small soft tubed feather dusters

[jon1985]

I recently picked up some coral from someone who has tons of these small feather dusters. They have a soft brown tube and a small white feathery head. The tube is less then 3mm and very long but light to the coral and rock.

Im sure they arent bad but they dont look very nice.

Any idea what they are and how to get rid of them?

 

[smoothdog]

Sounds like hydroids. Do a google image search and if it looks like them be wary of any rock that coral was mounted on. Hydroids can aggressively sting and quickly take over a tank if nutrient levels are sufficient.

 

[cloak]

Are they growing in a colony or do you just see one here & there? If they are feather dusters the population will usually rise and fall depending on the amount of food that's available in the system. Check this out.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-05/rs/index.php

 

[jon1985]

they are all together. They dont look like hydroids. They only have the feathery head right on the end of each tube.

I didnt see anything in that thread that looked right. The tubes are brown, soft and fairly long.

 

[cloak]

Check these out. There's a few pictures in these links that might help you out. You might want to adjust the delay a bit though, 10 seconds can last forever.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-04/reefslides/index.php

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-08/reefslides/index.php

 

[jon1985]

didnt see anything. Although all pics both in your slides and online seem to show just the hea d of hydroids and no pictures of the tube. The heads look similar in that they are white but they dont look as full or large as the pics I have found.

 

[cloak]

I'm not exactly sure if hydroids do the same thing, but if you touch the feathery crown does it retract back into the tube?

 

[happyclam]

I have a bunch of those in my tank, they seem to grow particularly well on the undersides of the live rock. I have never tried to remove them, but during maintenance I noticed their tubes can picked off the rock pretty easily.

 

[jon1985]

yes the heads go back in if touched.