Help me ID this thing PLEASE

lariat8099 · Jul 13, 2016

Help ID this please. It started growing on some live rock about 4 months ago. And its growing and spreading over the live rock to the next. I'm afraid that it may continue to crawl and grow over covering all of my rock. Can anybody help ID this thing so I have an idea if its good or bad.... Thanks and Happy reefing

sundog101 · Jul 13, 2016

Hmmm... I would say a type of tunicate

fragit · Jul 13, 2016

Wow, that is gorgeous, it looks to be some sort of sponge, but I've never seen anything like that. Very pretty though. Can you get a good close up photo?

fragit · Jul 13, 2016

[HASHTAG]#reefsquad[/HASHTAG] for help with this one

kschweer · Jul 13, 2016

I would guess colonial tunicates.

hybridazn · Jul 13, 2016

Some type of tunicate. I've seen this one before but I forget it's name

lariat8099 · Jul 13, 2016

Are they good or BAD? Should I try and control its growth?

fragit · Jul 13, 2016

Tunicates are harmless filter feeders as far as I know. If you want to, cut a chunk off and send it to me!

Lionfish Lair · Jul 13, 2016

That's just gorgeous.

Tunicates in our tanks are typically not a problem, as we can't seem to provide the proper nutrition long term. They can, however, be invasive in the "wild" and do cause problems.

How old is your tank?

lariat8099 · Jul 13, 2016

Tanks 6 months old

Lionfish Lair · Jul 13, 2016

What are you feeding your tank? Whatcha got in there as far as livestock?

lariat8099 · Jul 13, 2016

I have 1- Yellow tang, 2- clowns, 1-wrasse some shrons, a med size Duncan. Feeding Brine and Myssis shrimp twice a week.

Lionfish Lair · Jul 13, 2016

Can you get a larger picture for me?

Lionfish Lair · Jul 13, 2016

How big is your tank?

lariat8099 · Jul 13, 2016

39 cube

Lionfish Lair · Jul 13, 2016

Are you having any issues with nuisance algae or cyano or dinos or anything? How clean is your glass?

Diesel · Jul 13, 2016

Wow, you just don't see that everyday

Lionfish Lair · Jul 13, 2016

Diesel said:
Wow, you just don't see that everyday

Indeed! The tank isn't young enough to be in the "super rich nutrient stage". It's not old enough to be in the "I'm dirty so I'm full of nutrients" stage. The food is normal. Even if it's heavy in the bioload department, it's not THAT heavy. Sometimes you see them advancing and you think to yourself that maybe you need to intervene..... then they just go. Four months is a long time. The glass doesn't seem to be having an issue with film algae. I'm just wondering what they're eating in there.

I had a tunicate tank and it wasn't easy to keep alive. Mind you, I was keeping more niche varieties like the lollipop, but if this were a common issue, you'd see more instances of it on the forums. It's an encrusting tunicate, so theoretically, it may spread over things. It doesn't take much to damage them, though. I don't believe it would be a problem to remove, should they really start to become aggressive.