Weird goo under candy cane head

lilgrounchuck · Dec 30, 2019

I noticed my foxface messing around with my candy cane and it looked like he was nipping, which he hasn’t done before. I took a look to make sure he didn’t pull anything off and he was actually nipping at this thing. It’s not moving and doesn’t seem to have a head, but it looks to have a demarcation line between it and the flesh of the coral head so I don’t think it’s part of it. Any ideas?

revhtree · Dec 30, 2019

Brown Jelly disease? Hard to tell!

lilgrounchuck · Dec 30, 2019

Here’s a bit of a better picture. It’s a clear sack and it’s only on the stony part of the coral. There’s a small line of separation between it and the fleshy part, but it’s hard to see in the pic. It’s been there for about three weeks (at least that’s when I first noticed it, but it’s probably been longer) and hasn’t moved or grown. I just kinda forgot about it until this morning when I was feeding. Doesn’t BJD normally overtake the soft tissue and wipe out corals within a couple days? The head this is under isn’t showing any issues, opens up fine, feeding tentacles are always out, etc.

sixty_reefer · Dec 30, 2019

Some sort of sponge. Normally they pretty common.

lilgrounchuck · Dec 30, 2019

sixty_reefer said:
Some sort of sponge. Normally they pretty common.

I did have a pineapple sponge explosion a while back when I was feeding reef roids a lot, but haven’t noticed any since I cut back. I don’t mind this guy because it’s pretty well out of the way and who doesn’t want another filter, but do these things spread like the pineapples?

Flippers4pups · Dec 30, 2019

BJD does attack the tissue. Doesn't look BJD.

Sponge as others have said or algae of some kind. Should be fine.

sixty_reefer · Dec 30, 2019

lilgrounchuck said:
I did have a pineapple sponge explosion a while back when I was feeding reef roids a lot, but haven’t noticed any since I cut back. I don’t mind this guy because it’s pretty well out of the way and who doesn’t want another filter, but do these things spread like the pineapples?

the sponge you got is most probably a pachymatisma Johnstonia they do like to live in the shade and in most tanks they never seem to gain in size, it will also retract and disappear if exposed to light. I wouldn’t worry about it.