Sponge growth on Octospawn

[goody]

I have a sponge (white areas in photo) that is overtaking the branches of my Octospawn and possibly encroaching on the heads. Should I remove it with a razor blade?

 

[ReefStable]

If it's growing quick or looks like it may cause a problem, I would scrape it off

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

I have a sponge (white areas in photo) that is overtaking the branches of my Octospawn and possibly encroaching on the heads. Should I remove it with a razor blade?

I would use a syringe and h2o2. That way you can get the h2o2 right onto/into the sponge without getting any on the coral flesh.
(By the way, I don't believe that's an octo. Looks like a frogspawn)

 

[goody]

I would use a syringe and h2o2. That way you can get the h2o2 right onto/into the sponge without getting any on the coral flesh.
(By the way, I don't believe that's an octo. Looks like a frogspawn)

Thanks for the reply. Would I need to be concerned with the sponge dying in the tank from injecting it with hydrogen peroxide and causing any issues? That's why I thought scraping might be better,but more difficult to get it all removed. I couldn't recall if it was an octo or frog. Here's an older video when I first got it and an older photo (orange filter).

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

It's a small amount of sponge so shouldn't cause any issues if it dies off.

Very nice frogspawn (fimbriaphyllia paradivisa). Octos (fimbriaphyllia yaeyamaensis) have "tips" up and down the tentacles.

 

[C4Rez]

Funny! Dealing with the same thing (wrote about the same time too!). So far, it’s been harmless.

@EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal sent me over. That’s a beautiful frogspawn; love how the color gradients. I’ve pretty much ignored the sponge the last 2 years. If I end up fragging pieces off though, I may end up just cleaning it with a razor and/or diluted 3% H2O2 (outside the tank).

 

[goody]

Funny! Dealing with the same thing (wrote about the same time too!). So far, it’s been harmless.

@EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal sent me over. That’s a beautiful frogspawn; love how the color gradients. I’ve pretty much ignored the sponge the last 2 years. If I end up fragging pieces off though, I may end up just cleaning it with a razor and/or diluted 3% H2O2 (outside the tank).

I ended up trying to scrape some off and h2o2 other parts. It was not easy with how tight the heads are.

 

[CrashTestBennie]

I would use a syringe and h2o2. That way you can get the h2o2 right onto/into the sponge without getting any on the coral flesh.
(By the way, I don't believe that's an octo. Looks like a frogspawn)

Can you, or anyone, tell me what is this fleshy/skin like thing connected between the two heads of my octospawn? It's connected at the rim of each polyp and raised off of the skeleton.

 

[Shirak]

Can you, or anyone, tell me what is this fleshy/skin like thing connected between the two heads of my octospawn? It's connected at the rim of each polyp and raised off of the skeleton.

You should start a new thread

But to answer your question. The coral has lost all it's flesh covering the outside of the skeleton that used to cover that large white area. The tissue you see is the remnants of that flesh, bleached and stretched thin as it recedes further into the polyp. You will sometimes see this on healthy LPS as they split and grow apart from each other but the flesh would be brownish and covering the outside of the skeleton. This coral is not happy. Color is pale and it's retracted. Tank parameters?
My guess is lack of nutrients and feeding but could be in combination of too much light. Par levels?

 

[CrashTestBennie]

You should start a new thread

But to answer your question. The coral has lost all it's flesh covering the outside of the skeleton that used to cover that large white area. The tissue you see is the remnants of that flesh, bleached and stretched thin as it recedes further into the polyp. You will sometimes see this on healthy LPS as they split and grow apart from each other but the flesh would be brownish and covering the outside of the skeleton. This coral is not happy. Color is pale and it's retracted. Tank parameters?
My guess is lack of nutrients and feeding but could be in combination of too much light. Par levels?

Ph-8.66
Temp 76.4
Ammonia 0.01
No2 0.15
No3 68.4
Alk 8.6
Calcium 512

I just cut the PAR down from 138 to 86. This was just added a few days ago to my tank.

 

[CrashTestBennie]

You should start a new thread

But to answer your question. The coral has lost all it's flesh covering the outside of the skeleton that used to cover that large white area. The tissue you see is the remnants of that flesh, bleached and stretched thin as it recedes further into the polyp. You will sometimes see this on healthy LPS as they split and grow apart from each other but the flesh would be brownish and covering the outside of the skeleton. This coral is not happy. Color is pale and it's retracted. Tank parameters?
My guess is lack of nutrients and feeding but could be in combination of too much light. Par levels?

