What are these?

[kimnjody]

Can anybody tell us what these are? They have started multiplying in out tank. You may need to look closely at the center of the photo to see what we are referring to.

 

[Sk8r]

Are they white hard dots on a backing, or are they little flitty things with a gut?

If white dots, they're the start of spionid worms, I think; if they're the little flitty ones, I think they might be amphipods: I have a deep hollow rock with a hole straight through where amphipods breed like crazy.

 

[kimnjody]

They are the little red tubes that are attached to the side of the rock. They are kinda curly at the bottom then straighten out and have a long clear tentacle that comes out to catch food. There are even some growing on our substrate.

 

[tetra-tag]

You may be seeing a curious type of sessile snail known as a vermetid. It builds a tube and casts mucous webs to trap particulates. I believe they are generally considered harmless, although some claim the webs can irritate sps corals, and the shells are sharp.
http://www.reefs.org/hhfaq/pages/picture_pages/faq_vermetid.html

 

[imareefer21]

they kinda look like baby feather duster worms

 

[Travis L. Stevens]

They are definitely Vermetid Snails. But I agree with sk8r, the white dots look to be either spirobid worms or Q-Tip Sponges. The shot is out of focus for those though All of the above are harmless to an extent. Vermetid Snails will send out a mucous webbing to capture food from the water column. Occassionally this will brish against corals and aggitate them. Nothing serious though.

 

[kimnjody]

Ok, so nothing to worry about then? We have a 135 gal. tank with approx. 175 lbs. of live rock in it.... at a rough guesstimate I would say that there are probably about 75 or so of these growing in the tank, on everything that's in it, there are even some growing on a couple of our corals. Should I maybe break these off as I spot them to maybe kill them, or just let them grow?

Thanks for all the info,
kimnjody

 

[kimnjody]

One more thing, we just set this tank up back at the end of February. Our concern is that if there are that many in there now, what is going to happen if we don't do something about them... are they just gonna overrun our tank?

Thanks,
kimnjody