? what are these things ?

T

trrack2far

I dont know if anyone can help me out with an ID or not. My camera isnt good enough to take a pic of these things so I will try and describe them.

On a lot of my live rock, are these tiny things that stick out of it (or growing on it). They vary in length from about 1/8 - about 1/4" long.

They are hard and will break off if I push on one of them. The diameter of these things is about the size of a small pencil lead.

They are the same color as my purple coraline.

If I look closely at these things with my magnifying glass, it looks like there is something living in these things. (or maybe these little 'sticks' are alive?)

on the end of it, I can see a little white spec (head) and what looks like 2 little tiny short antennae on the head.

Ive never seen anything like them before. I just got this rock 4 or 5 weeks ago from a guy who broke down his tank. I noticed these 'sticks' then but just thought they were a calerious deposit of some long gone creature.

But it seems these things are alive and are multiplying....

MAN I wish I had a decent camera ... its next on my list.

Any idea from my description of what these things might be? If so, are they harmful?

thanks
dd
 
Spionid or chaetopterid worm? (look at fig 9) http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-05/rs/index.php

I think they are harmless, I have tons of em.
 
or could be a calceriuos tube worm - i have lots, range fron very small white calcium body to soem that are about 1/8" diameter. Some of these have coraline and actual coral growth covering their body with minimal size heads. I think they are filter feeders and may even be in the smae family as feather dusters, they just don't have the pretty feathery filters

I think the named something like sepular vermicular, but I may be totaly off

as far as I know they are harmless but maybe Ashlar or someone that has more knowledge on these will chime in
 
@gmax wrote:
maybe hydroids? Hard to say for sure without a picture. said:
Yeah man I know... a picture is worth 1000 words. A good camera is definitely on my list.

Ive done some more looking in the tank and I found something else...its red polyps with 'eyelashes' all around them. Little small things. I have found 4 of the polyps that I can see.

Ive done some more searching on the internet too..As best as I can tell, this is what they look like but the polyps are not sticking up as high on their stalk as these and are not clustered in a colony...

these "stick" that im seeing are single and spread out all over the place.

Hydroid.jpg
alt="">

So should I be concerned about these? The polyps are gorgeous actually.

Here is a link to a pretty good ID site I found.
http://www.oceanwideimages.com.au/
Click to expand...
 
Try wandering around on my ID page for a match.
http://www.melevsreef.com/id/

I took a look at that site you found, and only wish we could see more. There is way too much protection on that site, even after I registered. :roll:
 
@chrisk wrote:
Spionid or chaetopterid worm? (look at fig 9) http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-05/rs/index.php I think they are harmless said:
I dont think its any of these.... thaanks for the input though and the link to that site.

dd
Click to expand...
 
@psteeleb wrote:
or could be a calceriuos tube worm - i have lots said:
Thats a pretty good description of these 'sticks'. almost all of them have coraline on the 'tube'. I posted to gmax about hydroids but maybe I have hydroids and these too? I broke a couple off and tried to examine it to no avail..but they are definitely spreading.

dd
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