Evil sponges!!

[Zen Reef]

I have this light lime green colored sponge that's starting to choke out my zoas and palys. I've tried taking pictures of it but can't get one that shows them with any clarity. Has anyone experienced these? Any solution to them? I first saw them awhile back but they were only growing on rocks and actually looked cool so I left them alone. Now they are showing up all around my zoas and are slowly but surely killing them. I imagine the immediate short solution is to isolate the ones I can and try air exposure or fresh water dips. However I'm afraid it will just come back since its on a lot of the rock work. I've put a lot of effort into collecting different zoas and palys. I'm almost considering just getting all the angels I always wanted and say forget the corals they eat too..arggggg...

[Zen Reef]

[Zen Reef]

No one knows of/experienced these?

[jroescher]

I've had sponges similar to that, but they were never a problem. Mind always seemed to thrive in dark spaces.

[Sherita]

I've dealt with this before. It's aggravating for sure. You can use tweezers to pick the sponge out from between/around your zoas, it will come off pretty easily. I haven't found any way to actually kill it, but a toothbrush will get a lot of it off of your rocks. I have some of it in my 72g and by using a toothbrush I can keep it confined to one spot on my rocks. What I do know is that exposure to air will not kill it, neither will a hydrogen peroxide dip.

[Zen Reef]

Did a fresh water dip on the colonies is could remove about a week ago. So far the sponges haven't come back and the zoas are coming back!!