wierd growth in tank

Question

aquarium growth   QUESTION: Enclosed is a picture of a dime sized, cream colored growth that appeared in my 4 year old 55 gallon aquarium about a year ago.  It was rocking along not really changing when about two months ago, I started noticing about six more popping up in the tank at different sizes but max out at the same size.  I have a variety of critters in the tank including one tang, one anemone, one cleaner shrimp, two choc chip star fish, one clownfish, one firefish, turbo snails, hermit crab and a couple of dansils.  No other diseases or issues that I know of.  Really wondering if this growth is friend or foe?  thank you in advance!!

ANSWER: sorry for the late reply nikki, i had not gotten the notification i had a question. my apologies.

as for the growth, i cannot quite tell from the picture as when i zoom it gets very pix-elated but it could be several things from what i see. it could very well just be a sponge, those tend to pop up from time to time on live rock and are extremely harmless. it could also be a majano anemone, in this case these are very similar to aptasia being a parasitic anemone. and can easily invade your tank.

if you could follow up with a higher quality image i could help you much better, but i hope i helped a bit.

Marcus.

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Pic 1  

Pic2   QUESTION: Marcus,
Thank you for the answer. I am sending you several more photos of these growths in varying stages of size. Let me know if you need anything more. I am fairly concerned. Thanks so much!  Nicci

Answer
nothing to worry about Nicci,this is simply either a sea squirt or a variety of hitchhiking sponge.

http://www.ultimatereef.net/forums/showthread.php?t=477314

there are several varieties of sponge and sea squirt that commonly hitchhike on live rock. they are entirely harmless.