i have a 12gallon setup running with a big chunk of live rock that has lots of purple algae, green hair algae, and even some hairy brown algae growing on it. i recently noticed these hard looking white tubes that have purplish/red feathery worms shooting out of them. the biggest is about a half an inch long and there are several others. what are these things? i can also see a couple of white/clear looking inverts running around under the edge of the rock. theyre about the same size and look almost like transparent beetles of some sort. any idea what these are and what theyre doing for my tank, if anything.
weird stuff in my tank
- Thread starter freeNINETY9
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Those are feather worms or feather dusters. I have about 200 hundred growing on my rock. Keep them and you can trade them in for a hefty profit if you can care for them long enough. Get some Kent marine filter feeder food and keep the lighting up and then will do fine.
Did you read the links I added? They are great looking in a reef tank when they get bigger. Why would any coral or anemone be worth anyhting? They are attractive in a tank. The other things are most likely copepods (like little shrimp) and some of your fish will eat them, mandarins pretty much rely on them for survival. Google copepods.
Thats one of the things I love about my new SW setup. Always finding new things, even if they are undesirable. Brittle stars, snails, copepods, mantis shrimp, bristle wurms. You buy a rock and get a buch of creatures free! I'll be cursing about them in a couple months. LOL
i getcha. come to think of it, i have seen those in petshops a lot bigger. usually like three or four inches.
The bristle worms are a nightmare. I had one about 2 feet long in my old reef and I triedd to remove it with a net, long story short- he was cut in half then I had 2-1 foot bristle worms. The copepods are good though.
Never tried it but i was told you can remove bristleworms by putting some food in a ladies stocking and put in you tank when you turn out the light and leave in your tank over night and your sould catch them without any hazzards.Not sure but just what i was told.Oh and i have noticed the feather dusters on my rock also.The things that grow and come from a saltwater set up with live rock and a sandbed are awsome!!!!!