Advanced experienced indentifcation

[Adam Reynolds]

What is this white tree like thing sprouting from my rock, it has a slimey/rubber looking texture and has taken over the back of the rock in which it resides, we are talking about a 9 inch long rock!
Also if you look lower part, it appears to have tube like holes and the tree part is soft and moves with the currents!?!?!
In the pic, it looks like two different entities, but it is one creature/sponge/alien strung together...

Why is it here/growing so fast?
Safe... friend or foe?
Will it eventually blanket my tank?
I am moving all my rock to a new tank shortly... should he come with?

 

[greenbean36191]

It's a sponge. It's growing out of control because it has lots of food- mostly bacteria. You can control it by cutting pieces of it off or by smothering parts of it with kalk paste. It will take several applications of kalk to kill it all completely since it will regrow from small bits of tissue. For the most part it's harmless, but it may overgrow desirable inhabitants like corals if they meet. It's your call whether to move it or not.

 

[Adam Reynolds]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13676603#post13676603 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by greenbean36191
It's a sponge. It's growing out of control because it has lots of food- mostly bacteria.


It's your call whether to move it or not.

Lots of bacteria? Is that good or bad?

If I move it to a new tank, freshly cycled and assuming less bacteria, do you think it will retreat? Last thing I want is something undesirable/out of control on my tew tank...

btw... this is what I am setting up!

Tank: 56 gallon tall aquarium 30 x 18 x 24, with stand

Lights: 36" AQUALIGHT ADVANCED 2x150 watt 20k

Skimmer: Octopus Dual Hang-on Skimmer - BF 300

R/O Unit: Aquasafecanada RO/DI 100 GPD 7 stages

Powerheads: 4 x Koralia 3 @ 850GPH

Refractometer: RS-RHS-10ATC Refractometer

Heaters: 2 x Turbo heaters @ 200 watts, rated for 40 gallons each

Substrate: Fiji Pink Reef Sand- 40 lb, Ocean Direct Caribbean Live Sand- 20lb

Thermometer: digital

Live rock: 55 pounds, fully cured from my old established tank

 

[mhaith]

How could a sponge threaten a coral? Why not just wipe it away?

I have that same exact sponge that is becoming quite prevalant in my tank in the 'dark' parts under rocks and really anywhere my corals are not.
I assumed that sponges are mostly good that help filter the water. I think they are pretty darned cool!

 

[scapes]

this is mine...
kinda cool

 

[mhaith]

Yep, that's it.
So does anyone know what kind of sponge this is? Is it toxic in any way or is it another beneficial organism that helps filter the water?

 

[scapes]

I don't have a clue what the "name" is. I had a zoa rock in a 55g for years, then upgraded to a 180 in june '08. all of a sudden this started growing... it literally grew right over the zoas! I had moved the rock about 2 months ago and my stand of this sponge broke. I was upset as I'd never seen it before and I didn't want it dieing. my picture is the result, after it was torn apart. as you can see, it's grown back quite nicely, I've got two other stands of it now growing. I dropped some behind some rocks, well actually it fell and I couldn't reach it, and it's growing (not fast) but it's still alive. One even got into the overflow box and it's "surviving" on the glass at the bottom. so, it's pretty tough stuff. I wouldn't consider it "toxic" but it does take over

 

[mhaith]

With all due respect, upon what data are you basing your consideration that it is not toxic?

I'm pretty sure most sponges are non-photosynthetic so the survivability of the sponge on the glass at the bottom of an overflow doesn't necessarily dictate that it is 'pretty tough stuff'.

I may be mistaken but I believe some sponges can become toxic in a variety of situations. I have 'heard' there are some dying sponges that have been exposed to air etc. that can release toxins that can wipe out a tank.

A sponge ID might go a long way to determine if it is a threat and I know little to nothing about sponges but I have a bunch of this in my tank so I'm just askin' around.....

 

[PSam]

Looks like may be Haliclona sp. (similar looking to H. oculata). Just a guess. Huge number of Porifera

 

[scapes]

with all due respect Michael...sounds like you know more than me, so good luck in your askin' around. hopefully there's someone else out there that can answer all your questions

 

[mhaith]

Based on the ID from PSam I started doing a search and Yikes! there are a lot of sponges out there.
Does anyone know if there has been any research on the toxicity of the different species of sponges in closed systems?
Can anyone weigh in with some anecdotal negative experience with this type of sponge? It seems somewhat common...

 

[Adam Reynolds]

You guys have no idea!
I really think this is more animal that sponge, plus it is fragging (note the new guy at the bottem that grew sinc the first post!
And what is with the feeding/breathing tubes?
It is really soft and swings side to side with the currents as you can see from the pics...
It seemed to comes frm the shadows!

/any clues?

 

[tcmfish]

Sponges are toxic in a new tank full of un-cured live rock because they decompose causing an ammonia spike, just like any other decomposing thing. But they aren't toxic like say a dying sea apple. Any established tank should be fine if a small sponge died because they have stable bacteria populations to handle the waste.

I think they are very cool and more people should keep them. I wouldn't remove it.

 

[greenbean36191]

How could a sponge threaten a coral? Why not just wipe it away?

Sponges aren't just some benign little bunch of goo sticking to rocks. They're extremely competitive defenders of space, mostly through chemicals. Some will get along with corals, some won't.

So does anyone know what kind of sponge this is? Is it toxic in any way or is it another beneficial organism that helps filter the water?

Most sponges are nearly impossible to identify, even for experts. You can't even get close from a picture. About as specific as you can get is that it's a demosponge, which means that there's a few thousand possibilities. There's no way to tell how toxic the sponge is without either testing it or knowing what it is. You can assume that it has some level of toxicity though, even if it's only to predators or in the case that it dies. Given how fast this one seems to grow I would assume its strategy would be to grow quickly and not spend a lot of energy defending territory, whereas slower growing species would be more likely to devote a lot of resources into toxicity to defend themselves. In general, sponges are fairly harmless as long as they aren't dying. The offer very little benefit to the tank though. They are "filter feeders" but that doesn't imply that they do anything positive for water quality- just that their food is suspended in the water and they wait for it to come to them. They eat the same thing corals do.

I really think this is more animal that sponge, plus it is fragging (note the new guy at the bottem that grew sinc the first post!
And what is with the feeding/breathing tubes?

Sponges are animals. Fragmentation is one of their main modes of reproduction. The breathing tubes are called oscula. They're where the water exits the sponge.

 

[mhaith]

Excellent! Great answer and thanks for taking the time!

 

[Adam Reynolds]

Yes, thank you!

Question though:
I am setting up a newer system and will be transporting all og my live rock to this new tank, but the snad will be fresh... do you think the cycling of the sand will kill off this guy and cause a toxic soup?