Please help ID white "things"

[Mare100]

Hi Again....

I'm hoping someone can help me identify these white "things" we found all over the tank this morning. These are the best pictures I could get, as they are tiny and I'm limited by my camera.

Anyway....we didn't notice any of these things last night. They are tiny little white round things. They kind of look like tiny little worms curled up. They are on the powerheads, the back glass of the tank, on some of the rock, and I see a bunch of them on a snail shell.

Here is some info on the tank.

120 Gal.
All Params are normal/good.

Recent livestock additions (within the past week)... 1 Frogspawn Coral, 2 Giant Featherdusters, 2 snails and 1 Scott's Fairy Wrasse.

I add Phytoplex to the tank about 1x a week, I add Essential Elements 1x a week, and I've been adding a 2 part B-Ionic calcium every other day to bring calcium level up to 400 (where it is now). These things just popped up and I have no clue what they are. I haven't noticed them moving at all.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

M

 

[Sepeku]

Spirobid worms.

They are a sign of good things. Not unlike copepods, but less useful.

I'd like to know what eats them personally.

edit: for spelling

 

[kurtg]

My Dragonnet loves them. He'll put of little puffs of dust when he eats one.

 

[Mare100]

Whew!

Thanks. I was afraid I had some massive outbreak of .....well....something! LOL!

OK...I'll let the little guys alone.

Thanks again!

M

 

[papagimp]

Oh give it several more months, you'll have those things everywhere. I probably send about 200 of em to mini-feather duster/snail heaven everytime I scrap my glass and it takes em no time at all to cover it again. I won't even tell you how many I see in the refugium...it's sickening.

 

[Mare100]

Will the feather duster's eat them? That's good because I just added 2 Giant Feather Duster's and now I'm worried because I've read that they usually die within a year from not getting proper food.

M

 

[Reeses]

Mare100

I was involved in another thread just the other day where I shared some info you might find useful:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1100618

Feather dusters are (basically) stationary critters. The food has to come to them. Spirobid worms are also stationary critters. They are in the same family.

 

[Mare100]

Hi Reeses!

Yes....I remember your name. Reminded me of Reeses Peanut Butter Cups! Mmmmmmm. But that's a totally different obsession! LOL.

Thanks again for the info! The links you have been giving me have been very informative and helpful. Sometimes I feel so dumb about this hobby. Thank goodness for Reef Central and all the help I get here.

I AM however, ecstatic that I finally got to put a cool picture under my name!! All I needed was 100 posts! I'm still going to get a premium membership though. I love being able to search old forums and old posts. There's so much to learn.

M

 

[Reeses]

You know, your the first person to pick up on my username. It comes from a wrapper of one that was sitting on my desk at the time. At first I used it for e-mail, and then it eventually became my username because I liked it so much. The funny part? I don't like peanut butter and chocolate together! :lol:

Your welcome for the info, I'm glad it helped. Don't feel dumb, there is so much to know, and there are so many critters that sort of come poppin' up at you that sometimes you don't even know where to start.

The way I see it, there are two systems at work in every tank. There's the system you created and the system IT created.

 

[Reeses]

I like that. I think I'll put it to my sig line.

 

[tina & ben]

cool i've always wanted to know what those things were... i had them all over my tank =P

 

[Mare100]

Great quote Reeses. I think I should just put "duhhhhhhh" in my sig line!

 

[Sepeku]

As far as feeding the feather dusters are concerned, I have a hawaiian feather duster that managed to survive a catastophe a bit back that I was sure killed him.

He just sort of popped up last nigt in a peice of rubble that I was going to throw out.

As a result I'm about to start making phytoplankton. As that seems to be their diet (or zooplankton when they get larger.) The way I figure, if I make and dose phyto, and the duster does not use it, it will feed the zooplankton which will be consumed.

I've used Kent MicroVert in the past, but from what I've researched I'm probably just polluting the tank with it.