Is this a pest on my Candy Cane?

[mike_]

I noticed two heads right next to each other starting to recede.

I cut one off the other day and it exposed this red stuff I can't identify.

It looks kind of like the color of coralline algae, but is semi-transparent.

The head that it is on is receding near the substance in question, and the one i removed would have been right on the other side of it (where the hermit crab is in the photo)

 

[dedragon]

did it move there, or has it been growing there? If moving it could be a large flatworm, but i think that looks like a pink type of sponge just growing on the skeleton

 

[dedragon]

If its the sponge it is usually harmless and you can remove it if it starts bothering the coral later

 

[Sharkbait19]

Appears to be a sponge. I had a similar one on a frogspawn. It didn’t seem to bother it but I scraped it off just to be safe.

 

[mike_]

i just removed the affected head and inspected it.

it was some type of slimy, muscusy substance that has been growing there.

i wasn't not able to see it until now since it was being blocked by a head that was growing in front of it (where the hermit crab shell is in the photo)

the other day I removed that head since it was also receding due to close proximity to what I think is some kind of fungus