Re Hydroid? Cnidaria? Sponge? Our mystery guest is... 1/24/11
Greetings Wet Web Crew!
<Hello again Lori!>
I had written a couple of weeks ago but others have had issues with my e-mail and given I included several very large hi-res photos, well, never hurts to ask. Because I know you can't possibly be busy updating the site or answering other queries or doing other productive things (like jobs and stuff). :-)
<Oh yes>
In any case, I've continued researching while I waited and am now even more confused than ever. I've uploaded as hi-res a photo to Flickr as I can for your viewing pleasure:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/58719687@N04/5385512862/
Descriptions and other IDs on the site here seem to indicate it could be a Hydroid.
<Mmm, yes. I had replied to this query>
Or a Hydrozoan. Or perhaps a Sponge or maybe some strange communal relationship between one or more in some sort of twisted, undersea love triangle. Or maybe it's a coral of some sort? That'd be awesome but my day has been going such that I would not expect that to be the case. A photo in http://www.wetwebmedia.com/AscidIDF4.htm seems eerily similar, though the body of these and formations appear foliate and digitate in nature, though it's hard to tell whether the foliate forms are simply two or more fingers in a colony growing very closely together. Your answer to the query referenced in the FAQ above, by the way, pointed at Hydroid/Hydrozoans but after reading those FAQs this does not seem to be the case? Of course I'm not the expert, which is why I'm writing you.
<I do think what you have pictured is both Ascidian AND Hydroid... the "feathery bits">
The branches are firm. When they first appeared a few months ago I feared Cyano or slime algae, so I brushed at them and they did not give at all - they were actually fairly rough to the touch. So I continued watching. The rocks upon which they were growing were moved - and thus exposed to air - about a month ago to a 150g tank, which at first disabused me of the notion they were sponges but then again with the new arrangement these could be different growths.
The extensions appear quite rigid in the photo but close observations shows them to be more flexible, more like a polyp or tentacle than a rigid extension. There are many, many of these growths, but only ones growing downward in shadows on the underside of rocks or in crevices exhibit rapid growth and these extensions. Those in the photo have grown about 3/4" in the past month to extend out of the crevice they are in.
I'm running 1 14,000K HQI metal halide (150 watts) and 4 (39 watts) HO T5 actinics.
Any thoughts are greatly appreciated - they are interesting to see growing but if they're dangerous I'd rather remove them before they turn into a plague. I do have higher resolution photos but am reluctant to attach in case that's keeping my e-mail from being delivered. If you received my first e-mail but haven't had a chance yet to respond, my apologies. If you did respond and I didn't receive (which has also happened in the past month or so, or so I'm told) my apologies.
<See here: http://wetwebmedia.com/NonvertIDF56.htm
dated 1/9>
I'd buy you a beer to make up for it but I'm not traveling much these days. :-(
<If you're close by, I'll drive on over!>
Thanks for the great site and all the great information!
Lori MacVittie
<Welcome! Bob Fenner>
re: Hydroid? Cnidaria? Sponge? Our mystery guest is... 1/24/11
Ah, thank you very much for re-responding and my apologies about the size of the original photos. Will keep to minimum or use Flickr in the future.
<Ah, thank you>
Now I just need to figure out what happened to your response...hmmm...
<Yikes! Am not a high-tech kind of guy>
Many thanks!!
Lori
<As many welcomes. BobF>

Update: Is the mystery guest really Sporadotrema? Foram.! 2/6/11
Greetings (again)!
<Lor>
I have good news and an update/question regarding the "mystery guest".
<Oh!>
The good news is I discovered you were caught in the big technology QT in the sky. My SPAM filtering service has been updated and unlike my system your e-mail will go straight to the DT.
<Ah, good>
You (well, perhaps not "you" per se but BobF unless this is BobF and then "you" really does mean "you") had suggested my mystery guest was both Ascidian and hydroid. I was reading about pods (because I found tons of them in both my systems - wheeeee!) and followed a link that led me here and there and then to this image: http://www.nevillecoleman.com.au/gallery/image-listing.aspx?ImgGroupId=7839
<Mmm, could be!>
That certainly appears to be the same critter as in my photo. A Foraminiferan identified by the image as "Sporadotrema meserfericum".
