5 year old tank miraculously produces 2 vermitids...

[Sk8r]

...and frankly, I don't think I'm going to go after them. This poor tank has been through a massive winter powerout and a two year house remodel in which I couldn't get to the sump to run water changes, and just supplied the topoff.

My previous tank was rife with every sort of live rock life (except crabs: skipped that one) and this one has been near sterile since somewhere in the remodel. Fishes fare fine, but rocks are just---rocks.

Now an ordinarily obnoxious life form has volunteered (probably rode in on the mushroom rock I acquired) and I am not in the mood to go fuss with them. My previous tank that was so lively had scads of vermetids, that never actually did any harm: euphyllia finally outgrew the tank. I'm just encouraged that this tank finally is supporting insanely happy mushrooms and happy fishes.

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

They do multiply CJ, are you sure you want to ignore them?

 

[cody6766]

I always ended up killing off my vermatids because they bothered my corals, but I do miss the biodiversity that came with tanks from the pre-dry rock era. When I start a new tank, I always beg scoops of sand, sump scum, and chaeto from other established tanks. Crabs suck, some of the nastier worms were a PITA, but I loved the sponges, diversity in coraline algae and other interesting things that came with old school live rock.

 

[OrionN]

I live near the ocean and have friend with canal at the back of their house. Put dry rock in these canals for 1 month then direct to my tank result in really good live rock.
One can also get good live rock from Tampa Bay Salt water.

 

[Sk8r]

My first tank was rock from a shut-down tank, delivered in a January snowstorm in the back of a pickup that had just driven 20 miles. And it was marvelously alive. Even bubble coral survived the cycle, along with xenia, sponges, worms, (I named my 4 largest: the big ones never really exit their rock---like sauropods, they just stretch out and graze for kibble from thei safty of their rock. I had a blue spongelike network that went from rock to rock---and a house move (local), and a week's delay by the store whose supplier didn't put my new sump and pump on the truck, and I lost much of the really wonderful life in the tank...Now, I would have been far more creative about setup on a temp basis, but I thought I had it handled, and didn't. Sigh.

Anyway, I can tell you one critter that thinks they're candy---because my vermetids didn't even get to the deadly house move: I took in a purple tang (small one) with hlle and worked on getting him back to health for a friend: and that rascal ate every vermetid I had. He'd study them in the way tangs have, and then nosh down.

Seriously, they'll go if they cause the shrooms any problems, but I'm kinda hoping not.