Is It Some Kind Of Star

[regnats]

i spotted this in my tank this afternoon , it has a white body attached to the rock with 5 arms, however it is incredibly small, what could it be

sorry about the picture quality

 

[JJ1234567]

could be a star, hell it could be my sister. Im not sure with that picture lol. I dont have the exact link saved on this computer (not at home) but check out xaltreef.com or something along those lines, they have a great photo list of common hitchhikers. Try Yahooing it.

 

[regnats]

Yeah it is a poor pic, but it has moved since i last saw it so i dont think its a aiptasia or a zoanthus(spelling?)

 

[SkiFletch]

Common hitchikers

 

[Navarre]

Aiptasias can move.

 

[regnats]

yeah but im fairly sure its not now, as ive spotted a few bristle stars this mourning

 

[bunjiweb]

It is an upside down jellyfish hydra. I get lots of them attaching to the glass in my pico tanks. They were identified to for me by a professor of biology at Birmingham Uni.

The Hydra is the polyp stage of life of the jellyfish, and I have read of some people attaining them to larger sizes but personally I have not seen them get any bigger. I suspect they require quite alot of planktonic feed to survive the polyp stage.

Ben

 

[JJ1234567]

I had small jellies in my cube before it broke. Just barely bigger than a pencil eraser, they were cool to watch swim.

 

[@ombomb]

Sounds / looks (from what I can see) like a brown star polyp to me.

 

[bunjiweb]

its not a bloody coral polyp or brittle star, its an upside-down jelly hydra I tell ya!

Ben

 

[regnats]

well i havnt seen it since i took that pic, but we do have quite a few bristle stars, so that was my first thought

 

[@ombomb]

its not a bloody coral polyp or brittle star, its an upside-down jelly hydra I tell ya!

ok ok I agrred with you the whole time!

 

[bunjiweb]

lol sorry that previous post came out a little harsh didn't it!

Ben