I'm fairly certain of the id based on the photo match - even the test appears the same as described, especially as occasionally I can see particulates caught in it that eventually disappear. I did a search on WMM and did not find any further information on Sporadotrema but did find more on Homotrema rubrum. Interestingly the photo around which the discussion of Homotrema is based (here: http://www.wetwebmedia.com/lridfaq7.htm) looks a lot more like the one in the aforementioned link/image that describes it as Sporadotrema.
<Agreed>
Now I've been trying to read about forams (which is fascinating and has led to the ID of some of the other growth forms in my system which appear to be Homotrema rubrum) but I'm not finding much about Sporadotrema except in lengthy very scientific journals that are more confusing than anything else. For the most part I gather these are (a) not dangerous, (b) not toxic, and (c) require very little attention on my part. Do you concur with this conclusion? Is there something else of which I should be aware?
<I do concur w/ these statements. Not harmful esp.>
If I'm reading things correctly they're both Foraminiferans so it shouldn't really matter but now I'm curious (and a little excited to perhaps have found an answer to the question "what are those 'bearded things' growing in the system??").
<I do (still) think these are another organism. Do you have access to a dissection 'scope?>
Thanks in advance (for wading through this message and for all the great information you provide!)
Lori
Thoughts?
<Do please read here: http://wetwebmedia.com/marprotozfaqs.htm
Lynn's ID et al. re Forams. BobF>

strange new creature on glass 12/6/10
Dear WWM crew,
<Alicia>
Firstly, thank you for your informative web site, love it!
<Welcome!>
Secondly - the reason for the email... Hopefully the pictures got to you.
The first is when I found it, the second is two days later. Seeing the PVC in the background, you can tell that it doesn't move much, whatever it is.
We had a rough couple of weeks and I wasn't "able" to change the water at all. Once I did a test for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels and saw bad news, I began to change the water. One gallon at a time. I took the 55gallon tank down to about half, moving the hammerhead coral to keep it submerged (by the way, are these bad? I heard of stinging tentacles that come out at night that kill neighboring fish and coral).
<Euphyllias can be tough on Cnidarian neighbors, physically and chemically.
Read here: http://wetwebmedia.com/carycompfaqs.htm>
And slowly added water back in... again, one gallon at a time. This little critter is still hanging out and moves a little bit daily. I can't for the life of me figure out what it is, where it might have come from. We have not added anything new in at least 4 months, and that was a blue starfish. Our live rock is all at least 1 year old in this tank.
Currently our water parameters are "okay" with nitrates being at around 40 (ppms?)
<Mmm, too high. I'd keep, allow at half this maximum>
Another half water change in a couple days should hopefully fix this. Salinity is between 1.021 and 1.022.
<... too low. See WWM re>
Temp runs about 76 degrees. We have about 30 pounds of live rock, an inch or less of live sand. 1 brittle star, 1 cleaner shrimp (red w/ white stripe down his body), 1 green mandarin (sp?), 1 Pseudochromis (sp?),
<These spellings are correct>
4 green blue chromis', 3 mollies (looking for a new home), and 2 false clownfish (that live very near the creature of the glass). 2 snails, at least 4 tiny baby snails, a few mini brittle stars, 4small hermit crabs. Only current filtration is a hang on the tank filter (sump tank and protein skimmer are not in use at the moment).
Hope you can identify our little creature!
Thanks again,
Alicia
<Considering the size, growth (thank you for the two images), the swellings at the growing ends and their extensions, lack of motility... I do think this is a Hydropolyp/Hydrozoan species of some sort. I would carefully scrape and vacuum it out during a water change. Please read here:
http://wetwebmedia.com/hyzoancompfaq.htm
and here: http://wetwebmedia.com/hyzoanidfaq.htm
Bob Fenner>