Weird Growths on Zoas/Palys (doesn't look like pox or other common pests)

[FlyinAg]

Howdy, I have a good sized colony of what I think are superman zoas or palys. There are some weird growths that keep popping up on some of the stalks:

- they do not move
- they are firmly attached but will scrape off, and don't appear to leave anything attached or burrowed in the stalk from what I can tell
- they look like a little polyp, filter feeding appendage or collection of tentacles that are clear and brown in color
- they do not look like nudibranchs, spiders, pox, etc
- they don't really look like what I typically think a pineapple or other sponge looks like
- I do not see any other pests present such as above or sundial snails
- the growths are not on any other coral I have
- I do see that i have what looks like a tiny vermantid or some other little filter feeder you can see in the middle of the picture, but these growths obviously look different
- I can easily remove the whole colony rock for a peroxide or iodine dip if need be, I did do a peroxide dip when I got them back in November

Any ideas?

THanks!

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Bump for clarity!!

 

[william Lutman]

Following

 

[FlyinAg]

Haha this is not boding well!

 

[Fish Think Pink]

@vetteguy53081 - any ideas?

 

[FlyinAg]

Update: noticed the last few I polys scraped growths off of sloughed a little skin off as well and have been closed a few days. Hoping that was their reaction to the growths and they are fine. Only saw one growth today... So removal seemed to help. Still no idea what they are. Could they be baby aptasia polyps? Could those grow on a zoa?!

 

[JGT]

Little hard to see but those sorta look like zoa spiders.

 

[FlyinAg]

I know, but its not. Stationary, no clear body parts... Best description is a small polyp.

I do have a limpet that lives on the rock. Maybe they have weird eggs?

 

[FlyinAg]

Hydroid??

 

[Ro Bow]

you figure out what it was?

 

[Ro Bow]

Hydroid??

I dont think they are hydroids

 

[FlyinAg]

Nope.. tried scouring the internet. Was gonna post in the ID forum...

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Tge pics aren’t super clear, but possibly a colonial tunicate of some kind?

 

[FlyinAg]

Doesn't look like any tunicate I've ever seen but who knows.

They look like a polyp with 5 arms. Two of them can be seen side by side in those last two pics I posted. They look like that when attached to the zoa stalks as well.

What's even more perplexing is I think coral polyps and the like have tentacles in sets of 6 or 8?!

 

[FlyinAg]

Circled for specificity.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Doesn't look like any tunicate I've ever seen but who knows.

They look like a polyp with 5 arms. Two of them can be seen side by side in those last two pics I posted. They look like that when attached to the zoa stalks as well.

What's even more perplexing is I think coral polyps and the like have tentacles in sets of 6 or 8?!

Yeah, the one on the right in each of the two pairs looks like it only has 4 arms. I'm thinking each "arm" on the "polyp" is one of the tunicates (zooids) in the colony, with the central portion being the common cloacal siphon. Again, I can't tell for sure from the pics, but I've seen some specimens of Botryllus schlosseri (Golden Star Tunicates) that look somewhat similar (anatomically, if not color-wise) from what I can see. For examples:

(Source: https://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/species-e...denstartunicate-botrylleetoile/index-eng.html )

(Source: https://dailynexus.com/2021-05-19/s...ure-treatments-for-aging-associated-diseases/ )

(Source: https://nathistoc.bio.uci.edu/Tunicates/Colonial3.htm )

For a lot more colonial tunicate examples, see my post linked below:

What is this on my hammer?

Doesn't look like that at all. I'm very excited to find out what it is though, critter id and hitchhikers can be fun. This doesn't look like it can spread, it is attached to the stalk of the hammer and hasn't moved in two weeks. The tentacles are too short to be what is in the picture. My...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[FlyinAg]

Wow I've never seen anything like that. Thanks for sharing. When I hear tunicate I think of the ones that look sponge -like.

 

[FlyinAg]

Good news, tunicates gone. Bad news, I think all the scraping, brushing and dipping royally ticked off my colony. All my other colonies are happy so I don't think it's anything else. The affected colony has closed up most of the polyps. Some for id say over a week. Had a little algae growth on them as well, maybe from weakening due to above. Hope they bounce back.

 

[littlebigreef]

Good news, tunicates gone. Bad news, I think all the scraping, brushing and dipping royally ticked off my colony. All my other colonies are happy so I don't think it's anything else. The affected colony has closed up most of the polyps. Some for id say over a week. Had a little algae growth on them as well, maybe from weakening due to above. Hope they bounce back.

Good to hear they appear to be gone. I've been following just to see what conclusion this came to. With the more detailed pics I was thinking some sort of clove polyp - however, they have a hair fine runner/webbing between polyps.

Best to give them time and hopefully they bounce back. Gotta love how resilient they are.

 

[encrustingacro]

They remind me of zoa-eating nudibranchs. Maybe they're that?