Good or bad sponges?

[Hross]

They are kind of pretty and I’ve read most sponges are good. But these are really growing fast…getting a little worried, should I be?

 

[vetteguy53081]

They are kind of pretty and I’ve read most sponges are good. But these are really growing fast…getting a little worried, should I be?

I see some tunicates but cant tell what sponge as your pics are heavy in blue. Need pics under white light intensity

 

[Hross]

Thanks Vetteguy, I might not know my tunicates from my sponges Let's try these pics:

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

@ISpeakForTheSeas

 

[BristleWormHater]

My guess is branching coralline algae or some kind of colonial tunicate like @vetteguy53081 said

 

[BristleWormHater]

My guess is branching coralline algae or some kind of colonial tunicate like @vetteguy53081 said

Here's a picture of branching coralline incase anyone is unaware

 

[Hross]

Branching coralline looks so interesting. This stuff is very squishy though. I tried to remove some and it just came off in little squish blobs, then grew right back. Maybe that helps with the ID? The blennies love to lay in it

 

[BristleWormHater]

Branching coralline looks so interesting. This stuff is very squishy though. I tried to remove some and it just came off in little squish blobs, then grew right back. Maybe that helps with the ID? The blennies love to lay in it

Ok definitely not branching coralline then.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Thanks Vetteguy, I might not know my tunicates from my sponges Let's try these pics:

Filter feeding tunicates

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

They are kind of pretty and I’ve read most sponges are good. But these are really growing fast…getting a little worried, should I be?

@ISpeakForTheSeas

These are definitely sponges (the shape is pretty common for a variety of different sponges) - for differentiating from colonial tunicates, see the first quote below, for if you should be worried or not, see the second; personally, if it's not harmful, I'd keep it:

colonial tunicates are typically very uniform, with all of the in-current siphons being roughly the same size and shape and being distributed very uniformly as well; sponges tend to be less uniform and more haphazard with their in-current siphons;

Yeah, that's definitely a sponge. Most sponges are completely harmless/beneficial, but some can be invasive and/or harmful to corals (thankfully, these are rare).

To tell if a sponge is chemically harmful: if a healthy, established coral starts closing up or looking to be in bad shape on the side closest to the sponge as the sponge grows closer to it, and nothing else has happened (lighting changes, parameter swings, pests, etc.) that could explain it, then the sponge is probably chemically harmful.

Chemically harmful sponges are very rare.

For invasive sponges: unless it shows signs of being chemically harmful or starts actively growing over and smothering a coral's flesh/polyps, it's harmless. These can grow over the skeletons of corals, around the base/stalks of corals, even up into the water column above corals (where they're over the coral but not growing on the flesh or polyps themselves), etc. without harming the coral at all - as long as the coral flesh and polyps can get food, light, and flow, the sponge is harmless.

Invasive sponges are moderately rare.

Invasive and chemically harmful sponges are incredibly rare.

 

[Hross]

Thanks for the help everyone. I’ll stop worrying about them and get back to my algae and aptasia problem

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

These are definitely sponges (the shape is pretty common for a variety of different sponges) - for differentiating from colonial tunicates, see the first quote below, for if you should be worried or not, see the second; personally, if it's not harmful, I'd keep it:

I knew you'd know

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Filter feeding tunicates

Nope