ID assistance with Red, stone/pebbled shaped macro/plant

[mndfreeze]

I got some LR pieces from another local reefer who broke down his tank and the pieces were dry for a while. One is a large coral skeleton from perhaps a large bubble coral.

 

Anyway, it had a few small red 'stone' looking pieces stuck to it that looked like perhaps bubble algae that somehow dried and calcified or so I thought.

 

VERY SLOWLY it has been growing. I now have maybe 30 to 40 bubble like pieces. I'll try to get a pic when I get home from work. They are deep red. About twice the size bubble algae gets to. Some even have coraline growing on them. They are NOT perfectly round. they look more like little stones then anything else.

 

So whatever it is, it survived weeks out of water. I've never seen a sponge like this, it has no openings and has to be plant related. I looked through all the macro pics I could find and I can't find anything to match.

 

It has no stalks or branches that I could find. Also, it just appeared right at an intake point for my mechanical filter like I would expect a bubble algae to. My emerald crabs nor anything else will touch it.

 

Ideas?

[mndfreeze]

Just to note, I actually do have the typical reefers bubble algae in the tank right next to this 20 that came in on a frag I'm sure. Its green. Looks exactly like every picture of bubble algae I've ever seen. The only similarities between these two is they both don't have stalks and are somewhat circular shaped. The similarities end there.

 

Google images pulled up a single picture of something that looked similar but not exact when I searched for Botryocladia. Of course its an RC link and they are down for backups right now. Pic is halfway down and has wierd lines/stripes/coraline looking growth on it.

[carbon-mantis]

To toss a guess or two into the hat, I'd put ten cents on either Botryocladia or maybe one of those red foraminiferan species.

[RESONANCE]

Any pictures?

 

From your description...if I were you, I'd either be super excited or super scared.

 

Not trying to scare you...There's a type of bubble macro algae I've recently read about that's quite nice looking, has patterns on it. BUT, it's super invasive, spreads like wild fire, chokes out everything, lives on all surfaces and nothing eats it. In addition, the only article I've come across on it suggested the only sure fire way to rid the system of it was a total tear down and dry everything out for 1 or 2 months.

[RESONANCE]

Hopefully this is not what you have:

 

http://www.saltcorner.com/AquariumLibrary/...?CritterID=2087

 

Botryocladia skottsbergii

 

Some pictures:

http://www.algaebase.org/_mediafiles/algae...ryyG8jXoybh.jpg

http://www.algaebase.org/_mediafiles/algae...tyDWhh1qj4m.jpg

http://www.algaebase.org/_mediafiles/algae...B3DBjnDEEP9.jpg

http://www.saltcorner.com/AquariumLibrary/...kottsbergii.jpg

[mndfreeze]

Def not any of those in the last pic. My roomie borrowed my camera and left it locked in his damn room. Here is the one pic I found that is pretty damn close on an image search. The original poster had a thread on RC about it.

 

http://media.photobucket.com/image/Botryoc...SC_84503727.jpg

[RESONANCE]

Last pic was only 1 variation of how it can appear; other pics posted were the same plant just different appearance. Latin/ scientific name was the same for all the pictures. I think you should be wary, if it looks like the picture you referenced.

 

Def not any of those in the last pic. My roomie borrowed my camera and left it locked in his damn room. Here is the one pic I found that is pretty damn close on an image search. The original poster had a thread on RC about it.

 

http://media.photobucket.com/image/Botryoc...SC_84503727.jpg

[johnmaloney]

+1 to botryocladia. there are like 80 different species of botryocladia in the ocean, that is definitely one of them even if you cant google a perfect match.