Gorgonian hitchhiker?

[Fishbird]

Hi everybody,

This came in on my rock and somebody told me it was a gorgonian. It does seem like it is fuzzier now than it was when I got it but I’ve spent a lot of time looking at pictures of gorgonians for sale and also pictures from people who have them in their tanks.the polyps in all these pictures look like very obvious polyps. This is just fuzzy/hairy. I’ve spent quite a bit of time looking at it over the last few days and I can’t see any symmetry to the “polyps” at all. Is this actually some kind of hairy macroalgae?

 

[reef lover]

Looks like a gorg covered in hair algae or hydroids....can you try cleaning it...

 

[Fishbird]

I could try I suppose. How would I clean it? Brush it with a toothbrush? It seems like maybe the tips are growing now and they are covered in fine red hairs/bristles but those don’t look like any polyps I’ve seen before either.

 

[reef lover]

A soft bristle toothbrush...gently. take another pic after so we can see it better.

 

[SHNICI]

I'm using very soft makeup bushes most of the time, with toothbrush you will take off the flesh if it's gorgonian (I guess purple photosynthetic gorg)
But it look on it is hair algae like @reef lover say, or hydroids covered with detritus. I'm usually putting them on higher/direct flow, to can clean them gently.