Mysterious white/clear tube worms growing on GSP?

[george9]

Hello!
I am noticing an increasing amount of white tubular worms (for lack of a better word) growing within my GSP matting. It is just a small frag, but I have noticed them more and more the last week or so, and consequently the GSP has not been opening as prominently and happy looking as it usually does so I am assuming they could be causing an issue.

This coral was one of the first I put in my tank after cycling. I used it as kind of a proxy to watch overall tank stability after it finished the cycle , since these guys are nearly indestructible. On initial introduction it did fantastic! Unfortunately in late December I suffered a pretty dramatic bacterial bloom and the GSP was not happy at all being buried in gross white bacterial growth. That issue has been rectified for about a month now and all of my corals are doing fantastic except this GSP has yet to bounce back. And today I am noticing more of these white tubular “worms”

They do not visually move or wiggle. I took the frag out to dip in Coral RX and took some pics. While the coral was in the dip I sprayed it with tank water to get these tubes off and they eventually mostly fell off (except like 1 which was super hard to remove).
They didn’t wiggle in the water and don’t really look like worms at all with no clear anatomy - they just look like white tubes that are slightly clear. Attached is a pic of the frag right before Coral RX was added to the dip.The white “blob” on the left side of the frag is where I glued a little digitate hydroid shut that popped up a few weeks ago.

Has anyone ever seen this before? This is the only coral in my tank that appears to not be at its best currently. I also have zoas, ricordeas, blue mushrooms, acans, and a duncan frag. They’re all doing fantastic.

Nitrates: 5PPM
phosphate: .06 PPM
calcium: 430
Alk: 9.8
mag: 1330
temp: 79

 

[fishguy242]

hi, white sponge ??

 

[vetteguy53081]

Looks like macroalgae or spaghetti sponge which is poriferan type sponge. Exposure to air or injecting with venegar will stop it in its tracks. You can also use a dental pick to remove it

 

[george9]

Looks like macroalgae or spaghetti sponge which is poriferan type sponge. Exposure to air or injecting with venegar will stop it in its tracks. You can also use a dental pick to remove it

Interesting! Are there any specific problems that can cause the sponges to grow on the coral?

 

[damsels are not mean]

Interesting! Are there any specific problems that can cause the sponges to grow on the coral?

Some sponges are invasive. Especially towards zoanthids and GSP. There's no cause it seems but you should try to remove it out of tank with a toothbrush or something and then rinse in tank water to get as much of the sponge off as possible. Could try a H2O2 bath as well (mix like 20% peroxide to 80% tank water and dip for 5 min). I am not sure if that will kill sponges but it's a common treatment for algae and zoas and GSP are some of the few things that survive that.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Interesting! Are there any specific problems that can cause the sponges to grow on the coral?

They are attracted to dark shady areas with silicates present in the tank.
These can grow crazy at times often wrapping around coral or even covering it. This is one I would remove. Its growth is only going to progress. Peroxide wont have much effect on it . Air will but not healthy for that coral to expose to air for a length of time. Dental pick or small crochet needle will do the trick

 

[george9]

They are attracted to dark shady areas with silicates present in the tank.
These can grow crazy at times often wrapping around coral or even covering it. This is one I would remove. Its growth is only going to progress. Peroxide wont have much effect on it . Air will but not healthy for that coral to expose to air for a length of time. Dental pick or small crochet needle will do the trick

Thanks for the help! Sounds good. I did a CoralRX dip last night just because I wasn’t sure what it was and manually removed the majority of it. I will manually remove the rest today.

I’m just not sure where they came from. I don’t see it on any of my other frags and i have not introduced much into this tank yet.

Does their presence imply that I still have silicates in the water from the new rock/sand? The tank has only been up since late November, but my diatom bloom has since disappeared.

 

[damsels are not mean]

Thanks for the help! Sounds good. I did a CoralRX dip last night just because I wasn’t sure what it was and manually removed the majority of it. I will manually remove the rest today.

I’m just not sure where they came from. I don’t see it on any of my other frags and i have not introduced much into this tank yet.

Does their presence imply that I still have silicates in the water from the new rock/sand? The tank has only been up since late November, but my diatom bloom has since disappeared.

Might be silicates from the sand/rock but honestly most tanks probably have some. It's hard to remove them even with RO/DI.

Corals can be out of water for a LONG time. Some people ship them in humid specimen cups. I would say if none of the other removal methods work you can try leaving it out of water in a humid container overnight. Sponges can't cope with air as well as corals can generally, though that is not always the case as there absolutely are intertidal sponges.

Remember, it is only GSP after all and I hope you didn't pay much. Should be easy to get more. I would be more worried about that spreading to other corals and not leave it in the system if the sponge can't be removed.

 

[CLFishies]

Hello!
I am noticing an increasing amount of white tubular worms (for lack of a better word) growing within my GSP matting. It is just a small frag, but I have noticed them more and more the last week or so, and consequently the GSP has not been opening as prominently and happy looking as it usually does so I am assuming they could be causing an issue.

