Possible Aiptasia Epidemic ID please

[colcoral]

I got this rock with 5 blue mushrooms on it a couple months ago. The mushrooms looked pretty bad for a bit and now they are shaping up, but... in the past three weeks this popped up. At first when it was really small I thought it was hair algae, but not it is looking like a forest of aiptasia. I am trying to decide if I should peel off the shrooms and throw the rock away or try to blast them with Kalk. After I started looking at all the pics of aiptasia on the board I wasn't so sure. Couldn't find any baby pics. Help anyone!

 

[bigarn]

The area is dark... hard to tell. There's definitely hair algae in the background though. Are there any bubble like things in this growth?

 

[colcoral]

All of the stuff (except the mushroom) are the same stuff. It looks like hair algae, but it is on those long stems like at the top of the rock. The hair algae looking stuff is at the top of the stem. They are only about 1/2 inch right now and brown.

 

[bigarn]

Definitely not aiptasia....It's an algae...either hair or bubble or both. Do you see any bubble like growth there?

 

[colcoral]

Here's another one. There are about 100 of them on this rock.

 

[salty cheese]

Looks like some sort of macro algae.

 

[colcoral]

Nope, they sort of look like little dusters on long stems but don't close up.

 

[bigarn]

I don't know what to tell you. :thinking: If these things are on stems, it's not aiptasia.

 

[colcoral]

Well, maybe I'll just wait and watch. I have lots of snails which have kept my tank clean of hair. I have removed a couple of bubbles, but they were easy to identify. My water parameters are good. These guys definitely hitched a ride.

 

[salty cheese]

What color is it?

 

[colcoral]

Brown. It looks like a little anemone on top of a tube like stem. Or a little duster on top of the stem. Let me try another pic.

 

[colcoral]

This pic might be better

 

[marvida]

Could be Hydroids or tiny dusters. Are the tubes hard or soft?

 

[salty cheese]

I'm at a loss. The closest thing I can come up with is Polysiphonia elongata but that isn't right.
Maybe Bang knows.

 

[stuckinfla]

I too was thinking droids.

 

[salty cheese]

Originally posted by MarVida
Could be Hydroids
I think you might right.

 

[colcoral]

Wow they do sort of look like that but they are brown. The stems are soft. I just checked and they don't close when bugged or lights out.
Are they okay? Yours are pretty. I want these to turn that color.

 

[salty cheese]

That's just a pic I pulled from the web, google "hydroids"

 

[colcoral]

Thanks, I'll do some research on Hydroids. If my whatervers - possible - hydroids get more interesting, I'll post some more pics in a couple of weeks.

 

[marvida]

If the stems are soft my guess is hydroids.