Strange growth - Help ID please

[Rangachick]

Hi there,
Hoping someone can help ID this strange growth/critter on our elegance coral shell. We are not sure how long it has been there as it was on the back side. All parameters have been holding steady for a long time and the most recent addition has been a lipstick naso tang that was introduced about 2 and a half months ago after being through TTM.
Parameters:
Salinity: 1.025
PH: 8.1
Ammonia: 0
Nitrate: 15ppm
Phosphate: 0.13 (we are working slowly to get this under control)

 

[RyanSweet]

Sponge

 

[Rangachick]

Sponge

Thank you!

 

[living_tribunal]

That’s a dissolved sponge.

 

[Billdogg]

There is nothing dissolved about that sponge. Looks like a perfectly happy, healthy, beneficial filter feeder to me. If it does start to encroach on the soft tissue of the elegance you can scrape it back some, but I'd leave it be as is!

 

[living_tribunal]

There is nothing dissolved about that sponge. Looks like a perfectly happy, healthy, beneficial filter feeder to me. If it does start to encroach on the soft tissue of the elegance you can scrape it back some, but I'd leave it be as is!

I once had a sponge that grew around a blasto and had to move it to my frag tank. There, it lost it’s spherical shape and just kind of melted into what looked like a spider web. I don’t have much experience with sponges but have found them to look like above when they are on their way out.

 

[whitejawfish]

white sponge... good for the tank... cryptic. its a good thing to have.

 

[corey904]

Harmless sponge

 

[Rangachick]

Thanks so much everyone. The strange and mysterious things that can just "appear" in a tank!

 

[ScottR]

I once had a sponge that grew around a blasto and had to move it to my frag tank. There, it lost it’s spherical shape and just kind of melted into what looked like a spider web. I don’t have much experience with sponges but have found them to look like above when they are on their way out.

Did you expose the sponge to air?

 

[Rangachick]

Did you expose the sponge to air?

It was exposed VERY briefly as I lifted the elegance out of the DT and placed in a tub to take the photos (I am talking 3-5 seconds). Is that enough to dissolve a sponge?

 

[ScottR]

It was exposed VERY briefly as I lifted the elegance out of the DT and placed in a tub to take the photos (I am talking 3-5 seconds). Is that enough to dissolve a sponge?

Yours looks healthy. The “chimneys” are in tact. Sponges can be taken out of water and live. But some supposedly can die slowly if taken out for too long a period of time. I don’t know how long that is. But it can be minutes. I’m sure seconds won’t hurt.