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View Full Version : lps killing sponge?


thatguy559
05-03-2009, 12:31 PM
okay so i was wondering what was going on with my wall hammer i thought it was stressed because of the transfer. so after it died i put another hammer in its place and my 12 head torch was in that area. went to fallon and came back and i lost 2 heads on the hammer and 8 heads on the torch. i took a close look at the area and noticed that there were all these round bumps that had long spikes sticking out of them some as far as 4 inches long. they were all over that place. so i pulled them all off in that area to see if its the culprit. can anyone tell me if sponges can do that?

here are pictures of them
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b155/jsprinkle/saltwater%20tanks/DSC04141.jpg
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b155/jsprinkle/saltwater%20tanks/DSC04142.jpg
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b155/jsprinkle/saltwater%20tanks/DSC04143.jpg

they are three different colors reddish pink, brown and green.
ranging in sizes from smaller than a dime to as large as a 50 cent coin
jcal
05-03-2009, 04:56 PM
doesn't look like a sponge.
vicfish
05-04-2009, 11:01 AM
yeah that does not look like a sponge to me..
thatguy559
05-04-2009, 11:40 AM
well then what is it. i know its a type of sponge but thats about it.
snyder2050
06-07-2009, 08:36 AM
It looks just like sponge to me. I've always had lots of sponge and ones that look just like that growing on a lot of my lps. I don't think it would be something that would kill a torch or frogspawn overnight if at all. I did pull some off when it got really huge(different species of sponges) but in general sponges are very benificial to a reef tank and aid with filtering ect. Is there anything else you can think of? What are your paramateres? Lighting? Flow? Do you have any fish that could be nipping at it?
nahtanoj
06-07-2009, 08:41 AM
i agree, it is a sponge, it is very unlikely to be the culprit. sponges kill by slowly smothering whatever they are growing around or on, and that isn't really intentional, they are just spreading. do you have pics of the dead corals? that might help with noticing something. have they gotten any brown slime on the dead heads?