Zoanthid or Feather duster

[euthyphro]

Ok, I have these things growing on my rock and I originally thought they were feather dusters but now i am not too sure.. Unfortuantely they are too small to take a picture with...

They have no stalks that I can see- when they suck in they suck right into the rock. They have a fan like top that has quite a wide span and the fan seems to be one solid piece- there seems to be no solitary "feathers". They do not seem to go in for the night either. They are a tan color. They go inside when scared but so do feather dusters.

I definately have feather dusters appearing on my live rock as well, They have stalks and, Well, Im quite certain they are feather dusters...

One thing to note is that I am cycling my tank and as a result my water quality has been quite poor untill the last week or so, the feather dusters must have shed their feathers during this period as it seems they are groing them back- they look quite patchy, and there are duster stalks sticking out with no feathers. The things that I think might be zoanthids did not seem to have shed their feathers..

Its amazing what can be living on your rock and you dont notice it for a month- what other mysteries are hiding.

I do have some things that I wanted to photograph, and my girlfried fianlly brought over the camera I bought her (shes a great girl, we have been dating very happily for over four years now) but she forgot the usb adapter I wanted to take some pictures of this red crap that is growing on my lr. It is spotty and dark reddish brown and looks kind of fuzzy.. could that be red algae? I googled red algae and it seemed to form a mat- similar to coraline but red. I also want to show you a picture of a possible sponge.. anyways Im rambling and should go get something to eat and go to bed

Thanks in advance Here are some more smilies :mad:

[geekdafied]

First thing that comes to mind IMO, is aiptasia. Hard to confuse a feather duster for a zoanthid, a palythoa maybe, but a zoanthid. Aiptasia anemone's have been really bad this year for some reason. I have read about threads all over the net about them. EVERY LFS here has them now. They are a pest anemone, the reproduce pretty quickly and can harm your inhabitants before you notice it. Best thing to do is research Aiptasia anemone, do a goole image search on them, there is several different variations of aiptasia's.

But it also hard to know for sure what it is without a picture.

[monkey]

2+ that if they hide when touched. and if they are out day or night... but to be sure, when you get the pic problem fixed post'em and im sure we can help more.

[Birchell]

you know I have the same thang in my tank. they are feather dusters. I had one for around a month or so, then one day it started to grow a stalk. I noticed it had an egg sack one day, so now I have hundreds of little dusters all over the tank. but I wouldnt rule out aiptasia yet.