Night sweeper tenticles from LR...What is it????

[Lowefx]

So after lights out maybe an hour or so, i will check things out and look at the night life in my tank. I noticed white sweeper things coming off of the live rock in different areas. Some was in algae hair, others were right from the rock. Does anyone have any idea what they are, and know if they're good or bad? No pictures at this time, if you want some i will take them tonight. Thanks

 

[misguided36]

maybe arms of a micro serpent or brittle star, without a pic kinda hard to i.d.

 

[Lowefx]

ok. will post a pic tonight...

 

[greech]

Maybe star fish or digitate hydroids. If the latter, don't worry to much when you research them. They can sting corals (although mine never seemed to do any harm) but they will not last in your tank. My tank was full of them at one point and they vanished almost as quick as they arrived.

 

[zeebies]

Could be spaghetti worms.

 

[dannyp02908]

Are the "tentacles" coming from small tubes? Vermetid snails?

 

[Lowefx]

digitate hydroids is what they are. Exactly what they are! are they ok???

 

[greech]

They may increase in numbers before they die but they will not survive long term. I believe it was about a month or 2 before they completely disappeared from my tank. Again, some say they sting corals but I saw them "whipping" my corals and never noticed any visible damage.

 

[bacon09]

I have like 3 huge worms (at least 8 inches long) that have what looks like a lot of spaghetti on their heads. They spend all the time inside the live rock but you can see the clear/white/pink-ish spaghetti tentacles sweeping all around the rock/sand. Their poop-hole also has an opening in the opposite side of the rock and it just stays there pooping something that looks like sand pellets so you can barely notice lol. Pretty interesting creatures.

These worms have loooong tentacles though... like at least 5 inches long and they appear to be able to stretch a lot too. And they move in different directions like each of them was a single worm.

 

[Lowefx]

Bacon, i dont have what your describing. Im sure its the digitate hydroids. If i ever saw what your talking about, i would throw them in the trash!

 

[Toxic45]

Bleh, sounds freaky. I just rely on my clean up crew to take care of anything gross or evil. They haven't been overpowered yet so I'm in the clear.

 

[SushiGirl]

My digitate hydroids have been around for a year, they're not bothering anything, though.

 

[bacon09]

Bacon, i dont have what your describing. Im sure its the digitate hydroids. If i ever saw what your talking about, i would throw them in the trash!

:lol2: lol! I was tempted to but I read somewhere that they're beneficial... and you can't really see anything other than the tentacles unless you take a really close look.

 

[ajcanale]

could be spaghetti worms.

+1

 

[SushiGirl]

+1

The OP already confirmed it's digitate hydroids.

 

[ajcanale]

The OP already confirmed it's digitate hydroids.

Odd, I would never picture hydriod's described as "sweeper tentacles."

 

[SushiGirl]

google digitate hydroids. They are unusual.

 

[ajcanale]

Well I did and I'm still trying to figure out exactly what they are, in the first 10 pictures from google image search i see a mixture of: Colonial Hydriods, Chaetopterid, something that appears as Bryopsis, and the culprit... the brittle star arm looking item digitate hydriods. Interesting... :hmm5:

 

[SushiGirl]

Here ya go.

When lights are on, they curl up into a little ball. I have pics of 2 living on a stomatella.
Only reason I knew that's what they were is because I saw them the other day when I turned the fuge light on & when I got the camera they were just little white balls LOL.

 

[Lawko]

i have found that my christmas wrasse eats them. dont know if they all do or not but seen him chowing i had hundreds of them