Encrusting/spreading transculent ??

[JasonVH]

Due to translucence, it was tough to get decent pictures. It seems to form mats(it's the weird looking areas with some brownish tint- filtered items..? in the second picture) with sort of tendrils spreading over the rock. There's a couple tube/spires coming off it also. Kind of looks like a sponge-tunicate hybrid. Have not touched it yet to see if it's slimy/brittle or reacts to touch.. Seems responsive to reef-roids- spot fed the corals a few days ago and it's like whatever this thing suddenly showed up and spread.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

My initial thought is a sponge, but in this case a zoomed out shot that shows more of the organism and its spread may be helpful.

 

[JasonVH]

More pictures. The first picture shows the crop out of the previous pictures plus the 'spread'- the brownish sort of jelly looking mess below it. (still haven't touched it- no idea if it's "soft" or not)

 

[MoshJosh]

Yeah I guess sponge as well.

 

[JasonVH]

If it proves to be a sponge, will it eventually die off? Right now it appears to be spreading rather rapidly and is not the most beautiful to look at. How can it be controlled? It's not possible to remove the rock for a scrub.

Sponges don't bother corals, right? It appears be also spreading up a blasto frag.

 

[Tired]

There's an easy way to tell if it's a sponge or a tunicate, and IMO it looks a little more like a tunicate; poke it. If it's a sponge, it'll do nothing. If it's a tunicate, it'll shrink up.

Both of them can bother corals by growing right up against them. You could try burying it in sand to kill it, or you could make a thin section of coral putty, smear gel superglue on the underside, and slap that over it. That latter option will permanently stick to your rockwork, mind, but it should be effective.

 

[JasonVH]

Prodded the one accessible siphon. Appeared to be flexible, was able to move it around. It was hard to be sure due to the translucence if it actually reacted or was getting smooshed instead. The shape has changed, though- will check if it has regained shape in a hour or so.

Unfortunately it seems to have been caught too late for an easy solution. Once I knew what to look for- it has already spread by sending out tendrils and making multiples of those those ugly blobby patches in 'sheltered' areas. Naturally, a bunch of those patches are in barely accessible areas.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

If it proves to be a sponge, will it eventually die off? Right now it appears to be spreading rather rapidly and is not the most beautiful to look at. How can it be controlled? It's not possible to remove the rock for a scrub.

Sorry for the slow response - it may or may not die off in your tank if it's a sponge (or tunicate); some species can be invasive and seem to last forever while others die off after just a short while. The best way I've heard to control sponge growth at this point is to use a steel straw to scrape and siphon out the sponge you want to remove. Sometimes you can create bad conditions for them and kill them off that way, but that's typically much harder and not always effective.

Some other sponge removal methods:

Other suggestions include exposing the sponge to air (obviously not a guaranteed solution, and definitely not viable for this situation); hydrogen peroxide dipping the sponge (again, not viable here); injecting the sponge with hydrogen peroxide, vinegar, boiling water, or air; microbubbles in the display; and a few more. Predation is not usually a good solution for this issue, and I explain why below:

Sponges don't bother corals, right? It appears be also spreading up a blasto frag.

Generally speaking, sponges (and tunicates) don't bother corals, but a few can:

A very select few sponges could irritate corals due to toxins they produce (these sponges compete chemically with corals), but very few sponges seem to do this. Most sponges will happily grow along the skeleton/base of corals without bothering the corals or trying to grow over them at all (sponges generally are so harmless that even the more invasive ones can generally literally grow over the top of corals, and - as long as the coral is getting enough light still - they don't harm the corals at all even when growing over them).

So, as long as you didn't lose the sponge lottery and end up with something like Terpios hoshinota in your tank, the sponges shouldn't hurt your corals at all.

A lot of sponges will grow right up to and around a coral like that without causing any problems, so as long as the zoas keep opening and the sponge doesn't grow over their heads, they'll be fine.

 

[JasonVH]

Sorry for the slow response - it may or may not die off in your tank if it's a sponge (or tunicate); some species can be invasive and seem to last forever while others die off after just a short while. The best way I've heard to control sponge growth at this point is to use a steel straw to scrape and siphon out the sponge you want to remove. Sometimes you can create bad conditions for them and kill them off that way, but that's typically much harder and not always effective.

Some other sponge removal methods:



Generally speaking, sponges (and tunicates) don't bother corals, but a few can:

Sorry for my own slow response! Your responses were very much appreciated. Wanted to observe and then had to deal with it...

Turns out it could spread quite fast. There would be new advances on the daily over the rock and onto the coral frags. Reaching half inch to inch of new spread in just two days plus newly formed 'patches' thickening and spreading.

Also apparently noxious to the corals in close proximity- it had started to spread up some of the coral(blastos in this case) skeletons, those corals retracted strongly in response with deep retractions. It had spread up and onto on top rim of a blasto skeleton, that polyp was so shrunken and started the process of bailing out- it was already detached on the side touching whatever it is and was pretty much only hanging by shared flesh contact with another polyp. That was the final straw... took that rock out, removed the corals and left the rock out in the sun. The concern was the translucence would have made it a challenge to make sure to get every single bit. The rock had a lot of hard to reach or impossible spots for a good scrub or cover up. Also it looked like it was one of those things that all it takes is a little bit left behind to start up all over again. Out of water, it looked like there was almost nothing there, I could not detect where I knew the new growths were at all, which was a little too scary.

Before removing the rock, got to observe a new siphon in better lighting and was able to see effects of strong water flow on it- the siphon rim moved/temporarily deformed then sprung back to a circular shape. Along with the 'deflation to nothing' out of the water, seems at least sponge could be ruled out? Tried googling images of tunicates, and couldn't find one that looked similar so that was a little confusing. The images show a distinct barrel shape, even with the colonial tunicates. This thing was more like.. a spit wad mess with simple siphons rising directly from it in random spots.

 

[vetteguy53081]

More pictures. The first picture shows the crop out of the previous pictures plus the 'spread'- the brownish sort of jelly looking mess below it. (still haven't touched it- no idea if it's "soft" or not)

Looks like sponge with tunicates

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Well, sponge or tunicate (or both), it sounds like you got unlucky with your hitchhiker there.