Something growing around my zoas...

Flinty · Dec 27, 2019

Hello, something has started growing around some of my zoas in my nano tank, does any have any idea what it might be?

Thanks.

Crabs McJones · Dec 27, 2019

Welcome to R2R!
Looks like tube sponges.

Flinty · Dec 27, 2019

Crabs McJones said:
Welcome to R2R!
Looks like tube sponges.

Hi, thank you. Thanks for the message, I think that it's now starting to grow to the detriment of the zoas. Any suggestions for removing or controlling its growth?

Crabs McJones · Dec 27, 2019

Flinty said:
Hi, thank you. Thanks for the message, I think that it's now starting to grow to the detriment of the zoas. Any suggestions for removing or controlling its growth?

They're pretty easy to remove, you can blast them off with a turkey baster or use something to scrape them away.

ahiggins · Dec 27, 2019

Just like any other sponges, they uptake nutrients. Better that than algae lol
I like them but I do remove them when they grow around zoas and palys because they can smother them a bit. Never noticed die off but not as much growth. You can usually pick them off with tweezers. No chemicals or anything needed for them.

ahiggins · Dec 27, 2019

Side note, I did notice they died when I got rid of excess nutrients. No bad effects, they just disintegrated

Flinty · Dec 27, 2019

ahiggins said:
Side note, I did notice they died when I got rid of excess nutrients. No bad effects, they just disintegrated

Hi, ok thanks for the advice. It does look like it's growing up around the zoas and causing some of them not to open so I'll probably have to do some scraping.

ahiggins · Dec 27, 2019

Flinty said:
Hi, ok thanks for the advice. It does look like it's growing up around the zoas and causing some of them not to open so I'll probably have to do some scraping.

It’s not hard at all

if you get lucky, it’s the branching kind and you can pull one section and it will all come off kinda like a string.