Who Gives A Fish Forums

I recently returned from a few weeks away, to find my tank in disarray - the person tank-sitting had neglected to change the water and overfed, resulting in a skimmer full of vile, vomit-inducing gunk. My hammer coral had shed its tentacles before dissolving, nearly crashing the tank. Two weeks after I salvaged the situation, I noticed a tiny coral growing out of a hole in a rock. After some research, I couldn't find any reference pictures of miniature hammer coral clones, but this little guy's tentacles are transversely oblong with hammer-like tips, non-retractile, and growing in sets of six. It appears to have a hexagonal skeleton, though it's tucked away in a crevice and hard to see. I'm 99% sure it's not an anemone - it hasn't moved, multiplied, or responded to food, and the peppermint shrimp left it alone.

Nothing else in the tank resembles it, and it's about a centimeter in diameter, making photography a challenge. Here's the best picture I could manage.

On a side note, I'm still amazed by the resilience of these supposedly fragile corals. I came back to a tank that resembled a fetid sewage disaster - what I thought were dead corals, white coralline, snails with porous shells, and a missing sea hare, conch, and wrasse. Oh, and a new pet cyano blob had appeared. It took a lot of work, but the mollusks and wrasse emerged from the sand, and the coral rebounded. Even my hammer coral skeleton seemed to have some flesh left, regenerating quickly once the parameters stabilized. I lost only two nerites and a few hitchhiking clams - I'm glad I didn't dismantle the tank, which I'd considered doing.

Back to the mystery coral - if anyone can help me ID this little guy, I'd really appreciate it.

I'm stumped, that little guy could be just about anything. It's tough to rule out an anemone for sure without a better pic or some more growth, but those non-retractile tentacles are throwing me off.

I agree with felinxo that it's tough to say for sure without a better pic. Given the background history, though, my initial thought is that this could potentially be a Zoa polyp - I've seen them grow in similar patterns. I'm not convinced it's a hammer, as they typically don't grow like this, but I could be off the mark entirely. A better photo would really help us narrow down the possibilities.

Could be a mojano, but I'm not getting a good vibe from the pic.