• Something strange on the zoanthus.

  • Emily3506

Good evening, dear forum members. On the zoanthid, strange growths are emerging directly from the body. At first, there were only a few, but now they have grown significantly and are suffocating the colony, preventing the polyps from opening. Has anyone encountered a similar phenomenon, and how can this be dealt with? Sorry for the poor quality of the photo.

Luis3725

take tweezers and pull everything out!

Heather9815

This is a sponge. It's better to remove it completely.

Phyllis

I tried cutting it off, but it comes back in even greater numbers after a couple of days. I will try the surgical method again. Is there any medication to combat this issue, or maybe some marine creatures feed on these sponges?

Alexander

Zankly feeds with its lips.

Maria

Some sponges are afraid of air and fresh water, while the umbrellas will be fine. Try experimenting... there is no other way. Although it looks more like some kind of algae... try scraping it off with a stone.

Gregory9432

and then they die of hunger

Deborah2682

It makes no sense to house a zankla in its volume; why torture the animal (230 l). I can compare this plague to some metastases that suffocate the poor zoanthids. I will try to cut it with scissors, and if that doesn't work, I will try freshwater baths.

Kevin262

This is a sponge. I have many of them. This sponge won't cause many problems - it won't clog the colony too much. When these sponges grow too much, I can easily siphon them out during water changes. Overall, it's a good sign: if the sponges are growing, it means everything is fine in the aquarium. P.S. Freshwater baths and air won't help. The sponge is tough.

Paul

It's actually strange, I have a stone completely covered with white sponge, red umbrellas grow right out of it, that's how I got it... and I thought it was supposed to be that way, maybe there are different types of sponges... Here are my umbrellas, very similar to yours, open: And here in "fright" the whole stone is in sponge and as you can see it doesn't really bother them: Do you have such a sponge?

Timothy

The most is that this type of sponge. P.S. On zoanthids, it will cause more harm than aesthetic satisfaction.

Michael

Stas is right. In our marine aquariums, most species of sponges require water of the highest quality and good stability. Keeping most species of sponges is a complex task. So if they are bothering you and ruining the appearance, you can remove them from the most visible places with tweezers (it's not advisable to use your hands, as contact with them may cause a rash between the fingers and itching, similar to contact with nettles). You can read about sponges here. P.S. I have about seven species of sponges in my marine aquariums: white, black, yellow, gray, orange, and dirty green. I welcome their existence.

Tanner

Yes, it seems that I look the same as in the photo. I will try to fight the sponge anyway, because I feel that the zoanthus is not doing very well; some polyps have completely hidden under the layer of sponge, and the others are not fully opening. There is no observed slowdown in the growth of the sponge. I will be weeding it out. Thank you to everyone who responded!