ID Please - Pink Prickly Thing

[Arie]

Yes, let the jokes roll in.

Now, this is my first post with water in a tank, so I suppose I should tell a bit about the system.

It is a nano set up, 7 gallon hex tank. It has acrylic walls, a 10 gallon whisper hang on filter and a coralife 50/50 14 watt bulb.

SG: 1.023
Temp: 74 with lights off, 76ish with them on for 8 hours
Calcium: 420'ish
PH: 8.2

I do use iodine and calcium additives, generally a normal dosage but half as often as they suggest. I'd rather be safe than sorry, ya know? As far as external food that goes into the tank I put 1/4 of an algae wafer in each night for the emerald crab unless he has no interest (in which case I suck it up with a turkey baster) and about twice a week I put in a few (literally 3 or 4) fish food flakes.

I have about 2 inches of LS, 3 decent chunks of LR (I'd like to get more of LS and LR) an emerald crab, a kenya tree frag, anthelia clove which is growing like freaking weeds and lots of pods, tube worms, 2 bristle worms (they're not causing a problem...yet), two astria snails, a handfull of astria stars and a few very small feather dusters.


Now that's out of the way, I'd like to know what something is.


There's a pink thing on a LR that started out as a small spot which I thought was coraline algae. It grew and I kept an eye on it but didn't realize just how cool it was until I moved it towards the front of the tank (and directly under the light)

I’d say that the piece of rock is roughly 2 inches tall by 4 inches wide. (I’m an accountant not a craftsman so that could be a horribly wrong estimate. HA!) The pink stuff sort of wraps around the rock, no lift spots or difference in thickness anywhere that I can see. It's sort of like a skin if you will. It has little spikey spots that stay up constantly. It doesn’t look like the spikey spots would pop up and jab anything, but who knows.

It does have what looks like two mouths on it. I hope that doesn’t sound crazy. They are basically two small almost clearish circles that are raised a bit above the rest of the spikes and pink ‘flesh’. If you watch long enough (and don’t blink) you can see the clear circles open up and then close quickly.

I have no idea what it is and I'd love to hear what anyone thinks it might be. Please let me know what you all think

-Arie

 

[Len]

It appears to be a sponge. It probably doesn't appreciate the light (most sponges grow in dark areas as to not compete with algae), so watch it for a while to see if it fares well now that it's exposed to light. If not, you should just move it back to its original position.

Sponges are cool and can be really pretty. They come in a rainbow of colors.

 

[Arie]

Hi Len,

Thanks for the reply. Would a sponge appear to have two 'mouths' though? They're little clear circles that stick up a bit off of the pink fleshy part. If you watch closely, they open and close especially when there is food recently put into the tank.


-Arie

 

[Len]

hmmmm. Not sure. Sponges do pump water in and out, but they do it at such a small scale I doubt you can see it. It could be a tunicate colony too, in which case you'll see a more visible opening/closing "mouth." Then again, it might not be either I'm not a biologist ... I only play one on the internet 8)

 

[jandree22]

Sounds like a sponge to me as well. I gather it’s a hitchhiker on the rock and showing fast growth. That plus the light pink color, and overall appearance, yeah that’s what I’d say. I’ve had hitchhiker sponges before that also appeared to have holes or opening, although they didn’t move, so I dunno there!

Only way to know for sure is to just touch one of the spikes and see if anything bad happens (kidding!) :lol:

 

[Arie]

Okay,

So the general idea so far is that it's possibly a sponge. Is there a sure way to find out if it is? I'll have to look up on the internet if there are any specific sponge characteristics that this thing has. I dunno.

I do wonder however, what would happen if I were to poke it. That's sort of my great scientific test for everything... With a net of course...

-A

 

[Arie]

Oh, and if it helps with figuring it out at all - my emerald crab has discovered where it is now that it's in the open and he finds it VERY tasty. I'm going to have to figure out what to do with it now before he eats it all...

 

[bookfish]

Many sponges do have obvious in/out holes. I'll second the vote for a sponge.

 

[mr_X]

it could be a sponge and the 2 mouths could be entirely different creatures. i have a blue tipped stag that has 3 or 4 filter feeding creatures embedded in it's skeleton. i see the mouths open and close all the time. pretty crazy!

 

[Arie]

Okay,

So I'm thinking that it's sponge too. I braved the elements and stuck my hand in to figure out it if was a softie or not. It's very squishy and smooth on the finger tip.

My emerald crab has decided that it's delicious and trys to eat it at any given opportunity.

I also noticed that a very similar, if not the same thing, is growing on a LR next to it. It's kinda cool to see how quickly things change, take place and grow. I'm sure it's just as fast in other tanks, but with the nano I see it up close each day.

So, if I go with the theory that it's a sponge, does it require anything special? I've read up on it and most are self sufficient and doesn't require anything besides a moderate flow to encourage feeds/growth. Does this sound about right?

 

[shavo]

so it is growing good now, i think you are doing things right. why change it? stay away mr. snippers!