Gah! WTH is this?

Found a bunch of these growing on the side of my overflow box. About the size of two grains of rice with a little lobster like tail on the back. Had tons of copepods hangin out with em. My Mandarin is really fat, so something good is going on in tank, but just not sure to keep these?

 

Pineapple sponges common name. Found dark places like sumps or behind equipment.

 

Ah very cool, thanks. I was also amazed at how many Copepods were in the overflow. With that fast current, they must have good grip.

 

yuk! you found that in your tank? I got sponge, but mine is all the encrusting type, red, yellow and white, that guy looks hidious, did you smash him with those pliers?

 

most sponges are good....My sump had over 300 of these in it. I had a nitrate outbreak and had to scrape the sump clean.

 

Thank God I came across this thread. I took off my hob filter the other night and it was coated with these guys. Thought it was a facehugger at first. I see them all in my skimmer body now. Good to know they're beneficial and not a plague. Now I know why all of my fish keep looking and hovering around the filter areas like they're looking for food. Thanks everyone for the heads up!

 

Please don't say you took the time to count em

 

In addition to my fuge, I have the old two cartridge filter that hangs on the back that came with the tank. I fill my own cartridges with charcoal and phosguard, anyways i changed my filter cardtridges and there were tons of em on the walls, on the filters and even inside the filters. My wife freaked, but we left most alone.

 

Filters=good spot for filter feeders.