Any idea what these could be?

trainfever

Active Member
Ok so I have these things growing on the glass walls inside my tank. They are sort of a pink in color. They look like they could be some kind of plant. There is one stem attached to the glass with other branches branching off in kind of a semi circle in shape. I found about 8 of them so far. At first glance, they reminded me of a snowflake. They look like they could be some kind of finger coral but I have none in my tank. I tried to takew pictures but they are only about 3/8 in diameter so far and I couldn't get pictures of them. Anyone have any ideas what these could be?
 

snipe

Active Member
Get your camera and place a magnifying glass over the lense that will zoom in without making the pic fuzzy.
 

trainfever

Active Member
I took one to a LFS and was told that they are sea fans. They are growing all over, in my tank and in my refugium.
 

ophiura

Active Member
It is very unlikely they are sea fans (gorgonians) which are very difficult to keep at all let alone get them to reproduce. It is possible that they are foraminiferans. See the Hitch hiker ID thread at the top of this forum. Also there are several calcarous or otherwise red algae that may grow.
John Rice's often used picture of this type of foram:
 

ophiura

Active Member
Hmmm....that's different. Look kinda like tiny "shaving brush algae" Penicillus but a bit fuzzy.
 

snipe

Active Member
Man I dont know what that is it is kinda fuzzy. If it isnt flat kinda looks like a featherduster. But it looks flat to me so I dont know.
 

ophiura

Active Member
Definitely does look flat....
Any input on a growth rate on these? Noticably larger in a few days? Slow growing? :thinking:
 

trainfever

Active Member
I hadn't looked at the tank in about 4 or 5 days and then all of a sudden they were there. So they grew to 3/8 of an inch in 5 days. My rock is Figi rock.
 

wax32

Active Member
I've got some of that growing on my rocks I think lemme see if I can get a clear picture.
Not SUPER clear, but close. Try this:

They hitched in on a colony of GSP's I have and on this colony of zoanthids. The ones on the GSP's went away after a month or two. I'm hoping this one will do the same.
 
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