Jim emailed me this pic for him to put up and ask everyone what this is. From what he described, its hard, so my guess is it isn’t a sponge, almost looks similar to a type of birdsnest SPS coral, but that isn’t my expertise there. Here’s a pic
Well the white tips would indicate new growth, but I don’t see anything that resembles a polyp or even a bumb where a polyp would be. I agree it’s got the look of an SPS but I could not guess as to a specific one.
I have two guesses, but I would need a clearer pic. The first one is some type of montipora digitata. If that is the case you should be able to see poplyps, or at least the walls between polyps in a nice clear pic or in person. If there are no noticable polyps in the skeleton, my vote would be some type of millipora aka fire coral. I have seen some for sale in the hobby from time to time. It almost always has white tips, even if there isnt new growth, but has no recognisable skeletal structure around the polyps, only little holes in an otherwise smooth skeleton where the polyps emerge from.
Axinella Sponge?
Is there holes in the ends kinda looks that way in a few spots…
Hard as in something slightly flexabile like cartilage vs mushroom jelly like soft? Or hard as in extremly rigid would probalby snap if bent at a 45* angle? (Word of warning if it is a fire coral it would be a good idea not to grab on to it and try to snap it or feel it too much.Do a google search on the dangers of fire corals)
Any chance you could go over and get a better image?
Or maybe he could get a video of a power head blowing right on it only a couple inches away? Then we could see the current on the mushrooms in relation to the current on the mystery item.
I am going to guess at this point it isn’t a hard coral, but more like an algae, but it is hard to tell.
Yeah, now that you mention it it does look like there are fairly large holes in the ends. That plus the hairy shrooms growing over it I am going to guess it is a type of sponge, not an sps.
I wonder how fast it grows? If not overly fast I would probably keep it, it’s different looking.
I was hoping Jim would respond to this thread. I am sure he will eventually. I actually don’t know anything about it. He just emailed me the pic and I posted it for him. I am not into corals like most people on here, so you guys would know more then me. Hopefully he can get a better pic and I can host it, maybe describe it better. Thanks for the responses everyone, hopefully Jim can figure it out.