Is this a Tunicate? Sponge? Coral Hitchhiker?

stewielouie86 · Oct 14, 2014

Hello all,

I am new to reef keeping and new to the forum here. We have a fairly stable 3 month old reef tank. All of the nutrient levels are low and I keep the salinity and Temp spot on. The tank is a 26 gallon bowfront.

About 2 weeks ago I noticed a small goldish/yellow bubble growing on my liverock directly in front of the water flow coming into the tank from the sump. It has a green tube that extends from it. It has been growing larger everyday.

I do not believe it is algae, I am guessing it is some sort of invert but I cannot find anything online that looks even remotely close. Can anybody ID this? It does not have 2 holes like a tunicate.

Thanks!

Oscaror · Oct 14, 2014

No, it's bubble algae.
Kill it with fire.

Reefing Madness · Oct 14, 2014

Never seen gold bubble algae before.
I give you a bump here, I have no idea what it is.

Daniel@R2R · Oct 15, 2014

Bounce mushroom??? :squigglemouth: :noidea:

stewielouie86 · Oct 15, 2014

Thanks mdbannister for your suggestion. After looking up bounce mushrooms it definitely looks that most similar to what we have. It is just curious that from what we have read, bounce mushrooms like low light, low flow and grow really slowly. This thing is growing directly in front of a jet, at the highest point of the tank near the lights and growing really fast!!! It's still somewhat of a mystery... Hopefully it is a mushroom. We can't find anything that it looks exactly like.

SantaMonica · Oct 16, 2014

I vote for tunicate.

Since it does not have the rest of the mushroom body, and since it is in front of flow.

Jason edwards · Oct 17, 2014

crummy pics get even crummier answers. I'm going with Botryocladia sp. or red bubble algae that's bleach or hasn't colored up yet.

hybridazn · Oct 17, 2014

stewielouie86 said:
Thanks mdbannister for your suggestion. After looking up bounce mushrooms it definitely looks that most similar to what we have. It is just curious that from what we have read, bounce mushrooms like low light, low flow and grow really slowly. This thing is growing directly in front of a jet, at the highest point of the tank near the lights and growing really fast!!! It's still somewhat of a mystery... Hopefully it is a mushroom. We can't find anything that it looks exactly like.

Not trying to burst your bubble(see what I did there?) but that isn't a bounce shroom. Its more than likely a type of bubble algae that should be removed and examined for a better ID

stewielouie86 · Oct 17, 2014

We have been trying to get a better picture but we just can't get anything that detailed. We brought pictures to the LFS today but no one there had any idea what it was either. I touched it and it is kinda squishy to the touch. Not soft or slimy like algae. It has a siphon (green) coming off of the right side which makes it even stranger. I think we are going to leave it in there for a little while longer to see what happens since it doesn't seem to be bothering anything. I just wish we could figure out what it is!!!