Hitchhiker ID's Please

[AuntKaren]

I ordered the green star polyp which came today. It is huge in my 24G nano and when it opens it will be the center focus in the tank but I noticed something emerging and didn't pay much attention thinking it was just the coral opening. Then it started moving across the coral! Then there were TWO! Are these anenomes?

The first two pictures show the critters on the move. The pictures were taken about 15 seconds apart. The third picture shows the Christmas Tree Worm on porites rock (upper right corner) and the Green Star polyp rock with the moving critters to be identified.

Any Ideas on what the roving critters are?

[mutts]

i don't know what they are but they are sure cool looking... i hope they arn't somthing bad!!!

[Whoyah]

Kind of looks like a retracted green fuzzy mushroom or a tulip anemone. Let it expand and post another picture.

[AuntKaren]

These crawled. The pictures show there is a distance traveled. They both ate a piece of shrimp for dinner. I'm starting to think that they are anenomes. The larger one is about the size of a quarter and the other about the size of a nickel. The larger one has beautiful green tips and the smaller one is actually a rusty brown.

I'd still like an ID if someone knows. We didn't want anenomes but since they came with the coral I guess we'll suffer LOL.

[perpetual98]

Hard to tell from the pictures. My first guess would be majano, but you say it's motoring around pretty good, so I'm not sure.

[PurpleAardvark]

They are majano, I have a ton to kill right now. They are a royal pain in the buttocks. Kill it while you can.

[mutts]

why are majanos bad?

[Sea~Horse~Whisperer]

Do not kill them!! I believe they are rock anemones. Wait till others join in. We get rock anemones in all of the time at work. ( I work at a LFS in the SW dept.) They look identical, they come in different colors and are pretty hardy. I have never seen aptasia crawl, but anemones will "walk or crawl" to where they need to be. lol They do not host clown fish but can sting like other anemones.

Pretty nice "freebies".

[Fatman]

I also agree it looks very similiar to a rock anemone.

[AuntKaren]

I know they aren't majano so I didn't pull them out. They are pretty and it's nice to know that they are rock anemonies! I'll baby them and move them to the big tank if they cause trouble in the little one they are in now. Thanks for the input and more is welcome!