ID Strange, shiny, greenish, spherical object

[davetkoch]

A while ago I purchased a blue pipe-organ colony from one of my local lfs. The colony itself is beautiful and came with a number of coinhabitants including numerous tunicates, sponges, polychaetes, and this
strange, shiny, spherical object (http://reefcentral.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=45665) that I haven't been able to ID.

I finally got a quick picture while the pipe organ polyps were hiding from the wrath of the turkey baster during cleaning tonight.

As an aside, the picture also shows two new tunicates that seem to have popped up. They are unlike any I have seen before in the tank, as they are transparent. Most of the ones I've seen are an opaque burgandy color. I didn't get a chance to re-read the tunicate article, but is this typical of juveniles or is this a different type?

Thanks!
-Dave

[CrystalAZ]

Valonia (bubble algae).

That's what it looks like to me.

If so, you should be able to carefully remove it and dispose of it before it spreads.

Crystal

[CrystalAZ]

Oops. Just realized I responded in Dr. Ron's forum. Sorry 'bout that, Chief.

So used to answering in the general forums. :D

Crystal

[davetkoch]

Heh...All this time I was misidentifying bubble algae. :rolleyes: :lol: Will take care of that later today...

Thanks for the quick response.

[rshimek]

Hi,

See this article (http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-02/hcj/feature/index.htm), by Horge, in the first issue of [rk] for some good information about these algae.

[davetkoch]

Thanks much! Very good article as always. :)

[Ron Leversee]

Thanks for the question davetkoch and the great answer Dr. Ron... Very helpful article...