Wahoo! Mom caught the SW bug!

[Chaloupa]

My Mom has always enjoyed our SW tanks from afar but has finally taken the leap! We set up a 5g hex nano for her on the weekend. So far only a couple hermits for activity and a lot of rock...I like a lot of rock...(and I set it up so...:biggrin:) on the rock there is a large mushroom and a couple of orange ball anemones. They are a very cool hitchiker anemone that is really pretty and multiplies fairly well. Here is a pic. To add fish soon as the substrate is from our 50g and so is the rock and water so all are very very well aged and we don't expect a cycle.

(And she says that all she wants is a 5g and will not want bigger BAH! We know better!)http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c212/Chaloupa/AmmasOcean.jpghttp://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c212/Chaloupa/IMG_0190c800x600-90.jpg

[KarlK]

I need more pic of those anenomes!!

[Chaloupa]

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c212/Chaloupa/AmmasAnemone.jpg

They are only about the size of a toonie....and are tough to photograph as they seem to reside under things not in direct light....we pulled up rocks to photograph when we were trying to ID them. They are so cool. They behave like any anemone when they are distressed....grab stuff with their tentacles.....

[seashells]

Hey Sarah,

Nice pics of the anemones! what species are they?

Doug

[marie]

The orange ball anemones are actually supposed to be a type of mushroom, at least according to melevs websight http://www.melevsreef.com/id/shrooms.html

I have one too but it only opens at night unless I want to spend half an hour coaxing it with food :biggrin:

[OCDP]

Neat little things.. I have found a couple in my tank before as well... not sure where they went to ..

[Delphinus]

It's Corynactis or Psuedocorynactis sp. I always get the two mixed up but it's one or the other. I think of them as anemones but I guess "coralimorph" is the more correct term.

Here's an article where they are discussed:
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/oct2002/invert.htm
Scroll down to the bottom or do a search on "corynactis" or "orange ball".

[Chaloupa]

.....and they multiply like CRAZY! Mine and Mom's are out most of the time whether we feed them directly or not...but they sprout up all over the place. They are "labelled" as Orange Ball Anemone and I have had several different opinions on them. Melev gave me a bit of info from his site and a few others. They are pretty cool though!

[Beverly]

Thanks for posting the pic of your mushroom, Sarah! Was looking in our reef after lights out tonight, and found two under one of the rocks. Not as colourful as yours, but they're there. Would never have known what they were without your pics. Thanks again :biggrin: