Something weird overgrowing my zoas/palys

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More correctly - what is it, and how best to get rid of it?

 

Over the past month I've had a weird growth appear on my main zoanthid/palythoa rock. It starts out as a off-white "thread". When a bit grows through the sand it forms lines of what I originally thought was clumps of aragonite/carbonate precipitate. If it reaches the base of a zoanthid or palythoa it grows around and around the stalk like a vine, eventually engulfing it. Affected polyps show no sign of irritation until the stuff actually grows over the head enough to restrict it from opening. The stuff in question is on the left side of the picture (beige) - the yellow sponge on the right mixed in with the Eagle Eye's been a decent neighbor to them for over a year.

(night shot so that the stalks are visible. During the day everything looks almost OK).

 

Peels off in strips with tweezers (have to get a good grip on a loose bit and pull), almost like taking the silverskin off a cut of meat but without cutting. Very tough/not a gel or slime, not embedded in the tissue of the zoa in question like pox would be (a healthy stalk is revealed on removal) No appreciable odor once outside the tank.

 

Here's a few chunks of the stuff I forgot about in my used tankwater bucket for a couple weeks.

Apparently non-photosynthetic... that bucket's kept in a dark garage.

 

What is likely to kill this stuff without nuking my polyps? Start with standard-issue peroxide dip and work up from there?

[brandon429]

truly humbled here dont know lol I even googled sum stuff

[afyounie]

I believe this is a type of protist, but there are so many its hard to identify. Some protists, especially the fungal style ones, can be parasitic. I'd say a dip in RO/DI water would be a good first step.

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Heh... shoulda known if I typed the word "peroxide" Brandon429 would appear. It's like Candyman/Bloody Mary/Biggie Smalls without the body horror!

 

Afyounie - Protists, huh? Well, that rock's exclusively populated with zoas & paythoa so either peroxide or RODI dips are viable opening salvos. First I'll have to chase a couple porcelain crabs out and my favorite red-strip hermit tends to hide in them, too.

[GHill762]

looks like sponge in the first pic

[Leatherneck3755]

I had a colony of Zoas that were swallowed up by a sponge. I still cry. Looks familiar. Mine were lighter in color. Good luck partner

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looks like sponge in the first pic

 

On the right-side of the picture: the fluffy yellow stuff growing around the base of the eagle-eye zoas is indeed some kind of sponge... the rock's riddled with siphons. But it seems to co-exist with them fine - new polyps show up all the time and push up though the sponge without irritation, and the sponge never attaches/"crawls" up the stalks to smother them.

 

The problem is the beige stuff growing on the polyps on the center & left. THAT stuff grows like a vine, circles a polyp a few times, then thickens into a solid mat that appears to strangle/smother the polyp in question. You can juuust see a polyp in the early stages of this in the center/top section, and a later stage on the RPE's in the center.

[GHill762]

On the right-side of the picture: the yellow stuff growing around the base of the eagle-eye zoas is indeed some kind of sponge... the rock's riddled with siphons. But it seems to co-exist with them fine - new polyps show up all the time and push up though the sponge without irritation, and the sponge never attaches/"crawls" up the stalks to smother them.

 

The problem is the beige stuff growing on the polyps on the center & left. THAT stuff grows like a vine, circles a polyp a few times, then thickens into a solid mat that appears to strangle/smother the polyp in question. You can juuust see a polyp in the early stages of this in the center/top section, and a later stage on the RPE's in the center.

gotcha..