volunteer anemone - What are they?

[boggsy64]

Hello all new here. I have had my 75 gallon salt water tank for about a year. I have the standard array of "finding Nemo" fish, crabs, snails, rose tip bubble anemone, zenias (in abundance), and other corral life. I feed them frozen brine shrimp cubes thawed with "oyster stew" liquid food along with Krill.
I have 4 new anemones in the tank that I did not put there. They appear to have white stripes or bubbles in the tentacles with a dark center and white mouth.
Hope someone can identify them and help me figure out how they got there. Im happy just confused. Im thinking the food?

 

[StlSalt]

That looks like aiptasia. Not a good anemone. They can reproduce quickly and take over a tank.

 

[Joe Rice]

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but those are aiptasia - a common and annoying pest in saltwater tanks. A few will do no harm but they reproduce aggressively, become unsightly in large numbers and can sting corals that they happen to get near. Search the forums for aiptasia - it's a highly discussed topic. There are many ways to tackle managing/eliminating them.

 

[Biokabe]

Don't be happy.

They're either aiptasia or mojano anemones. Major pest anemones, they spread like wildfire and can irritate corals and, if they get too large, kill fish. If you see four, you probably have at least 10-15 more that you're not seeing.

There's an entire industry devoted to control of aiptasia, most of which is ineffective.

 

[Jekyl]

Peppermint shrimp to the rescue

 

[shred5]

Hard to tell from the picture but it looks like it might have white rings around the tentacles which it may be a Curly Que anemone.

 

[mdb_talon]

I would go with curly Q anenome

 

[boggsy64]

Thanks everyone. Looked them up and pretty sure I agree with Aiptasia. Thanks Jekyl I see a peppermint shrimp in my future. I do have a large corral banded shrimp and some small green crabs. I hope there will not be battles there?