Polyp?

[New2Salt]

This has been growing on our live rock about a month now, is this a type of polyp? You have no idea how hard it was to get a semi clear picture.
If you know what it is will it multiply? It's beautiful with maroon and green. Thanks!

[reefrunner69]

I'd like to see a better/larger pic, but it looks like either a button polyp, or a majano anemone. One is cool, the other is like aiptasia on steroids.

[New2Salt]

Well I had resized this down to 640 x 480, I didn't think you'd want original size on here, I could try and crop, I'll try that like I said it was really hard to get a good pic short of bringing it out of the water LOL!

[New2Salt]

Ok, here's something interesting, hopefully helpful, there was a rock near it that was making it hard for me to get a good picture from the side, so I moved the rock and it disappeared into a tube. Is this helpful? I'm hoping it comes back out so I can get a good pic of it. This is pretty cool!

[New2Salt]

Here's 800 x 600 hope that's ok to upload something that big. I've tried getting a better pic. Thanks!

[michealprater]

I would say its a button polyp. Ive had experiences with majanos and they are just brown. It also takes alot to get them to retract. I have one button polyp and it contracts if you look at it funny. Yes they will multiply, however its a slow process.

[New2Salt]

Thanks! I know this sounds weird, but I love this, you buy a rock and things show up that have personalities. Don't get me wrong fresh water is fine, but this is a blast! Short of fish getting sick and dying, but I am really having fun learning about the rest of the creatures.

Thanks again!

[reefrunner69]

I'm still undecided, it is quite common to have majanos in exactly that color morph. I cannot speak to whether they retract or not. Are the tentacles stubby and blunt, or pointed? Button polyps do not retract, they curl in on themselves, but do not retract into tubes.

[New2Salt]

LOL boy putting my old eyes to the test but this is what I've observed..

It is round purple or maroon (like the stuff that covers the rock), so it blends in well it has little like fingers or tentacles that are really hard to see, then it goes a really cool green color then a small purple/maroon color in the center, when frightened it moves quickly into a tube like thing.

I know that probably doesn't help but that's all I can give you, I'll do some reading on the net to see if I can find something like that, but all I've found on the polyps don't share the same color as what I've found.

Thanks!

[New2Salt]

After looking at some of the polyp pictures on the net, the tentacles or little hairs around the "flower" or what ever it is isn't as defined as those in the other picture that I found on the web, mine are more thin and hard to see, maybe because it's so immature?

[michealprater]

your right about polyps curling into theirselves. My majanos had clearly visible tenacles. even the very small ones. the whole tube thing throws me off. i really dunno.

[New2Salt]

Now I wish I really had a better camera! I could try and get a pic of the tube too if you want. Maybe I could move the rock it's on closer to the front of the tank then take a pic when it comes back out. I'll see what I can do, I've been doing some reading about the majanos, don't want it to be that at all!

[michealprater]

i will tell you that if it is a majano, it will spread extremely quickly. If this is the only one you have two weeks from now, we might be able to rule out majanos.

[New2Salt]

Well then fortunately I think the majanos can be ruled out, it's been in the tank for about 3 or 4 weeks, it started out kind of a yucky green and now it's the purple/maroon, and there aren't any others like it in the tank, the only other things we seem to have a lot of are really small tube feather dusters and another duster I don't know what it is called but it's real shy too and see thru.

The reason I posted this is I was hoping it was something good and that it would populate, it really is quite pretty but it's just one and no signs of anymore.

Anyways I'll still try to get some better shots of before and after.

Thank you both!

[fishfreek]

Set your camera on the highest resolution you can. Use a tripod if possible. If not sit in a chair with your arms on the arms of the chair or on your legs to help stablize yourself.

Dont try to zoom in to far on the subject. the key is to try to make sure the camera is focusing on what you want it to and not on a surounding rock or something else further away.

Once you get the image off the camera use a photo editing tool to crop out the photo and keep only the area around this thing.

If the photo is still to large to upload then you can contact me or kevin for our e-mail address so you can e-mail the image directly to us for either an ID or to help resizing the image to get it to be in a condition that it can be uploaded.