What is this?

[jlabeaume]

Is this a bristle worm? Just noticed it a couple days ago.

Thanks for any info

 

[Bogue Chitto]

Not a bristle worm, may be a serpent star or brittle star, not sure.

 

[jlabeaume]

Weird. Can those come out of nowhere? In the last few weeks I added 5 fish 2 one week, 3 the next. And three acan frags. No new rock. I guess it could have been on a frag.

 

[Bogue Chitto]

They can sneak in on most anything that may have a few holes in it.

 

[Jscwerve]

Almost guarantee it's a brittle star. I only know because I got some hitchhikers recently exactly the same. And they moved around outside the rock until they settled. Now it's just arms waving in the current and haven't seen them come out again.

 

[pyithar]

they look like brittle star arms to me as well.

 

[jlabeaume]

Thanks guys. They are harmless right

 

[Sapelo]

They are a bonus to your CUC. Nice find

 

[Bpb]

Harmless and will reproduce like wildfire but generally stay out of site minus seeing their spindly arms creeping out or crevices. I never intentionally added any and had none for years until I got one in on a montipora frag. Now there are several hundred. They're a good bonus to have. They munch on uneaten food/waste/algae/biofilm. Won't eat your corals or anything. Very good thing to have. The absolute worst thing I can think of you may run into is over time they tend to clog my skimmer. Specifically the needle wheel impeller and the bubble plate. No big deal though. At that point the skimmer is due for a cleaning anyway