What are these white tentacles on my live rock?

Newms118

New member
So these guys started showing up about a few months ago (im just that slow taking pictures and posting). They look like white spindles, and dont tend to move. They are not the arms of brittle stars, I have those around as well and they tend to move around and have the banding on the arms. For the white spindles, they dont seem to bother corals and are growing around and in between them. They also are tending to grow on rock that does not get light, so all the sunny spots dont have any traces of this, but around the tank, in the dark crevices, you can find them. They also dont bother any of my fish, I've watched them brush against them and no sign of stinging. And last night I got curious and decided to brush them with a spot feeder to see if they would retract or respond in some way. Strangely, they broke off the rocks and started floating around, like inorganic hairs or something.


Here are three images, this is the highest concentration of them. You can see them growing in between my zoanthids and blue cloves. I took this at night, so that explains why the zoanthids are retracted. During the day they are full extended towards the light.

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It could possibly be a type of foraminifera. "Forams" are filter feeders and like to grow in dark areas of rock.
 
They have been 'nicknamed' Spaghetti Worms. A real nuisance and can spread quickly covering everything including pumps and other equipment inside and out creating an ugly looking mess.

polaravic
 
Bump,...I have some also,....any id's on them ?

I didn't try to get rid of them or anything. I'm willing to bed they are harmless. They're very fragile so if you brush them they seem to crumble. The zoas are open with all of the around so they dont seem hostile.
 
Agree,...just wondering what they are? I started a couple of threads here on RC also asking the same question and even borrowed your photo for reference. I'll post back if someone has the answer. Thanks,---Rick
 
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