Unknown Growth on my Firework Clove

[TashaB98]

Hi all!!

So approximately 1.5 months ago my partner and I purchased a firework clove coral from a LFS and we quickly noticed a discosoma hitchhiker! Super cool!

Unfortunately throughout the past several weeks the firework clove has been slowly diminishing and we’re seeing a new growth, kind of a red/rust mat ? It looks like it has polyps when looking up close but I’m very unsure as to what it is and why its demolishing my firework clove.

I have attached photos, albeit not the most stellar photos as it’s location in the tank makes it very challenging to get a quality photo.

I’ve read about something called sarcothelia but from photos I’ve seen it tends to appear blue rather than brown/red.

Is it just weird algae ? Please help! If better photos are needed I can try and get more but these are the best I was able to get after trying for about half an hour :/

Thanks all, very much appreciate all the help I receive :)

 

[tzabor10]

Wow. Look at that. It seems undesirable. Might want to scrub it off.

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

I'm sorry to say but those look like brown clove polyps to me. They can and will take over tanks. They unfortunately don't have the bright side of being kinda pretty like their blue cousins.

If they are just on the frag plug, I would remove it ASAP. The mushroom can be removed and placed elsewhere in the tank if you're careful, but the polyps may come back if you scrape any loose and they settle on the rock somewhere.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Its not a good picture, I can't tell if its clove polyps or hydroids.

 

[Tahoe61]

Looks like cloves to me as well.

 

[TashaB98]

I'm sorry to say but those look like brown clove polyps to me. They can and will take over tanks. They unfortunately don't have the bright side of being kinda pretty like their blue cousins.

If they are just on the frag plug, I would remove it ASAP. The mushroom can be removed and placed elsewhere in the tank if you're careful, but the polyps may come back if you scrape any loose and they settle on the rock somewhere.

Okay sounds good, we figured it wasnt anything good so we were prepared to remove the frag, scrub the rock, and cut our losses with the firework cloves. We just wanted a bit of insight on what they could be but this is great info thank you so much!!

 

[TashaB98]

Its not a good picture, I can't tell if its clove polyps or hydroids.

Yea unfortunately I did my very best. Its location made it very very difficult to get a quality picture - too far from the front to get a good closeup, too far from the surface to get a good one either :/ we ended up removing the entire frag, luckily it was isolated to the frag making removal easy!