Star shaped polyp, killing my lobo?

Chee-tomorpha · Nov 22, 2022

Was just looking at my tank tonight after moving some things around over the weekend. Noticed this star shaped thing under my lobo. What is it? And, is it the reason my lobo is deflated/dying?

EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal · Nov 22, 2022

No idea. Can you take a picture while shining a flashlight on it?
Does it move or is it stationary?
Can you pull the lobo out of the tank to examine it more closely and/or remove the object with tweezers?

Chee-tomorpha · Nov 22, 2022

It does react to light. I was using my phone flashlight and it closed up a little

Chee-tomorpha · Nov 22, 2022

It wasn't there before and now the little tube worm isn't open. Hard to pick the tube worm but it opens it's fan directly in front of this thing.

EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal · Nov 22, 2022

Chee-tomorpha said:
It wasn't there before and now the little tube worm isn't open. Hard to pick the tube worm but it opens it's fan directly in front of this thing.

Well, I think you nailed the ID... Sounds like a fan worm. And no, that won't irritate the coral.

Chee-tomorpha · Nov 22, 2022

I shine the brightest light I have. Hope this helps.

EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal · Nov 22, 2022

@ISpeakForTheSeas
@WheatToast

Chee-tomorpha · Nov 22, 2022

Erin1971Texas said:
Well, I think you nailed the ID... Sounds like a fan worm. And no, that won't irritate the coral.

I think these are the fan worms. I saw them when I first got this lobo. But the star shaped thing between is new.

vetteguy53081 · Nov 22, 2022

Chee-tomorpha said:
Was just looking at my tank tonight after moving some things around over the weekend. Noticed this star shaped thing under my lobo. What is it? And, is it the reason my lobo is deflated/dying?

At first I thought an asterina star which is a nuisance but these may be Amphipods (need clearer or closer pics if possible. best recourse would be to slowly SLOWLY lift the coral and place net underneath and drop in in the net and lift out into a container of tank water. Place coral in water or even dip and agitate and return to tank. You should see these fall off the coral right away.

EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal · Nov 22, 2022

Chee-tomorpha said:
I think these are the fan worms. I saw them when I first got this lobo. But the star shaped thing between is new.

Ok, I think I see now...
And I still have no idea. Sorry

Chee-tomorpha · Nov 22, 2022

I was able to remove the thing off and it was attached at the point at the arrow.

Chee-tomorpha · Nov 22, 2022

It seems like four of the five tentacles have closed/collapse. Any ideas?

If it's beneficial I'd like to see if I can add it back but if it's a nuisance, it's to the sink.

ISpeakForTheSeas · Nov 22, 2022

Chee-tomorpha said:
It does react to light. I was using my phone flashlight and it closed up a little

That is surprisingly beautiful looking in the in-tank photos.

Bunch of questions about it for you:

What exactly happens when it closes up? (I.e. Does it shrink/deflate when it closes up, does it retract like it’s pulling back into a tube, do the outsides wrap inward, etc.?) Does the whole thing close up, or is it just the “limbs” around the outside that close up? Do different parts of it close up independently of other parts?

Any idea how long it has been there?

Does it move around at all besides just closing up?

Is it soft or hard?

Is it mostly translucent with a brown/orange center that’s not translucent?

My gut says some kind of tunicate, but I’m not sure.

Chee-tomorpha · Nov 22, 2022

What exactly happens when it closes up? (I.e. Does it shrink/deflate when it closes up, does it retract like it’s pulling back into a tube, do the outsides wrap inward, etc.?) Does the whole thing close up, or is it just the “limbs” around the outside that close up? Do different parts of it close up independently of other parts?

It twitched like fluttering, but sitting out it seems to have collapsed/deflated independently

Any idea how long it has been there?

Just noticed it today. Have only seen the two tube worms before today.

Does it move around at all besides just closing up?
It was attached at the base

Is it soft or hard?
Seems soft, it is so tiny I can't get a read on the base if it's hard or soft

Is it mostly translucent with a brown/orange center that’s not translucent?
It's pretty pale and yellowish in color, translucent

ISpeakForTheSeas · Nov 22, 2022

Chee-tomorpha said:
What exactly happens when it closes up? (I.e. Does it shrink/deflate when it closes up, does it retract like it’s pulling back into a tube, do the outsides wrap inward, etc.?) Does the whole thing close up, or is it just the “limbs” around the outside that close up? Do different parts of it close up independently of other parts?

