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Skinny stalks with circles at top


RaymondNoodles

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RaymondNoodles

Not sure if it's a coral or macroalgae, but these just popped up in my zoa colony that I've had for a year. Haven't added any new rock or corals in about 6 months.

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Caulerpa nummularia, maybe? 

 

Also, check on those two things at the left of the colony. Make sure they aren't aiptasia, because they look like aiptasia. 

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RaymondNoodles
32 minutes ago, Tired said:

Caulerpa nummularia, maybe? 

Hmm, not sure. The heads/polyps are still very small, hard to see and don't have much color except for a tiny white dot in the center. I will see if I can get a better picture. 

 

34 minutes ago, Tired said:

Also, check on those two things at the left of the colony. Make sure they aren't aiptasia, because they look like aiptasia. 

It's kenya tree coral. I scraped it off that rock a couple months ago but it's back, popping up everywhere. Might as well call it aiptasia lol. Knock on wood but this tank hasn't had any aiptasia in probably 8 months.

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Definitely looks like some sort of caulerpa. Some types are relatively cooperative, so it may not be a pest, but it's definitely worth keeping an eye on it. Probably had some holdfasts in the rock somewhere that decided to start growing just now.

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  • 4 weeks later...
RaymondNoodles

Just wanted to provide an update on the caulerpa. It's growing really fast and slightly pissing off the zoa's and palys. Not sure if I'll be able to remove it without damaging the zoas, as it appears to be stemming from the middle of the red zoa colony.

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That's grape algae it has a runner you can probly pull it carefully out from between the polyps. Some people grow it in sumps or refugeum or even as a display macro but usualy not touching corals. Yes it can irritate corals slightly if rubbing up on them.

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It does look a bit like grape algae at this point. Try removing it, with tweezers in case those zoas are one of the toxic varieties. 

 

Nice little collection! Are those big ones Armor of Gods? 

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RaymondNoodles
1 hour ago, LazyFish said:

That's grape algae it has a runner you can probly pull it carefully out from between the polyps. Some people grow it in sumps or refugeum or even as a display macro but usualy not touching corals. Yes it can irritate corals slightly if rubbing up on them.

It does have a runner. I hadn't ever really looked at grape algae, but after some quick googling that sounds right. It just recently developed the bulbus grapes. Before it was just flat discs on the end of the branches. Now they're puffy. It's about 4 inches long and growing like crazy. Probably 3 inches in the last 2 weeks. Is it true what they say...it's not about the size of the runner, but the juice in the grapes? 

😂 

1 hour ago, Tired said:

It does look a bit like grape algae at this point. Try removing it, with tweezers in case those zoas are one of the toxic varieties. 

 

Nice little collection! Are those big ones Armor of Gods? 

Thanks! I'll try relocating it with tweezers. Nutrients have been higher these days which has been creating a lot of growth.

 

I think they're armor of God's. Got them from the LFS and they weren't labeled. When I got them about 6 months ago there were 4 heads. They were $20 total. One of my favorite corals for sure. Here's a better shot with yellow and macro orphek lenses which seems to give the most accurate representation.

 

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Whatever they are, they're nice. Looks like Armor of Gods to me, which seems to be the only criteria; if it looks like a zoa morph, it's that zoa morph. I gotta pick me up some of those, if they grow that fast. 

 

Make sure to keep the caulerpa pruned. You don't want a ton of it stuff- if it strips all the nutrients from the water, it may go sexual, which means it'll convert all its internal bits into reproductive spores and gush spores all over your tank. Having a small bit of caulerpa is less likely to strip the nutrients, and is generally fine if it goes sexual. If a huge clump goes sexual, that's a problem, all that stuff getting into the water at once. 

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RaymondNoodles
14 hours ago, Tired said:

Make sure to keep the caulerpa pruned. You don't want a ton of it stuff- if it strips all the nutrients from the water, it may go sexual, which means it'll convert all its internal bits into reproductive spores and gush spores all over your tank. Having a small bit of caulerpa is less likely to strip the nutrients, and is generally fine if it goes sexual. If a huge clump goes sexual, that's a problem, all that stuff getting into the water at once. 

Thanks for the heads up. I was able to remove the majority of the caulerpa from the zoa island. Pretty much came off in one big strand with tweezers. Zoas are like "thank you!" I saved a piece and glued it to an island rock near the back wall. We'll see how fast it grows there and prune if necessary or put in the refugium of the new tank that I am setting up, although It will be a while before that tank has enough nutrients to necessitate a refugium. I think it looks kinda neat and maybe it will attach to the back wall. Always interesting to learn about new macro algaes. I will keep an eye on the nutrients in the tank to make sure they don't start dropping so the caulerpa doesn't go sexual.

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