I believe it was the PAR. Today, the tentacles are inflating more. It looks like it's happier. I have fed it once with mysis, and I plan on lps pellets tonight. Is there anything else you would recommend?

 

[Shirak]

Parameters look ok. How old is the tank? Rock from what I can see looks pretty white. Shouldn’t need to test for ammonia or nitrite on a fully cycled tank. Test kits for these are not that accurate anyway. Feeding couple times a week with pellets/mysis is good.

Have a full tank picture how are the rest of the inhabits doing?

 

[CrashTestBennie]

Parameters look ok. How old is the tank? Rock from what I can see looks pretty white. Shouldn’t need to test for ammonia or nitrite on a fully cycled tank. Test kits for these are not that accurate anyway. Feeding couple times a week with pellets/mysis is good.

Have a full tank picture how are the rest of the inhabits doing?

Tank is freshly cycled in August. Well, I noticed polyp recession on my candy cane. That is mainly the reason why I felt the need to drop the PAR. Everything else seems to be happy. My acans today are the most fluffy I've seen them, and I attribute this to lowering PAR 2 days ago.

 

[Shirak]

Tank is freshly cycled in August. Well, I noticed polyp recession on my candy cane. That is mainly the reason why I dt the need to drom the PAR. Everything else seems to be happy. My acans today are the most fluffy I've seen them, and I attribute this to lowering PAR 2 days ago.

You could bump your temperature up a couple degrees. Hard to say on the par 138 could be high for LPS if the corals are not used to it. Tank a few months old is going to be challenging for LPS. I would up the feeding of them to at least twice a week. Candy Cane, Acans etc like to eat at night.

Which test kit are you using? API? Nitrate at 68 is high but it may not be accurate if you are using API. What do you have for livestock? How big is the system? If your bioload is low and your not feeding a lot of fish on a regular basis it can be more challenging to keep coral healthy. Other kits IMO Salifert, NYOS nitrate, Hanna HR nitrate, Hanna ultra low range phosphate, Hanna Alk.

I would start a new thread. Any details you can provide along with some photos of the other corals etc will help a ton.

 

[CrashTestBennie]

You could bump your temperature up a couple degrees. Hard to say on the par 138 could be high for LPS if the corals are not used to it. Tank a few months old is going to be challenging for LPS. I would up the feeding of them to at least twice a week. Candy Cane, Acans etc like to eat at night.

Which test kit are you using? API? Nitrate at 68 is high but it may not be accurate if you are using API. What do you have for livestock? How big is the system? If your bioload is low and your not feeding a lot of fish on a regular basis it can be more challenging to keep coral healthy. Other kits IMO Salifert, NYOS nitrate, Hanna HR nitrate, Hanna ultra low range phosphate, Hanna Alk.

I would start a new thread. Any details you can provide along with some photos of the other corals etc will help a ton.

I use hanna checker on everything but no2. I have 2 clownfish, a cleaner shrimp, 3 red legged hermits, 4 nassarius snails, 2 turbo snails and 4 trochus snails. I have 7 coral frags, octospawn, candy cane, ultra acan lord, rhodactis mushroom, 2 Florida ricordea mushrooms, and a nephthea leather. System is 25g lagoon. I was feeding twice a day, but today I noticed that the clowns were fighting over food, and 1 wasn't getting enough. So now I am feeding 3 times, very small amounts.

 

[CrashTestBennie]

You could bump your temperature up a couple degrees. Hard to say on the par 138 could be high for LPS if the corals are not used to it. Tank a few months old is going to be challenging for LPS. I would up the feeding of them to at least twice a week. Candy Cane, Acans etc like to eat at night.

Which test kit are you using? API? Nitrate at 68 is high but it may not be accurate if you are using API. What do you have for livestock? How big is the system? If your bioload is low and your not feeding a lot of fish on a regular basis it can be more challenging to keep coral healthy. Other kits IMO Salifert, NYOS nitrate, Hanna HR nitrate, Hanna ultra low range phosphate, Hanna Alk.

I would start a new thread. Any details you can provide along with some photos of the other corals etc will help a ton.

Also, I have pods. I was feeding phytoplankton at night, but was told my refugium should be sufficient enough to feed pods. Should I still broadcast phytoplankton for the corals?