It twitched like fluttering, but sitting out it seems to have collapsed/deflated independently

Any idea how long it has been there?

Just noticed it today. Have only seen the two tube worms before today.

Does it move around at all besides just closing up?
It was attached at the base

Is it soft or hard?
Seems soft, it is so tiny I can't get a read on the base if it's hard or soft

Is it mostly translucent with a brown/orange center that’s not translucent?
It's pretty pale and yellowish in color, translucent

Yeah, I’m currently leaning toward it being a colonial tunicate species of some kind. Assuming someone else doesn’t come in with an ID for you overnight, I’ll try to take a closer look tomorrow and see if I can’t find an ID I’m confident about.

Last questions for tonight though: about how big is it when it’s fully expanded in the tank? Are each of the “limbs” connected at the base, connected but not just by the base, or completely separate and just close together?

Brit’s Fish · Nov 22, 2022

It looks just Iike the tunicates I have in my tank. They don’t seem to bother anything but they do spread like wildfire all over my tank at least. They seem to like shady spots the most and they do react to light and touch. If you have more and watch them carefully, you can see them pumping water through themselves occasionally.

Brit’s Fish · Nov 22, 2022

Brit’s Fish said:
It looks just Iike the tunicates I have in my tank. They don’t seem to bother anything but they do spread like wildfire all over my tank at least. They seem to like shady spots the most and they do react to light and touch. If you have more and watch them carefully, you can see them pumping water through themselves occasionally.

Thread 'Tunicates'
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/tunicates.920160/

Chee-tomorpha · Nov 23, 2022

ISpeakForTheSeas said:
Yeah, I’m currently leaning toward it being a colonial tunicate species of some kind. Assuming someone else doesn’t come in with an ID for you overnight, I’ll try to take a closer look tomorrow and see if I can’t find an ID I’m confident about.

Last questions for tonight though: about how big is it when it’s fully expanded in the tank? Are each of the “limbs” connected at the base, connected but not just by the base, or completely separate and just close together?

When it was fully open, I'd say it's no more than a 1/4" from tip to tip.

The limbs seems connection at the base and radiate from there. But when observing it last night in the feeder cup and closed. The tiny yellow bulbs seem to be separate and sitting on a larger base - I assume they were the limbs at one point.

Unfortunately I came home and the specimen is no longer with me.

From what the links of tunicates are, it seems I may not have wanted it anyways?

ISpeakForTheSeas · Nov 24, 2022

Chee-tomorpha said:
When it was fully open, I'd say it's no more than a 1/4" from tip to tip.

The limbs seems connection at the base and radiate from there. But when observing it last night in the feeder cup and closed. The tiny yellow bulbs seem to be separate and sitting on a larger base - I assume they were the limbs at one point.

Unfortunately I came home and the specimen is no longer with me.

From what the links of tunicates are, it seems I may not have wanted it anyways?

Each yellow bulb would be an individual tunicate in the colony. Unfortunate that it's gone - it was a very pretty specimen.

It depends on the species if you'd want them or not, most tunicates are completely harmless, but others - like the golden star tunicates in Brit's Fish's link - are invasive and may outcompete corals. Looking at the in-tank photos, I don't think that's what you had, but I don't know what species it was for certain. It had a few relatively distinctive features, though, so I'll see if I can't track a species down eventually (but there's no guarantees I'll be able to). I'll let you know if I find something.

Chee-tomorpha · Nov 24, 2022

It would be interesting to see what you find. I'm looking forward to it.

I've seen a couple of things growing out in my tank. I wonder if you can ID this polyp thing I discovered as well. It has been lost since the video recording and I assume is somewhere else in the tank. Shortly after taking the video, and posting it in a help-ID thread, I came back to find it was gone. Some have claimed to be a medusa hydroid but looking at references it wasn't that. To me, it looked like an Acropora polyp stuck to the glass.

Here's the thread:

Baby Coral?

I was just looking at my tank tonight and notice some specks on the glass. I went in for a closer inspection to see what it was as it seems to be flailing about with the current. Then I noticed what looked like polyp tentacles flailing. I have no idea what this is but can it be a baby coral...

www.reef2reef.com