Growth on GSP??

[kjbrat]

We've had a GSP frag in our QT tank for about 3.5 weeks now. We bought a plate coral frag and a kenya tree frag at the same time and they've all been in the same tank.

All 3 frags were doing great until the middle of last week when I noticed a strange white growth on the GSP frag. It was about the size of a dime, white, rounded, and was slightly opalescent. The surface of the "bubble" moved a little with the water movement, so I don't think it was solid or filled with a hard substance. I tried to get pictures but they came out awful...I may post them later afterwork anyway though.

About two days ago the "bubble" disappeared, but now the polyps that were underneath where the thing was are not extending...only the purple bumpy mat underneath is present. Any clues on what this might be?? I will try and take pictures of the frag when I get home.

 

[Catpicklesdog]

Your plate coral may have damaged it. How close are they in the tank?

 

[kjbrat]

They were at opposite corners of my 10 gallon QT. Never came in contact with eachother.

 

[Grins]

The description sounds like what branching hammer does when it it is splitting but I can't imagine that GSP would do that.

 

[salty420]

sounds wierd but i have no idea what it could be. i have 3 separate mats of gsp and have never seen anything like that. have seen something like that on my frogspawn though!

 

[Reefscape]

What species of plate coral is this?

 

[kjbrat]

I think it is a short tentacle plate coral but not sure what exact species...Fungia something or other. It is reddish brown with magenta blotches and short tentacles.

As for the GSP, i'm not sure if it's alive anymore because there was an unfortunate error and my QT tank has been at 90 degrees for about 36 hours. I am currently trying to bring the temp down slowly but the polyps are all completely closed up and I don't know if they will open again.

This after my goby jumped a few weeks ago and my emerald crab just died this week.

 

[salty420]

ouch sorry about that. that's pretty high temp for the coral, don't give up but...

 

[andy1130]

Thats pretty hot water to live in, but if any coral could survive it i would say its star polyp, they are amazingly durable.
As for what was on it, I have no idea, but i would guess that if the temp hadnt rocketed up you wouldnt have had a problem and would have seen the polyps begin to extend again within a few days

 

[kjbrat]

Yeah it was definitely dead. Oh well! But the strangeness continues...

I had added 2 new pieces of live rock to the QT while the GSP was still in there. Just wanted to make sure there weren't any unwanted hitchhikers, etc. Two days later there is the growth again! This time on one of the live rock pieces!! It's a big larger and more spread out, almost filmy cobweb looking. Since I didn't do a water change and just put the LR in the tank, it's probably the same thing. I took pics and will post later.