To remove or not to remove?

[Aeb1419]

Have this pineapple sponge. Started out smaller than a dime and now its the size of a quarter over one month. Not sure if it can damage the torch overtime. I know they should be harmless but any suggestion? Will they spread like wildfire?

Thinking if removing its probably best to get the torch out and remove the sponge when outside of the tank.

 

[bobnicaragua]

They are beneficial filter feeder.

 

[Aeb1419]

They are beneficial filter feeder.

Ive read that they can overtake a coral. Not sure how true that is or not.

 

[kevgib67]

Have this pineapple sponge. Started out smaller than a dime and now its the size of a quarter over one month. Not sure if it can damage the torch overtime. I know they should be harmless but any suggestion? Will they spread like wildfire?

Thinking if removing its probably best to get the torch out and remove the sponge when outside of the tank.

Definitely a sponge but not a pineapple. As stated, a good filter feeder. I never heard of one bothering a coral but if it does you can use a toothbrush and scrub it off.

 

[bobnicaragua]

Sponges don’t like light, the coral should be safe.

Old school sps keepers consider sponge an indicator that the tank is ready to support acropora, the most sacred coral of them all!

 

[mfinn]

Most of the time various sponges are just aside product of keeping saltwater critters and cause no harm.
But when I see sponge growing on or into a coral colony, I usually remove it.
I've had to do it a few times.
In the case of it growing near the head of a torch, I would definitely remove it as carefully as possible

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Yeah, as mentioned, that is a sponge, but it's not a pineapple sponge - pineapple sponges are from the genus Sycon and are (to my knowledge) called pineapple sponges because they're little tube shapes with a little spiky ring around the big hole in the sponge; between the shape and the ring, they look like little pineapples.

Regardless, while some sponges can grow over and smother corals, harm corals through allelopathy (chemical warfare like soft corals are known for), or - in extremely rare cases - both, it's quite rare that they cause any issues.

In this case, the sponge doesn't seem to bothering the coral chemically, and the growth rate you described for it doesn't seem particularly fast, so this sponge is most likely harmless.

Even if it did start spreading rapidly, though, that alone wouldn't necessarily mean it's harmful, it would just mean it's invasive - a number of invasive sponges are totally harmless, and can grow on/over a coral's skeleton without harming the polyps (I've even seen some cases where they grow all the way up a coral's stalk to stop at the flesh, and cases where they weave between the polyps of encrusting corals without harming the coral itself).

In either case, your sponge doesn't seem chemically harmful or invasive at the moment, so it's most likely harmless/beneficial, but if you do want to remove it, doing so out of the tank in a bowl of tank water and rinsing the coral off after with new tank water of freshly mixed saltwater before adding it back to your tank would be my suggestion.

 

[Reefkeepers Archive]

I'd say let it be, isn't going to harm anything and removal would just cause it to eventually grow back from small pieces

Yeah, as mentioned, that is a sponge, but it's not a pineapple sponge - pineapple sponges are from the genus Sycon and are (to my knowledge) called pineapple sponges because they're little tube shapes with a little spiky ring around the big hole in the sponge; between the shape and the ring, they look like little pineapples.

Regardless, while some sponges can grow over and smother corals, harm corals through allelopathy (chemical warfare like soft corals are known for), or - in extremely rare cases - both, it's quite rare that they cause any issues.

In this case, the sponge doesn't seem to bothering the coral chemically, and the growth rate you described for it doesn't seem particularly fast, so this sponge is most likely harmless.

Even if it did start spreading rapidly, though, that alone wouldn't necessarily mean it's harmful, it would just mean it's invasive - a number of invasive sponges are totally harmless, and can grow on/over a coral's skeleton without harming the polyps (I've even seen some cases where they grow all the way up a coral's stalk to stop at the flesh, and cases where they weave between the polyps of encrusting corals without harming the coral itself).

In either case, your sponge doesn't seem chemically harmful or invasive at the moment, so it's most likely harmless/beneficial, but if you do want to remove it, doing so out of the tank in a bowl of tank water and rinsing the coral off after with new tank water of freshly mixed saltwater before adding it back to your tank would be my suggestion.

I think it is a pineapple sponge, I can see the cone shaped opening

(Smaller red circle)

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

I think it is a pineapple sponge, I can see the cone shaped opening

Ah, good catch - yeah it could be one then.