New live rock - what are these things that look like unopen polyps?

[Ready2Play]

I am starting to get my new tank started, and bought some live rock at my LFS to get my cycling started as soon as the tank is ready. I put it in my 8 gallon for now to start picking up some hitchhikers from that tank.

I believe that some of the rock I got was tonga branch or marshall island. Very nice colorings, and some is broken up a bit.. but most of the rock I got was for starter/base rock anyways.

Anyways, been watching it for a couple days to see what may start developing. There are a couple pieces I have that were covered in coraline, but had "spikes" all over the rock. They felt hard, but now that it is in, I have noticed that a lot of the spikes look to have some sort of "eye" on top. A few have been showing a orange tone. None have opened up, and I am wondering what I may have acquired.

Also, you cannot see it well, but on some of the branch style rock, there looks to be some sort of growth that resembles some sort of leather coral in a few spots...thoughts? these are shown in the last 2 pics in next post.

 

[Ready2Play]

other pics.....

 

[kdpuffer]

It's hard to tell but the tube looking ones at the start of the first post could be snake zoas. Check them when lights are out, mine open at night.

 

[Ready2Play]

see, i was kinda thinking the same thing...but the tubes are very firm (felt like basic liverock) and under moonlights they haven't opened yet, but I do see the orange glow in the center of quite a few of them. I thought most of those type zoas were brown in color? I'm realy hoping I got something good....i paid $4 for that particular set of rocks, $25 for the whole lot, so I'd be pretty stoked to have anything.

 

[kdpuffer]

My snake zoas took some time to color up and actually open. They started out white and have now colored up green. Here are mine right behind the orange zoas, you can see them closed during the day and open at night.

 

[kdpuffer]

Here is a comparison to when I got them, they Are the white tubes on the left of the picture.

 

[Ready2Play]

they do look pretty similar. I am really hoping that they do open. I just liked the rock for its spikey appearance....these are a bonus! Would be a good start at seeding my new setup, that's for sure. Wasn't wanting to add anything too much in the "living" category until around december or so. I want to get a good cycle gone through, but I guess these can stay in the smaller tank if necessary. I plan on getting a good bit more live rock anyways.

 

[kdpuffer]

Well hopefully they turn out to be something, hitchhikers are my favourite part of a tank. Something new always seems to pop up.