new tank - what are these things?

[watchndsky]

I just bought this tank that had been setup for along time and somewhat neglected, but Im curious what these are (the smalls corals and the yellow and black mold looking stuff on two pieces of rock)

Any ideas?

[KarlBob]

I see palythoas in photo #1, palys and a mushroom (corallimorph or corallimorpharian) in photo #2, and more 'shrooms in photo #3, behind the fish. The yellow and black critters above the fish in photo #3 look like two different species of sponge to me.

[watchndsky]

thanks i knew what the mushrooms were - but didnt know about the palythoas and the sponges. to be honest - i was worried more about them NOT being sponge - since i hadnt seen anything black like that before. are black sponges ok?

makes it so much easier to research when you have a name to google - ya know?

thanks for the help

[Chiefsurfer]

agree, generic palys, and sponges are interesting. Any sponges that show up on your rock will likely do pretty well in your tank. The very common generic name to the sponges that look like sagging goo, are chicken liver sponges. They generally come in drab colors, grey, black, orange, blue, purple. I have some black, orange, and blue.

[hoffy02]

also a bristle worm in pic #1??