how to tell aptasia from stick polyp

[blennieluvr]

So....a new guy started at this little town's LFS. He really does seem to know what he's talking about and I was sooooo glad he started there. They had just got a new shipment in. I was checking it out and saw he had some pulsing zenia. He said he's give me a deal on them. He even cut the rock into four pieces so I could put 4 little pieces with the zenia around my tank. He said there were wood polyps in the rock too. I couldn't see those because they were just little nubs. After taking home and putting in my tank, those "wood polyps" look like they could be aptasia to me. Is that why he gave me a good deal? Anyway, I took them back. He assured me again they were not aptasia. He showed me what a grown colony of "wood polyps" in one of his displays. I told him I hadn't heard of them and he challenged me to do a search. So....I took them home again. All I found last night were stick polyps on Foster & Smith site. They do look like they could be those. Is there a way to tell for sure before I have an aptasia infested tank? I sure don't want to give up the zenia! They're so cool!! If I need to do pics. I'll have to figure out how to do that.

Here's what I found. http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/p...cfm?pCatId=676

[toniell]

Well pic's will get you much more of a responce, but if all that matters is the xenia, then kalk paste the polyps or joes juice them.

[leveldrummer]

touch them, if they suck back in rapily, they are probably aptasia ime. polyps will suck in, but not as far or as fast as anenome's in my opinion. if you can get a good pic, we could help you that way too.

[ckusnierek]

After reading fro liveaquaria.. I think I would juice both if I saw them!

[blennieluvr]

I'll try to get pics. Two of them look different. I do think they are aptasia. They are more of a gray color. I took those pieces out of my tank (again). The rest are brown and do look more like polyps. I don't see what's so bad about the liveaquaria info. They're description was like may the other polyps and the colony he showed me looked OK. They aren't a great color but neither are some of my zoos and I like them and keep them around.

I'll try spooking them to see how quickly they react and be back if I can get pics.

Thanks again.

[dobejazz]

I have stick polyps in my tank but from what I've read they live on old tube worm tubes
I'll look for a pic of what I have

[dobejazz]

[blennieluvr]

Thanks. Mine are very small. Hard to tell but I'd say they look more like that than the aptasia pics I've seen.