This coral was one of the first I put in my tank after cycling. I used it as kind of a proxy to watch overall tank stability after it finished the cycle , since these guys are nearly indestructible. On initial introduction it did fantastic! Unfortunately in late December I suffered a pretty dramatic bacterial bloom and the GSP was not happy at all being buried in gross white bacterial growth. That issue has been rectified for about a month now and all of my corals are doing fantastic except this GSP has yet to bounce back. And today I am noticing more of these white tubular “worms”

They do not visually move or wiggle. I took the frag out to dip in Coral RX and took some pics. While the coral was in the dip I sprayed it with tank water to get these tubes off and they eventually mostly fell off (except like 1 which was super hard to remove).
They didn’t wiggle in the water and don’t really look like worms at all with no clear anatomy - they just look like white tubes that are slightly clear. Attached is a pic of the frag right before Coral RX was added to the dip.The white “blob” on the left side of the frag is where I glued a little digitate hydroid shut that popped up a few weeks ago.

Has anyone ever seen this before? This is the only coral in my tank that appears to not be at its best currently. I also have zoas, ricordeas, blue mushrooms, acans, and a duncan frag. They’re all doing fantastic.

Nitrates: 5PPM
phosphate: .06 PPM
calcium: 430
Alk: 9.8
mag: 1330
temp: 79

View attachment 2527769

Might be silicates from the sand/rock but honestly most tanks probably have some. It's hard to remove them even with RO/DI.

Corals can be out of water for a LONG time. Some people ship them in humid specimen cups. I would say if none of the other removal methods work you can try leaving it out of water in a humid container overnight. Sponges can't cope with air as well as corals can generally, though that is not always the case as there absolutely are intertidal sponges.

Remember, it is only GSP after all and I hope you didn't pay much. Should be easy to get more. I would be more worried about that spreading to other corals and not leave it in the system if the sponge can't be removed.

I’m have the same question. This tank is 10 months old, but all the rock came from a 90 gallon tank that I took down to down size. Had the 90 up for 15+ years, never had these things. Was wondering how I even got them.

 

[george9]

I’m have the same question. This tank is 10 months old, but all the rock came from a 90 gallon tank that I took down to down size. Had the 90 up for 15+ years, never had these things. Was wondering how I even got them.

I have no clue how I got mine either but after a long CoralRX dip and manually plucking them off, the coral seems way happier and I haven’t seen them pop up anywhere else yet which is good news

 

[damsels are not mean]

I’m have the same question. This tank is 10 months old, but all the rock came from a 90 gallon tank that I took down to down size. Had the 90 up for 15+ years, never had these things. Was wondering how I even got them.

I wish there was more knowledge about sponges in the hobby. They are so poorly studied and understood we don't even know which ones are which except the pretty ones and some common hitchhikers like pineapple and ball sponges. I think it's possible they were somewhere in the system, in some cryptic crevices, and some unseen change allowed them to bloom. Who knows.

 

[george9]

I had to remove some from one of my zoa frags today. the zoas have been growing like a WEED but I can tell when something is irritating it because one or two polyps will close for a little while during the day and then open back up meanwhile all of my other zoas stay open 100% of the photoperiod.

Unfortunately it’s glued to my rock and has really begun to grow off of the frag plug so I couldn’t remove it and get rid of everything, but I used a pipet to loosen what I could and used tweezers to grab the rest. There was a few pieces that floated into the water column which annoys the crap out of me because I know it’s just going to find another place to grow.

I wonder if they will eventually kill themselves out as the tank matures (Ive been set up since Nov.) or if this will be an issue that continues and maybe even escalates in the future. sucks!

When the tank was newer and I had a crazy bacterial bloom, both of these frags got covered in white gunky bacterial matter that I had to remove. I am hoping these sponges are growing on these frags as a result of that bacterial matter and it won’t start growing on my other frags or rock (I haven’t seen any yet), but I’m not holding my freaking breath!!! I got some nice new zoas a couple weeks ago and so far they are clear. I run Chemi Pure Elite and Purigen 24/7 365 so maybe this is keeping the silicates down and minimizing spread.

 

[Greg P]

There was a few pieces that floated into the water column which annoys the crap out of me because I know it’s just going to find another place to grow.

Turn off your flow next time and keep a brine shrimp net handy (3" white fine mesh)

 

[george9]

In the past month, there has been no sponge growing on any of my frags (yay) BUT in a witch hunt to find a missing mushroom today, I did see a mass (almost the size of a golf ball) of the spaghetti sponge deep inside my rock work growing in the dark.

My initial feeling is to leave it, if it found a place it likes in the dark away from sight and away from corals then maybe it will stay there, plus sponges are good filtration. On the other hand, it may be good to remove it? It’s not growing anywhere that receives light at the moment and I would have never wouldn’t noticed if I didn’t peer with a flashlight deep in a cave. Not sure how to feel about it.

what do you guys think?