Please Help me identify this...

[tworeeftanks]

I am new to the upstate forum. I will be adding pics of my entire setup soon but for now I need some help identifying what I fear could become invasive.

This is growing on one of my rocks in my 180 display. It appears to be challenging my keds reds although not really harming the keds. It seems to be growing from a translucent spongy like base in the rock. There are some small feather dusters growing around it but it they are not feather dusters themselves. They white extensions are brittle to the touch and break off easily.

I think this is of the sponge family...these rocks were in brute bins for several months in the dark so my thinking is the sponges grew. The interesting thing is the stringy things coming out of the sponge appear to be photosynthetic. For now the rock has been yanked from my tank. Any one have any idea what this could be?

 

[Hiltonc57]

If that was a sponge that had a symbolic relationship with alga, making it photosynthetic, it wouldn't be white in color. I agree with you and it is some form of sponge, but I have no idea what it would be.

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

That's pretty wild. Are you sure the white tubes aren't just the normal common micro fan worms?

 

[DEEP BLUE SIX]

Not so much really "tentacles"...
But what I've seen other hobbyists refer to as sponge "feeding tubes".
A part of their body they actually grow and sometimes "send out" so to speak.. from the main tubular sponge bodies. They take up more nutruents through them in the water column and then send it to the thicker part of the sponge bodies. The tubular sections.. Then some times new sponges strat growing out of the feeding tube parts and get larger...

Not all types of sponge have them (these feeding tubes or tentacles).

But supposedly a sign of good water conditions and sponge health.

However, I've never seen any grow so invasive like looking to where they've spread over into corals on other rocks... This could turn competitve or not I'm not sure..? Or how to get rid of totally..? Especially with out messing corals that may be close to them.. ?

I've seen some in tanks of mine before but they never really spread like that. Preferred the dark areas underneath and no light. Where it seems the ones you have don't mind stretching into light a bit...

Interesting...
Anyone else? That's all I have on the subject...

 

[Hiltonc57]

Maybe try Kalk paste to smother it?

 

[pascal32]

Welcome aboard! No idea what you have there, bummer on the keds though

 

[reefscape15]

Can sponges survive out of the water? I heard before that if you take them out of the water, that the sponge would absorb air into it and die off?????? Just something that my LFS owner told me once a long time ago, and I have no idea if it's true or not. Just wanted to throw the idea out there, and if anyone has heard something about that, please let me know. Thanks!

 

[SushiGirl]

The last pic is definitely sponge. An LFS here has it like crazy in their display tanks.

 

[Christine_B]

Reefscape, I was told the same thing but then I have taken them out of water for short periods of time while rockscaping my tank and I have never seen one die because of it.

 

[museumguy]

Personally if it isn't hurting anything I'd leave it... more diversity!

But if you decide to kill it I'd try taking the rock out of the tank and letting it sit for a period of time. Zoanthids are intertidal critters and are exposed to the air for long periods of time in the wild. Let it sit for maybe 15-20 minutes and put it back in the tank and see if it messes with the sponge.

 

[tworeeftanks]

Thanks so much for all the feedback. I am beginning to think it may be more of a type of fungus. The purplish base that I looks like a sponge scrapes off fairly easily. I would be suprised if a sponge could scrape off at all. The tubular tentales seem to only grow where the rock was getting light and they are failry soft and break off easily. I am beginning to think that nuking the rock with lanthium chloride might be my best bet

 

[zooman72]

Sorry, but I do not think it is a fungus, I think it is a sponge as others have already mentioned. Some smaller species are quite delicate, so they would "scrape" off quite easily. If you do decide to rid your tank of it, the "air trick" mentioned above should do it....

 

[SushiGirl]

It's exactly like the sponge at the local LFS.
Don't know if the air trick would work or not. It works on the fuzzy ones, but I haven't had it work on any other kind, though I've never personally tried with that particular kind.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

I don't think this sponge is terribly invasive. IMO it's kewl. I would leave it alone.

 

[GMaquarium]

its a pretty common sponge in wild zoa colonies. I would leave it alone. It will rarely spreads to other rocks. I have only had this stuff take off and grow everywhere in one small nano tank that contains non-photo corals and nems that are fed tons of food. Even with that it took over a year to really grow in. I don't bother removing it because it looks great.

 

[tworeeftanks]

Anyway, as you suspected, it's a sponge. And an invasive sponge. We've seen them before and it's best to try to isolate it so it does not get on other rocks in your tank. I use a pair of tweezers and pull it off the rock it's on. It can smother your zoas. You can try a peroxide dip to see if it kills the sponge. We use it as a zoa dip here and it works well. Just try 10% of peroxide to 90% tank water in a small plastic container for 10-15 minutes.

this was from the very helpful Randy O.

 

[tworeeftanks]

Here are some pics after dosing with peroxide. Seems to have killed off the sponge.

 

[pascal32]

excellent, how are the zoo's doing after the dip?

 

[tworeeftanks]

different sponge

different sponge

since I have been tuned into scouring my tanks for invasive things I found this sponge growing on my frogspawn. I did a hyrdogen peroxide dip on the stalks only and that seems to have worked...time will tell

 

[tent boy]

Does the presence of sponges indicate anything? Excess nutrients?