Identification? Good or Bad

[white_Rubicon]

So have had a lot of interesting things from my live rock. Tank is a week into the cycle. Not sure what it is... at first thought it was aipstasia but don't think it is. All of them are attached to a milky white fleshy substance on the rock and seem to come out and retract all at the same time. The larger one have neon green ends under regular and blue lights.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[tinfoilsoldier]

So have had a lot of interesting things from my live rock. Tank is a week into the cycle. Not sure what it is... at first thought it was aipstasia but don't think it is. All of them are attached to a milky white fleshy substance on the rock and seem to come out and retract all at the same time. The larger one have neon green ends under regular and blue lights. View attachment 360340View attachment 360340


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It seems like it is some variation of green star polyp, or briarium. They are an encrusting variant of gorgonian, or as near as makes no difference.

They are easy to grow, but they do grow fast and cover anything they can reach. I have lots of the purple mat version and it looks cool but is consider a pest by many reefers when it overtakes the tank.

 

[2smokes]

Its green star polyps.

 

[Ron Reefman]

I have doubts that it is green star polyps, the polyps are way too far apart. More likely encrusting gorgonian or kenya tree coral or some version of anthelia. But I'm no coral ID expert and those are very young start ups. It will be easier to tell in a few weeks.

Oh, they are good if you don't have any coral or are new to the hobby. But they (any of the ID's named so far) are all fairly fast growers and can get out of control. It's kind of like crab grass. If your yard is all dirt, crab grass can look OK, but if you want a regular lawn (i.e. better corals) crab grass is a pain you don't want.

 

[A sea K]

It is very similar to encrusting gorgonian that I had in my first tank. It grew like a weed, overtook everything and is absolutely impossible to remove once it gains a foothold without completely removing and nuking all your LR.

 

[alcimedes]

So in OP's scenario, assuming he/she wants to keep the rock, and not ruin the rest of their tank, put the rock with the gorgonian with a sand island around it?

 

[Ron Reefman]

So in OP's scenario, assuming he/she wants to keep the rock, and not ruin the rest of their tank, put the rock with the gorgonian with a sand island around it?

Yes. Or take a chisel and 'chip' a small chunk of the rock (assuming it's big) and put just the chip in the sand. You can add rubble around it to grow onto and the cut a piece of rubble loose and sell it (assuming you can find a buyer).