What's this?

Stella1979 · Oct 1, 2017

These guy's first showed up among a small colony of zoas. I just watched it at first, but then saw the zoas were unhappy. I removed the zoas from the tank and dealt with these little guys before rinsing twice and returning to the tank. Now, a new group has shown up elsewhere on the rock. What are they and how worried should I be? Thanks for looking.

DSC reef · Oct 1, 2017

Looks like sponge from the pic

Stella1979 · Oct 1, 2017

Thanks for the reply. I don't think it's a sponge though. It opens and closes, kind of like zoas. It's all white and looks kind of like a tiny flower. This one has been there about a week. It stayed closed for one entire day, then reopened the next with two polyps.

DSC reef · Oct 1, 2017

@KJ, you ever seen this?

Stella1979 · Oct 1, 2017

I don't know if this will help, but here's an earlier pic with the blues. This was before it sprouted another head. The unknown is near the top and left of center. Down and to the right is a blue sympodium polyp for a size reference. Thanks for looking guys.

DSC reef · Oct 1, 2017

Could be a bleached polyp, possibly of the sympodium. @Lovemyreef2015, you might be right

Stella1979 · Oct 1, 2017

Thanks again. If it were polyps bleaching, I feel I'd see that happening. The tank is still fairly new at 4 months old and most of my corals are still rather small, most of them being from the last WWC sale here on R2R.

I'm sure I'd know if I were losing polyps. I do appreciate your help though, I've been really stumped. This thing just showed up and multiplied, first among some zoas and then later on a bare area on the rock. The sympodium is nearby but actually on a different rock, and that colony is healthy.

Lovemyreef2015 · Oct 1, 2017

DSC reef said:
Could be a bleached polyp, possibly of the sympodium. @Lovemyreef2015, you might be right

Thanks hun, I thought it could be. Stella1979, can you try to position the rock to get more light? It would be cool to see what it colors up to.

Stella1979 · Oct 1, 2017

That would be interesting to see, but the rock is glued, so I can't move it. I'm not sure it will color up though. I left these things among the zoas for a good while and they didn't color up then. Now it's closer to the light and still white. I actually got to calling them the ghost polyps because they're very white, but kind of lacy and translucent.

Thanks so much for trying guys.

Stella1979 · Oct 2, 2017

Just wanted to share a closer picture. Still hoping to identify these 'ghost polyps'... They look like a lacey flower, opens and closes with light and multiplies quickly. Any ideas are appreciated.

redfishbluefish · Oct 2, 2017

Following. Have never seen something like that, but wondering if it might be the polyp stage of a jellyfish???

@Lionfish Lair have you seen this before?

Stella1979 · Oct 3, 2017

Polyp stage of a jelly.... that would be very interesting.

Still trying to figure this out. Here's yesterday's pics.

It's starting to look strangely like I'm looking up through a tiny hot air balloon... if that makes sense at all. See the petals? At the junction of each petal, a filament or string is stretched upward, and each of those strings comes together to form small ring above the main petal structure. It retracts when touched.

Bruzzerfish · Oct 3, 2017

Could be the start of some sort of nuisance anemone

Stella1979 · Oct 3, 2017

So, about those ghost polyps....

I broke down and finally contacted ReefGardner, an online retailer who also happens to be local. I visited her place a couple of months ago and bought 2 zoa frags, she called them Goldies & Fire & Ice, as well as a ricordea. The Goldie zoa frag is where the ghost polyps first appeared. With pictures and little else info wise, ReefGardner identified them to be an encrusting tunicate.

Forgive me, I'm not saying that she's wrong. I can't say what this is so I'm open to ideas, but this thing looks nothing like the many pictures of tunicates I've looked at. As far as I know these sea squirts develop a kind of skin, almost shell like in appearance. Could my little ghosts be the beginning of a sea squirt? I haven't been able to determine that yet.

ReefGardner also says that they will encrust over corals that are nearby. So what's the consensus folks? Should I try to get rid of them? It's a scary idea since they are now on a rock that I cannot remove from the tank. How might I go about it? The ripping them off method that worked with a frag that I took out of the tank does not seem ideal for working inside the tank.... at best the could spread, at worst, idk!

For now, I still want to see what it may turn into. Just looking for more info as well as ideas on what to do should this critter become a problem again.

Lovemyreef2015 · Oct 18, 2017

I found this while browsing their site. I believe it is Tunicate i am posting the link. Just scroll almost all the way down to the bottom of the page and you will see it.

https://www.lionfishlair.com/hitchhikers-guide/

sfin52 · Oct 18, 2017

I also believe tunicate

Stella1979 · Nov 3, 2017

Lovemyreef2015 said:
I found this while browsing their site. I believe it is Tunicate i am posting the link. Just scroll almost all the way down to the bottom of the page and you will see it.

https://www.lionfishlair.com/hitchhikers-guide/

Oh my goodness.... thank you!!! That link is great! A tunicate has been the consensus, but I have looked and looked at pictures and had not found any that looked like that. Sometimes the amount of information available is overwhelming to a newb like myself. Thanks for pointing me to a great reference.

Lovemyreef2015 · Nov 3, 2017

You're welcome

. It can get very overwhelming with all the info on the net and it's hard to find good sources that you can trust. I'm glad I could help! Happy reefing