What are these?
- Thread starter Lou Cifer
- Start date
Patrick Seastar
Member
What you’re seeing here are likely spaghetti worms (family Terebellidae), also called terebellid worms. These invertebrates are common live rock hitchhikers. They’re harmless and beneficial detritivores, helping keep your substrate clean by feeding on uneaten food and waste. You haven’t dried out this live rock, have you?
Patrick Seastar
Member
On second thought, now that @grisse mentions it… These look like massive vermitid snails. Clearly they’ve been well fed. if you wanna confirm their identity besides touching them like @griss said, watch it at night & see if they release tentacles or nets. If tentacles, they’re spaghetti worms. If nets, they’re vermatid snails.Thanks for replying!
No, thankfully they’re not dried out.
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I had/have some vermetid snails that were getting a bit out of control. As @Patrick Seastar mentioned, vermetids cast a netlike web to capture food. There are a couple ways to get rid of them:
1. I've been successful in using super glue gel to seal the end of their tubes shut.
2. I've also used a pair of needle nose pliers to crush their shells.
3. Others have reported varying success in introducing Bumblebee snails as predators. However, these may prey of other sessile inverts.
4. Some have reported success with wrasses like the Six Line. However, my Six Line ignores them.
5. Reducing/eliminating broadcast feeding can help reduce their numbers by limiting their food source.
1. I've been successful in using super glue gel to seal the end of their tubes shut.
2. I've also used a pair of needle nose pliers to crush their shells.
3. Others have reported varying success in introducing Bumblebee snails as predators. However, these may prey of other sessile inverts.
4. Some have reported success with wrasses like the Six Line. However, my Six Line ignores them.
5. Reducing/eliminating broadcast feeding can help reduce their numbers by limiting their food source.
Wait, what? Really? AEFW's? Interesting.
Yes. People have been dosing it over the years and noticing this. Chris Meckley with ACI mentioned this on the last ReefBum podcast. It is meant to be fed to the fish with no ill side effects so far. I believe they did say that it will melt away some softies like xenia, etc which again could be a benefit depending on someone's tank.
Hmmm, any reported impact on F. ricordea or Zoas? The ricordeas would be a concern for me as they are my favorite soft coral.
Patrick Seastar
Member
I heard people are having success eliminating vermitids by not using live rock from the ocean
I know maintenance companies made a killing in the 80/90’s selling it but I just find it completely unnecessary in today’s technological options for filtrations. Some dry rock, plenty of bacterial additive, & plenty of denitrifying media will be just as good if not better & in my opinion detritivores produce more problems than solutions. Crabs need new shells, snails die & produce ammonia, so do the rest of them, & these snails irritate corals… So why even have them? Overrated if you ask me.
Patrick Seastar
Member
Oh, I don’t mind… A little tequila & it’s a party!
Everyone deserves their opinion. Some people still think it’s necessary & I’ve heard this opinion before many times but that was when there were people still stuck on old guidelines. It’s a new era! There’s this thing called technology 
Oh, I don’t mind… A little tequila & it’s a party!
You can do it but it takes much longer to get there with dry rock only. They have to build it up through bacteria diversity introduced over the years from snails, corals, food, etc and it can take years for that if at all.
Patrick Seastar
Member
There's marine biologist created & approved products for microfauna, bacteria, & plankton. It's more expensive but it's faster & no hitchhiker required. A lot of them advertise on here actually. The first time I heard Dr. Tim say "My fish food is superior to natural food" I thought Mr. Saltwater fish guy was going to blow his lid
I get it, man. I hear ya. I think it's pretty AMAZING what these marine biologist have come up with now a'days.
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The fake just doesn't look real and it doesn't have all the nooks and crannies that live rock has. I have some of the fake stuff and buried it for base rock.
Also at the lfs the owner was telling me that a customer of his loaded a large tank don't remember the size. But it was roughly 500 lbs of fake rock that was painted with fake Coraline algae . And later found when he started to have problems . There was a high amount of mercury in the water from the fake algae . Removed the rock and problem solved.
