wierd growth....

triggerjay

triggerjay

New member
ok, I placed a dried up, several times bleached piece of dead white branchy type coral in my tank when I switched from the 29g to the 55g, to serve as some base rock.. I was looking around the tank today, and the dead coral has some massive growth on it. it is not on nearby rocks, just growing on the dead coral. I have no idea what it is, but it is growing in heavy patches all over it. It has not covered all of it yet, but at this 3 week growth rate, it will not take long. Anyone seen this before? Whatever it is it must not require much light,.. its very shaded where the peice is..The last pic is of some type of orange filter feeder.. and I also found a tiny tiger serpent star today, but could not get a pic of him. All I could see was his legs.... On to the pics:
Mystery shot #1
coral001.jpg


Shot 2
coral002.jpg


Shot 3 - Kinda shows the structure of the dead coral

coral003.jpg


Shot 4

coral004.jpg


Shot 5
coral005.jpg


Shot 6

coral006.jpg


Shot 7 - Just for fun, the orange filter feeder

coral007.jpg



Jason
 
Looks like a sponge (unless I'm not looking at the stuff you're mentioning) - I have a yellow-ish green colored version of the same stuff, I think... lemme link a pic of some. Maybe it will help... maybe it won't.
40073MVC-654F.JPG
 
That looks like the stuff,... but mines white. Does yours grow real fast? This was not there three weeks ago...At first glance, I thought it might be some macro... But the appendages are hollow.

Jason
 
The growth of this stuff is VERY STRANGE to me. Mine spontaneously came from a chunk that was one of the first 3 chunks I EVER HAD almost 2 years after I had it in my tank. It does grow - but I've yet to see it COVER anything... I think I'd look really neat if they got tall or whatever. The patch pictured above was wiped in FEB, but three new spots of it have replaced it on the same chunk. I kinda like it, myself! I also recently picked up a chunk from fewell's the other day for my pico - the rock it was on had to have been the most "featureless" rock in his whole tub of LR - but I saw the sponge on it and nabbed it :D
Just a guess, but I'd say that the more "nutrient rich" (dirty) :bum: your tank is, the more that thing'll grow.
 
weird... My trates are at 0... Alk is a little high right now.. calcium and mag are good..... PH is good... You really have me wondering now... Whatever it is, it seems to like the dark.. Its in a cave.

Jason
 
I think I have it narrowed down. A white Cryptic sponge, or Gelloides fibulatus, The horny thorny sponge.. lol.. Thats really the name of it!

Jason
 
Sam= Samala btw forgot to mention
Cheers

I commonly see that stuff diving/snorkeling in Florida btw. Where's your LR from?
 
I have no idea where the LR in my tank is from. It's supposed to be fiji, but have no way of REALLY knowing for sure.

Jason
 
I had a bunch of that stuff before the storm. It is really fun. I guess if it gets out of hand you could trim it. Don't take it out of the water if it is a spong.
 
Got the yellow/green sponge

Got the yellow/green sponge

Was on the rock I got from buddy in Tulsa.. He said to keep it in low light. My tank has been up and running for 3 weeks+-. It multiplies pretty fast, mine is more like SoupySteve's.

When I hid it, it really camre to life!!
 
TiggerJ - Like Jhuggins says above, don't expose the sponge to air - apparently it damages their tissue. If you decide to trim it, you should frag it for some of us!
I remember seeing some invert (a nudibranch, maybe) that had a strict diet of ONLY sponges... maybe if that stuff goes crazy, you could plop a couple of them in there and take care of it - and feed some poor invert :bum: I once had a problem with an exploding astrae star population - one harlequin shrimp took care of that fer me!
:smokin:
 
well, what is in the pics, was NOT there 3 weeks ago. It seems to be growing FAST. I will definatley frag it to share. I'm gonna wait a couple more weeks though. Right now, I would only be able to get prob 2 frags or so from it. If it keeps up though, I would say in another two weeks, the dead coral will be completly covered, and it is a branch type coral it is on... so I can just break off the "limbs"...

Jason
 
If you use a frag you could shatter the tank!! I'd you a Phosphorous... Oh !@#@ wrong forum!! Yeah, sounds like a good plan:mad2:
 
Hi Josh - got your PM. I agree, it's a sponge but I don't remember the name. I'll try to look for it when I get home to my reference books. The pink blob is a type of tunicate known as a sea peach.
Cheers, Leslie
 
Thanks Leslie. I appreciate you able to take a look at this.

Trigger- shes on a mission and Leslie is one of the best for ID's. Hopefully she can find something for you.
Cheers
Josh
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

C
Orange nudibranch ?? good or bad
Replies
6
Views
331
SantaMonica
S
raidendex
Fixing White Balance
Replies
2
Views
324
wvned
wvned
C
Two Red Legged Hermit Crabs One Shell
Replies
3
Views
286
griss
griss
F
Red Macroalgae ID
Replies
1
Views
169
btreyes
B
Silvergryphon
Devil's hand leather?
Replies
3
Views
293
Silvergryphon
Silvergryphon
Back
Top