Any idea on what this is?

[Jim Fox]

These are located by my power head. There are 4 of them with this one being the first one and it's about 3/4" long. They seem to have branching translucent tube like arms. They apparently to move as one has moved about 3" from the first one. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Jim

 

[cracker]

I couldn't tell Ya, but it's cool looking .

 

[cristata.reef]

Labyrinthula. Hard to explain exactly what it is (single celled eukaryote so technically a protist) but it's not really beneficial but then again not exactly harmful.

 

[Jim Fox]

Thanks for the quick reply! I looked that up and have no idea on how this got into the tank as I haven't added anything in about a year. It seems to be related to having macro algae however I don't have any and never had any with this tank. I'm going to let it grow for awhile just to see what happens since it isn't harmful. Neat to look at and observe it's behavior. Thanks again! Jim

 

[cristata.reef]

Thanks for the quick reply! I looked that up and have no idea on how this got into the tank as I haven't added anything in about a year. It seems to be related to having macro algae however I don't have any and never had any with this tank. I'm going to let it grow for awhile just to see what happens since it isn't harmful. Neat to look at and observe it's behavior. Thanks again! Jim

They come in on live rock occasionally and since they are protists, can probably come in with corals or inverts. The genus is known to act as a pathogen for seagrass colonies and is also responsible for the dreaded sea star wasting disease that we are still recovering from here on the west coast. However I've had it in my tank before and it hasn't done anything nefarious, just move around (more on that later) and disappear after a few months.

The coolest part about them is how they move. They never stay in place for too long. Being a colonial organism they can eject individual cells to settle somewhere else in the tank. When one finds a spot it reproduces and forms a second colony. Cells from the origincal colony then somehow find they're way to the new one all within 48 hours or less of the first ejection

 

[Jim Fox]

The coolest part about them is how they move. They never stay in place for too long. Being a colonial organism they can eject individual cells to settle somewhere else in the tank. When one finds a spot it reproduces and forms a second colony. Cells from the origincal colony then somehow find they're way to the new one all within 48 hours or less of the first ejection

That's cool mother nature stuff right there. Definitely will be watching this to see what happens!