Hard Milky White Substance with polyps - retracts to completely smooth at night

[gconsier]

I have this white substance on a couple of my rocks.. It looks like it is a solid.. That said when the lights are on appendages come out of it.. when off they go back in and it looks perfectly smooth..

Apologies for the pics... I need to figure out how best to take pics inside the tank.. I was able to shoot without flash as long as the MH was on... the night shots required flash... its not in very good focus.. It looks milky white and completely smooth at night.. I think the af grabbed the glass which is about 3" in front of the animal.

First Day

Night

All images were taken with a Canon 40d... I posted them in full resolution for ease of viewing on here...
If you would like to see the originals (10.5mp... large) they are available here
Link to gallery

 

[lobstergrabber]

Don't know for sure but mayber others will chime in as well. To me it resembles GSP but white. It also resembles a coral I had in a past tank that I was told was an encrustin gargonia species that originally(my piece anyway) came out of the atlantic in south florida.

Rich

 

[gconsier]

Rock is fiji rock, but has been in tank for 4+ years, so anything from anywhere could be on it.... (not this tank.. recent aquisition from a reefer getting out of the hobby)

It looks rather solid.. I thought it had hardened to a stone like substance... i just took a syringe and poked it (did not pierce it) felt about the same consistency as hotdogs packaging (maybe a bad analogy.. first thing that came to mind) ..the plastic not the skin of the hotdog... it dented maybe .5 mm in.. it appears to be 2-3mm thick.. the polyps retracted around the place where i touched...
side note, they are standing up really tall today.. and i *think* its spread out a bit more.. I'll need to keep track of its size to chart any real growth...

I'll see if I can clean up a bit and maybe get a better show.. maybe try my 50mm prime without flash.. lets a bit more light in.

 

[lobstergrabber]

If it is the specie I suspect(gargonia of sorts) then it is quite nice when polyps are extended. However it is also a quick grower once it gets going and it is photosynthetic by the way. You might want to try and see if you can isolate it if it takes off so it does not take over tank. I have seen purple and pink morphs but you white looks very similar.

Rich

 

[lobstergrabber]

Here is a pic of one a little more developed.

Rich

 

[gconsier]

Nice.. Yours looks a bit more "fillamenty" if that is a word.. if not.. it sounds like a word that should exist to explain how that looks

mine are far fewer and farther between.. thicker stalks.. initially I thought small SPS corals were starting to pop out of the rock.. (big.. ??? on that one) when they retracted.. and to a completely smooth no sign of them flat piece.. ... very curious..

I would venture to say that these two are related though.. definate semblance.

Not sure if I am explaining it well.. yours looks softer and feathery in that picture.. and mine look thicker and as if they were calcium skeleton based...

Definately think your on to something here.. Now if someone were to come along and tell us what we both had/have.. that'd be grrrrrreat

 

[lobstergrabber]

Well that was a pic I found on the net to show you a representation. Earlier you said that you poked yours and was able to make an indent. If this is so you do not have an sps. An sps is solid with no give at all.

How long have you had this growing in your tank? They tend to go through stages where they won't open for a while for what ever reason and yours just looks like it is not fully open to me. If it is a new addition may be it is just not feeling stable yet.


Rich

 

[gconsier]

I have only had it in my tank for a couple weeks...
Bought a guys whole setup and a couple friends of mine are splitting it 3 ways.. I only took a few lbs of rock as.. well .. all i have setup is a little nano right now (my brother in law and best friend are the other 2... gave my brother in law my 220 and I am helping him set it up.. it's his first fishtank ever..

I agree on not an SPS.. I hadn't poked it yet when I thought that...
I thought it was a hard white encrusting.. something.. then all of a sudden polyps showed up... much to my surprise ...
thought maybe it was the base of an SPS coral perhaps.. as they looked like they were made of cement.. but.. it was leathery tough to the touch.. not like rock.. so.. It's not sps ...

I think we are definately on the right track though.
Thanks!
BTW.. Posted this on NR.com and you were the first to come up with an answer.. kudos to you.

 

[gconsier]

Maybe this should be moved to the softie ident forum...
Mods?
Help, I need an adult!

 

[humanremainz]

that look's like briarium(sp),its in the xeniidae family

 

[gconsier]

I didn't think they retracted to a perfectly smooth surface at night?
I swear, if you didn't know that polyps came out in the day it looks like someone dumped melted plastic on the rock... Consistency is like vinyl...

 

[MechEng99]

I have it in my tank too. It was sold to me as an encrusting gorgonian (although I've never been able to properly identify it in a book or online.) It's probably a briarieum species.

I've almost lost my colony about 300 times now. I have it in a nearly lightless location and feed it regularly. Make sure to keep it in a high flow area or else any algae will quickly kill it.

Good luck!
Nikki