Invasive grass-like coral growing in my tank

D

droog

New member
Hi,

I have a coral that seems to be spreading quite wildly. Not sure what it is (see pic).

Each polyp/blade of grass has eight arms, so I guess some kind of octocoral? The leaves retract into the skeleton (look like small purple tubes) at night. Could someone please help me ID this so that I can try and read up on the coral and how to keep its growth in check?

i-wRD8xGW-XL.jpg


There is even a section of "grass" growing on the back wall of the aquarium. It looks a bit funny. Is it safe to scrape off and discard?

Thanks for any thoughts/advice/comments.

-droog
 
Thats just green star polyps. People really seem to like this coral but it cab be invasive, just isolate it on a rock. Good score
 
I've isolated it on a rock and it grew along the sand and is actually growing on the glass. Have two rocks that have GSP and green button polyps, the GSP is overtaking the polyps. GSP flows with the water and people love it in fact it's usually the first thing people comment on. Personally I'm not a fan. Too invasive and grows too fast.
 
I couldn't tell if this was a troll post or not lol. I actually like gsp because it does fill in fast and looks good swaying in the water flow
e889d2c1608a8f10edb07c21e3e86491.jpg
 
The purple skin kind...nuclear green stars looks great.
I want it growing on the back glass.
The frag i have hasnt grown.

Wish it did. I like it.
 
It can be pretty. I tried a little in my reef and the darn stuff was growing up the front glass. I'd peel off a square foot of it every month or so---I traded a bit, gave a lot away and then ran out of places I could dispose of it. I finally gave up and traded in my 'isolated' rock. ;) It's the gift that is probably still giving, somewhere. But I've also seen an 'almost' fish-only that really let it go, and let it cover everything. It looked like fish swimming in a meadow and it was very striking.
 
Definitely has got out of hand in my tank a time or two but it does work as a good trade item there is always someone looking for it just have to keep it under control as part of your maintaince schedule.
 
heck my gsp grows on the stalks of my frogspawn, up on the powerhead, it even grew on the power cord going from the powehead to the socket
 
Recipe? Set your tank to the parameters in my sig line and give it a rock all to itself over in a corner.
 
If I can get my Autumn outdoor chores done this weekend, I will be devoting several hours to eradicating my GSP from every rock, nook & cranny in my tank. It's encroaching on some stuff and I need more space to mount chalices and some brain corals and acans.

It's beautiful but it's just too darn prolific for my tank. I never had an idea that a little quarter sized frag I bought for $15 would have spread the way it did.....
 
theMatrix said:
The purple skin kind...nuclear green stars looks great.
I want it growing on the back glass.
The frag i have hasnt grown.

Wish it did. I like it.
Click to expand...

Ha. Its growing on the back wall of my tank. Grass growing in a vertical plane looks a bit weird. Growth is quite slow though.

-droog
 
Sk8r said:
But I've also seen an 'almost' fish-only that really let it go, and let it cover everything. It looked like fish swimming in a meadow and it was very striking.
Click to expand...

Wow, I kinda want to try doing that to a small 20g quarantine or breeding tank. That sounds awesome. Great idea!
 
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