Identify please

[d-maz]

Anyone know what this stuff is? It just started happening yesterday. It`s like a clear mucus. I siphoned alot of it out and it seems like it`s the same amount as before. The only thing I`ve noticed to be different is my Kenya tree looks like it does at night. It`s alot smaller and it has a purple cast instead of the tanish cast. My tank temp is hovering around 80-82 if that matters. AC is on the fritz.

 

[itZme]

Looks like another case of vermetid snails. See this thread for more details.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1406663

-- Kevin

 

[jmicky41]

yup, vermitid snails. I have a thousand of them.

 

[weluvfish54]

are they harmful? link didnt work for me.

 

[d-maz]

I don`t know if we`re looking at the same thing in the picture. I`m talking about the long stringy mucus stuff that`s floating from the rock. The pictures from the link you attached look like little worms. This stuff floats around the tank and is attached to my rocks, powerheads, the heater in my sump, and it loaded up my retunrs filter sock.

Thanks again

 

[Rhodophyta]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12708649#post12708649 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by d-maz
I don`t know if we`re looking at the same thing in the picture. I`m talking about the long stringy mucus stuff that`s floating from the rock. The pictures from the link you attached look like little worms. This stuff floats around the tank and is attached to my rocks, powerheads, the heater in my sump, and it loaded up my retunrs filter sock.

Thanks again

The snails produce the long stringy net. The snails' shells are what you are seeing in the photos. They are sessile. Once they attach, the new snail begins growing its shell in an "unrolled" way that might resemble a worm.

Look down to the base of your slime next time.

 

[itZme]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12708649#post12708649 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by d-maz
I don`t know if we`re looking at the same thing in the picture. I`m talking about the long stringy mucus stuff that`s floating from the rock. The pictures from the link you attached look like little worms. This stuff floats around the tank and is attached to my rocks, powerheads, the heater in my sump, and it loaded up my retunrs filter sock.

Thanks again

Did you check out the link I posted there? It has all the info you need on those stringy mucus trailing snails

Here it is http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-01/rs/index.php

 

[d-maz]

Yea Kevin, I checked it out. Thanks for the link. I checked my tank when I came home today and almost all of it was gone.

I was talking with a guy at work today about it and I don`t know if we figured it out but it seems alot better. Since my AC is not hooked up, I had a bag of ice in the freezer left over from a party and chucked it into my sump. When I pulled it out to refreeze it, the bag was almost empty. Yep- it had a hole in the bag. I was thinking there was something either on the bag or in the ice that caused the goo. I could be totally off base but that`s my guess since all I did was siphon alot of it out, clean my pumps and changed the filter sock and today it`s almost all gone.

Thanks for the info everybody.

 

[itZme]

Glad you got it figured out. It looked like the standard goop that the vermetids put out to feed. Here's a pic and a brief excerpt from Shimek's article that sounds just like what you are dealing with. You both even use the word mucus to describe it.

"It is unlikely that even a large number of vermetids is directly deleterious to any other aquarium life. The mucus they produce may be used as food by many other animals as well as by the producer. Large masses might produce enough mucus to cause some local disruption in water currents or they may foul some other animal, but the mucus is generally very diffuse and most animals can easily remove it."

 

[d-maz]

I don`t know if I got it figured out but at least it`s alot better. I just don`t see any other signs of those snails. I`ll keep you posted if it comes back.