What is this new growth on my coral frags?

[techytechguy]

I got some new coral frags from WWC last week. I didn't dip them as they recommend but I did put them in a newly setup quarantine tank. I plan to eventually dip them before they go in the display tank.

After 5 days or so I noticed this growth around the micro goniopora and I also see it around some of the other frags but not as much. It is not green so doesn't seem to be algae.

What is it? Some kind of sponges? Should I be worried or do any treatment?

and just today I got a Pitho crab from reef cleaners and it started eating it.

 

[Timfish]

I'm going to guess some kind of sponge. Does it brush off easily?

 

[techytechguy]

I'm going to guess some kind of sponge. Does it brush off easily?

yeah, It comes of if I brush it

 

[KrisReef]

Recommend that you pop these frags off those plugs with who knows what growing upon them and glue them to a new plug or a clean rock. Toss the unknown and don't deal with hitchhickers that may be good or bad.

( I can't tell from your photo's what you have? The corals look nice, I would keep them.)

HTH

 

[PeterB113]

+1 sponge

 

[Goaway]

No matter what it is, if it is growing on or near a coral and spreading. It needs to go.

 

[Timfish]

yeah, It comes of if I brush it

That makes a sponge ID even more likely. Most sponges are beneficial and some are essential for recycling Hydrophillic and hydrophobic DOC. But as mentioned above if a sponge is growing around corals enough to shade them they should be removed from around the coral. Here's videos you might find informative on DOC, microbial stuff and sponges and also a not so good video i did using stainless steel straws to remove stuff when doing water changes.

BActeria and Sponges


Maintenance of Coral Reef Health (refferences at the end)


"Coral Reefs in the Microbial Seas"


Changing Seas - Mysterious Microbes


Nitrogen cycling in hte coral holobiont


Element cycling on tropical coral reefs.
This is Jasper de Geoij's ground breaking research on reef sponges. (The introduction is in Dutch but the content is in English.)

https://www.rug.nl/research/portal/files/14555035/13completethesis.pdf

Sponge symbionts and the marine P cycle

Sponge symbionts and the marine P cycle

Marine sponges are ubiquitous colonizers of shallow, clear-water environments in the oceans (1, 2). Sponges have emerged as significant mediators of biogeochemical fluxes in coastal zones by virtue of respiring organic matter and facilitating both the consumption and release of nutrients (3, 4)...

www.pnas.org

Phosphorus sequestration in the form of polyphosphate by microbial symbionts in marine sponges

Phosphorus sequestration in the form of polyphosphate by microbial symbionts in marine sponges

Coral reefs are highly productive ecosystems that raise a conundrum called “Darwin’s paradox”: How can high production flourish in low-nutrient conditions? We show here that in three abundant Caribbean sponges, the granules that have been commonly observed in sponge tissue for decades are...

www.pnas.org

Differential recycling of coral and algal dissolved organic matter via the sponge loop.
Sponges treat DOC from algae differently than DOC from corals

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besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Surviving in a Marine Desert The Sponge Loop Retains Resources Within Coral Reefs
Dissolved organic carbon and nitrogen are quickly processed by sponges and released back into the reef food web in hours as carbon and nitrogen rich detritus.

(PDF) 2013 deGoeij Science Sponge loop

PDF | On Jun 23, 2015, Jasper M de Goeij and others published 2013 deGoeij Science Sponge loop | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate

www.researchgate.net

Natural Diet of Coral-Excavating Sponges Consists Mainly of Dissolved Organic Carbon (DOC)

Natural Diet of Coral-Excavating Sponges Consists Mainly of Dissolved Organic Carbon (DOC)

Coral-excavating sponges are the most important bioeroders on Caribbean reefs and increase in abundance throughout the region. This increase is commonly attributed to a concomitant increase in food availability due to eutrophication and pollution. We ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

The Role of Marine Sponges in Carbon and Nitrogen Cycles of COral Reefs and Nearshore Environments.

The role of marine sponges in carbon and nitrogen cycles of coral reef and nearshore environments - ProQuest

Explore millions of resources from scholarly journals, books, newspapers, videos and more, on the ProQuest Platform.

search.proquest.com

Steel Straws