea what it might be? It's not a giant zoa. I'm totally excited to see this thing unless it turns out to be some type of invasive coral killing pest. What do the experts think? It is low light.

You have to look past the leather coral down into the green zoa patch.

looks like a discosoma shroom but pics a little blurry to confirm

 

[Lavey29]

looks like a discosoma shroom but pics a little blurry to confirm

The shrimp antenna is touching it in the pic. I don't have any bright neon green shrooms like that

 

[vetteguy53081]

The shrimp antenna is touching it in the pic. I don't have any bright neon green shrooms like that

Still a little fuzzy but has the looks of acan merletti or Bowerbanki. Not saying it is

 

[Kasrift]

I had a clam show up to unexpectedly. Was looking at my tank and my zoas started rotation back and forth on the rock. Thought I was hallucinating but then a reefer on here suggested the zoas had covered a clam and he was right.

Haha, I have four hitchhiker clams right now.

 

[Lavey29]

Still a little fuzzy but has the looks of acan merletti or Bowerbanki. Not saying it is

I have a blasto merleti on the other side of the tank. It's red ringed with neon green center. The phantom coral is larger diameter and I can't see any ring around the outside that is different color.

 

[Lavey29]

Haha, I have four hitchhiker clams right now.

That's funny and cool