Coral/Polyp ID please, pic

[Sylock]

This thing orignates inside the hole of the LR. It completely recedes at night. No colony or anything. Will it grow into a colony or is it just a single 'thing'. Thanks for your time.

[uurt]

Looks like some kind of polyp hitch-hiker , and those are always fun to find on a piece of rock.

Isn't that why I buy new rock??

[Jeremy1973]

From what I was told, it is a type of button polyp. They will grow to a colony. I have them in my tank.

[Mrs Smith]

That, my friend, is a free coral. It looks like a zooanthid AKA button polyp, and with time, will multiply into a colony.

Congratuations on your find!
(And non-reefers wonder why we stare a tanks full of nothing but rock...)

Danielle

[Alice]

Free is good

I've had some of those larger polyps remain solitary forever; I think it just depends on the species.

Alice

[blaneperun]

If I had to guess it could be one of several things. If you could get a look at the base and determine if it is short and stocky or long and stretchy. If short I’d say it is Palythoa, and if longer Protopalythoa. If the base does not appear to have any more polyps within the tissue then it is not Palythoa, they are truly colonial. Believe it or not they are actually toxic to people, but reef safe. Don’t ever handle one with an open wound. The last option could be a Zoanthus, however those are also colonial and form a mat of tissue. So looking at the base will aid in determination of this species, from the photo, I ‘d say Protopalythoa but the only strange thing is of the three Protopalythoa have tentacles that alternate up and down, and I’m not certain you photo represents that pattern. If anyone is interested I am propagating over 32 color morphs of zoanthus and I would be happy to post a link to the photos, let me know.



Blane Perun



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