sponge on liverock

[bad habit]

I have a sponge growing on the underside of my live rock.
It is also putting out stems into the tank. Under the rock it is pink the stems that protrude into the light turn black..It KILLS any coral that it touches. Is there anything that will get rid of it.

 

[drummereef]

Doesn't sound like any sponge I've ever heard of. Can you post a pic?

 

[bad habit]

sponge

sponge

this is the best I could do tonight wilh lights out

 

[bad habit]

btt

 

[bad habit]

bump

 

[hesaias]

Do the stems move at all?

 

[bad habit]

only when the current blows them

 

[bad habit]

anybody???

 

[daytonians]

You may want to repost this with a new title, something like "IS this a sponge". It will probably get answered.

 

[coralnut99]

I've heard of and seen sponges that crowd out or even smother some corals, but never heard of one that has a stinging capability. There's tons of things that can come in as hitchhikers on rock, so a definitive answer may be hard to come by, especially without a clearer picture. Just from my limited knowledge of sponges, I'm having a hard time accepting this as a sponge. They are basically very simple organisms that are built to push water through their system. But like I said, who knows what's down there?

 

[Boomer]

There are stinging sponges but they do not look like your pics. I would need a better pic to see what you have, they may be hydroids or some type of coral

White Stinging Sponge

 

[bad habit]

WILD SPONGE

WILD SPONGE

It doesn't sting the other coral, It smothers them out. Maby this photo will help It is about the best I could get tonight

 

[bad habit]

try again

 

[bad habit]

It covers the underside of the rock. In the dark it is pink when the shoots that you see in the pic hit's the light it turns black

 

[Boomer]

It is a Finger Sponge. There are many species. Do a search on "Finger Sponges" and Axinella, Ptilocaulis, Higginsia,Teichaxinella and Aplysina sp, plus more , these are just Atlantic sp. Although the pic is poor it looks more like a Axinella sp

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=Axinella&btnG=Google+Search&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi

 

[bad habit]

thanks Boomer
Looks kinda like Axinella not really sure tho
Now if I can figure out how to get rid of it.

 

[coralnut99]

That pic's much clearer. I have some in one of my 125's for quite a while now. I can't say it's done anything more than grow. When the mass gets too big, and there's too many strands, I just yank them. I can't say I've had to do it more than twice in a year. Not hard to do at all. Like any sponge, as has already been said here, smothering corals is a bigger concern in most cases.