Weird bulbous, but hard, thing.

[Dinoflorist]

Hi,

I have had this rock for a six months, and we've noticed something down in the fire shrimps cave before, but we never thought to really check it out. Now we are moving everybody to a larger tank, and when we went to take the rock out, we saw this sickening sight. I have no idea what it is, but it is hard, somehwhat porous, and has a green tint (like a blue-green reef chromis). I took several pictures; they all suck. Hopefully you can tell what this is and if it is dangerous to put in my other tank.

Needless to say, I'm not going to put it or the fire shrimp into the other tank unless I have some sort of assurance that it's not a living blob intent on murdering and consuming all other animals.

 

[Anonymous]

way too big and way too blurry to make an id on that...try resizing...

 

[Dinoflorist]

I was able to resize. Is it still too blurry? I tried to take several pictures, but apparantly my camera sucks, and this was the best one I could get.

 

[Anonymous]

its still a little blurry..is it hard or soft?? (keep your mind outta the gutter too)...99% sure its harmless though....

 

[Dinoflorist]

It's quite hard, I'd say as hard as the rock itself, although there's no way im touching that thing with my fingers. It doens't pulsate or anything. It is textured evenly with indentations kind of like a golf ball.

THat whole bottom of the rock looks kind of nasty to me. the hermits and emerald crab never got in there because the fire shrimp chased them away. Which is why I have been worried that it's a festering untreated container for horrid toxic bacteria or spores or some sort.
Upon further inspection, i've noticed a hole in it....uh...can't say much about said hole....there's blackness and it's brown aroud the edges.

 

[John_Brandt]

I'm nearly certain it is a sponge. It's commonly called Chicken liver sponge, because of its appearance and texture.

 

[Dinoflorist]

I've tried to look up some things about chicken liver sponge, but I can't find much of use. None of the pictures i found look like the one I have, but the descriptions of hard and textured do, and I also read that they have varying colors.
On wet web media, one of their people said that chicken liver sponges were "notorious" and "noxious." I read a post about someone who couldn't get rid of it (no advice was offered by WWW media's helper).

Yet, apparantly, people order them, and other posts have called them harmless or cool, but hard to care for. Ours was obviously very easy to care for, because that 10 gallon tank was not in the best of conditions.

What I'm asking for is more information about it. I want to know what I should do with it.
It's on my best piece of live rock, and I'd like to get that rock into the new tank cause my fire shrimp would like his old home back.

PS> thanks a lot! I would have never had any sort of starting place if you hadn't been able to help me out. Hopefully you know a little more about it.

 

[Anonymous]

Chondrilla nucula ( Chicken liver sponge ) is one of the easier to keep sponges in marine aquariums which is why is has done well for you as these are filter feeders. However by taking it out of your tank and exposing it to air it is very likely that you have damage parts or all of it as live sponges should not be exposed to air. They do have a chemical ( toxic ) defense that they use against predators.
If you do a Google search on this scientific name you'll probably receive quite a few hits and if I remember there should be an article floating ( sorry about the pun ) around by Bob Toonen on sponges.
I had nothing to do at the moment here's the link to Toonen's article:



http://www.aquarium.net/1196/1196_7.shtml

Regards,
David Mohr

 

[Anonymous]

anyways, its more than likely ok to put a shrimp in you tank...it hardly seems like a threat to any future inhabitants...hopefully this will put you at rest so you can add your shrimp..

 

[Dinoflorist]

Yeah, actually I had already added the shrimp to the other tank. I was just waiting on moving the rock from the old tank to the new. Once I do this, I'm done, and no more trouble!

 

[hdtran]

I have chicken liver sponges on my rock (aquacultured FL LR). (Or, if you like to acronymize, AFL). Perfectly harmless. Can't make chopped liver from it, though...

The green color is somewhat odd. Mine are grey and brown.

Don't be shy, just touch it with your fingers. If it's hard, but smooth/slimy, it definitely is the chicken liver sponge.

There's almost no hitchhiker on LR (whether aquacultured or live) that can kill you on contact. As I think about it, actually, the chances of dangerous hitchhikers are pretty minimal. Stonefish, lionfish (related to the stonefish, I think? John, pipe in, please?). There are certain corals, and one species of palythoa which are toxic. But to unbroken skin, and if you're careful with handwashing, LR and hitchhikers are pretty safe.

Regards,

Hy

 

[John_Brandt]

There's almost no hitchhiker on LR (whether aquacultured or live) that can kill you on contact. As I think about it, actually, the chances of dangerous hitchhikers are pretty minimal. Stonefish, lionfish (related to the stonefish, I think? John, pipe in, please?). There are certain corals, and one species of palythoa which are toxic. But to unbroken skin, and if you're careful with handwashing, LR and hitchhikers are pretty safe.

Right, there's nothing on a live rock that will kill you. Even stonefish and lionfish generally aren't deadly. About the worst things you will encounter grabbing a live rock are fireworms, fire sponge, fire coral and those spikey red forams.