Growth on coral

[Luisn17]

Hello,

I have been noticing some odd growth on the base of my hammer coral. The coral looks perfectly fine during the day and fully extended but have noticed this white substance surrounding the base. Unsure if this a sponge or something else? Should I take it out and dip it?

I took the best picture I could without blinding and freaking out the fish with the flash. I fear if this continues upwards, I may start losing heads. The heads which are lost were lost prior to me purchasing the coral. I had it for like 7 months now and it has been splitting heads. In the day it looks like a tree.

Any ideas?

 

[PharmrJohn]

Looks like a macro algae of some sort. I did an image search which bounced me back here to a post written about 7 years ago! They didn't have answers except that it MAY be Flame algae. I looked that up and it didn't look like it to me.

 

[Luisn17]

Looks like a macro algae of some sort. I did an image search which bounced me back here to a post written about 7 years ago! They didn't have answers except that it MAY be Flame algae. I looked that up and it didn't look like it to me.

Thank you for searching. Strange, if it is an algae it must be a low light one. The algae I do get is brown in color but that’s in the acrylic and I noticed I have some sponge growth in the rocks and that’s yellowish.

 

[PharmrJohn]

Is the algae in question purple? Or is that just the lights playing with a different color?

 

[PharmrJohn]

Nevermind. You had it under white light.....

 

[Luisn17]

I took pics right now under blue and white lights.

The pics I took last night was under moonlight. I can’t even see the skeleton of the coral.

 

[xWascallyWabbit]

Looks like sponge to me. I had something very similar on my hammer.
I pulled the hammer out and carefully just removed the sponge. Get a container of tank water to do it in. I used a stainless steel nail file. It's actually really easy to remove. Just don't be heavy handed and hurt the flesh part of the hammer.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Hello,

I have been noticing some odd growth on the base of my hammer coral. The coral looks perfectly fine during the day and fully extended but have noticed this white substance surrounding the base. Unsure if this a sponge or something else? Should I take it out and dip it?

I took the best picture I could without blinding and freaking out the fish with the flash. I fear if this continues upwards, I may start losing heads. The heads which are lost were lost prior to me purchasing the coral. I had it for like 7 months now and it has been splitting heads. In the day it looks like a tree.

Any ideas?

Yeah, the white stuff growing on the skeleton of the coral is a sponge - to tell if it's harmless or not:

Yeah, that's definitely a sponge. Most sponges are completely harmless/beneficial, but some can be invasive and/or harmful to corals (thankfully, these are rare).

To tell if a sponge is chemically harmful: if a healthy, established coral starts closing up or looking to be in bad shape on the side closest to the sponge as the sponge grows closer to it, and nothing else has happened (lighting changes, parameter swings, pests, etc.) that could explain it, then the sponge is probably chemically harmful.

Chemically harmful sponges are very rare.

For invasive sponges: unless it shows signs of being chemically harmful or starts actively growing over and smothering a coral's flesh/polyps, it's harmless. These can grow over the skeletons of corals, around the base/stalks of corals, even up into the water column above corals (where they're over the coral but not growing on the flesh or polyps themselves), etc. without harming the coral at all - as long as the coral flesh and polyps can get food, light, and flow, the sponge is harmless.

Invasive sponges are moderately rare.

Invasive and chemically harmful sponges are incredibly rare.

 

[Luisn17]

Yeah, the white stuff growing on the skeleton of the coral is a sponge - to tell if it's harmless or not:

Thank you so much!! I was really concerned since this coral is a good size and has continued to grow under my care. So far the coral looks fine.