New tank, looking for help identifying something in my tank.

Ladarius · Nov 23, 2015

So i recently picked up my first saltwater tank. It was a tank someone had set up for several years and decided to down size. It had some green algae on the glass to clean up but otherwise seemed to be in good shape. Anyways, it's a 72 gallon tank with crushed coral and a bunch of live rock. I transported the rock in buckets of the water, and then when i put it all back together I filled about 25% of the tank with some of the old water and the rest with fresh catalina water. The filters and bio balls were left alone.

So, it's been up and running for a week, and I am learning a ton. My daily tests say that the salinity is holding right around 1.0265 and all of the test strips show everything is within proper ranges.

The other day, after having the lights off all night, I woke up to find these white things with little balls at the end coming out of the live rock. When the light was turned on for about 5 minutes you could watch them slowly retract back into the rock. I have been searching the web for a few days and cannot figure out what these things are and if they are a pest or not. I havent added any animals yet, and obviously want to make sure the tank is ready long before that happens.

can anyone take a look at these pictures and tell me what these are and if I need to do something about them?

Thank You!

NanaReefer · Nov 23, 2015

Ball Anemones. You gotta few.

jasonandsarah · Nov 23, 2015

Copper band butterfly will eat them I believe? If the tanks mostly empty then just murder them!

Ladarius · Nov 23, 2015

From what I'm reading they're harmless. Is that true? I was planning on adding some crabs to the tank first. Any chance they will handle them?

pondman · Nov 23, 2015

Could be aptasia anemone

Jimbo662 · Nov 23, 2015

Following...I've got some at the base of the stalk of my toadstool.

jasonandsarah · Nov 23, 2015

Ladarius said:
From what I'm reading they're harmless. Is that true? I was planning on adding some crabs to the tank first. Any chance they will handle them?

All anenomes can sting and most of the time they call ball anenomes and strawberry anenomes "safe with caution" because they don't spread quickly. Then you can just pick them off when they're in the way. Yours seem to be growing fast! Crabs won't do it.

NanaReefer · Nov 23, 2015

Ladarius said:
From what I'm reading they're harmless. Is that true? I was planning on adding some crabs to the tank first. Any chance they will handle them?

I've had no issues with them harming anything in my tank. I have a few. Just to be pro-active I keep a bottle of AptastaX handy should the need arise.

Reefing Madness · Nov 23, 2015

Orange Ball Nems are harmless, as they are from the Mushroom Family. The ball nems you have, on the other hand, are not Orange Balls, and are considered stingers.
But, I've had a few in my time from time to time, and left them alone, as they didn't harm anything. Just gotta watch them, as they can spread like wildfire.