sponge/sea squirt-HELP!

[skilter]

please take note of the white sponge looking stuff with the spiderman web stringy stuff ->









i have seen these lil things attaching to everything from zoos to glass to lr to whatever is in its path, i cant seem to stop its growth, i have tried to scrub it off rock/pull on its lil string strands and still it wont stop its growth, it pretty much acts as a paracite when its on something living like zoos its killed 3 colonies now and infecting several others, this is heartbreaking becuase i had sooo many beautiful colonies that were expanding at unbelievable rates now that dream is next to destroyed. PLEASE tell me how to eradicate this stuff, i have thought about pulling all the rock out and individually scrubbing the rock, but trust me its on everything that is not possible. i reallly REALLY dont want to have to start over, but right now i feel thats the only thing that will work. this is scary stuff. so here's my utopian dream question, is there something out there that is reef safe and will eat this stuff???

[ChrisPrusha]

That's very interesting.

And yeah, sea turtles are prolly out of the question.

[skilter]

haha sea turtles... ok thx for the info guys!

so just continue to kinda scrape them off?

[JY13131]

That is SO weird because I just noticed the same thing growing on my zoos for the first time. Like they are wrapped in a cocoon! Go figure. So what are they and what do I do?

[skilter]

well so far all i have been able to do is use my finger and scrape them off and try and catch them in a net. i also have performed fw dips, and see that as helping. but thats all i can do.

[LeslieH]

Benthic ctenophores are sessile cousins of pelagic comb jellies. The comb jellies have 8 rows of fine hairs called cilia which propel them through the water and 2 long feeding tentacles. The benthics have lost the 8 rows but retain the feeding tentacles - the "spiderman webs" Skilter noticed. They're not parasites and probably aren't responsible for the lost of any zoas. The more likely cause is poor water parameters or a combination of factors. The ctenophores feed by catching copepods. Skilter, since you're having a population explosion of both copepods & ctenophores it's likely you're overfeeding which resulted in the copepod boom. If you can get rid of the copepods the ctenophores are likely to vanish as well.

These ctenophores reproduce both sexually & asexually by splitting some a fragment which grows into a new individual. With lots of copepods for food they have the energy to reproduce rapidly.

[skilter]

leslieH, im not having an explosion in copepods (the little black things ARE NOT copepods) but i do however believe i have overfed in the last few weeks which would explain in the emergence of more little black things. i have no idea how these can catch copepods, they're web-like strings are not large enough nor strong enough to catch copepods. however i do believe they are feeding off of what is in the water itself, for instance what you would use to feed zooanthids and or feather dusters. but i only feed this 2-3 times a week, and i only feed my fish about 3 times a week. i will cut that back to about 2 and see if i see any changes in either population. however i have tried to remove the ctenophores and they are the HARDEST thing ever to remove. the only thing i have been able to do is use a toothbrush and scrub them off the rocks, and attempt to catch them floating in the water. so once again, the black things are NOT copepods. thankyou for your interrest in helping me.

[LeslieH]

The strings/feeding tentacles have adhesive cells that hold onto pods and particles and are surprisingly strong. I've lifted them off rocks by letting them hold onto a finger but maybe I was dealing with a different species. Other ones I've collected in the field by using a soft brush or blowing them off with a pipette - again, maybe other species not as strong as yours.

I'm really curious as to what your black things. Send me a couple if you like. Even if I can't id them someone at my museum should be able to.