Worms, algae, and a missing fish...

[burdman_22]

First of all, I am having a little algae problem in one corner of my tank. I bought an orange spotted goby thinking that maybe he might take care of a little of the algae on the sand. I put him in my tank the night before last, and I have not seen him since. I figure he probably died, but I am seriously hoping this is just normal for gobies, to disappear for days at a time, lol. Should I start pulling rocks out looking for a body? I havent seen any of my emerald crabs munching on any dead fish, and figured they woulda had his body out parading around with it if he were in fact dead.

Tonight when I woke up, before turning the lights on, I got out a little red light I have and shined it in my tank, and there were several dark colored worms about 2-3 inches long sticking out of my rocks. They sorta resemble redworms, the kind ya dig up for fishing. I was just wondering if someone could tell me what they are, and if they are bad. I have also noticed a few things that look almost like strands of spiderweb, sticking out of my rocks and feeling around. Just wondering if these were another type of worm, or if they were maybe the feeding tentacles from my polyps or something. Please help, I need to know whether to worry or not.

 

[jer77]

It is common for gobies to go missing for some time, even months. I know I've bought numerous gobies and usually the smaller ones just disappear never to be found. Some like to jump out of the tank and go carpet surfing so make sure your tank is tightly closed. Is your orange spotted goby the sand-sifting type, Valencienna puellaris?

The worms you are refering to are most likely peanut worms, or Sipunculids. They look like an elephant's trunk when sticking out of a rock or sand. They usually can only be seen at night like you did and retreat back into their hole when scared. They are usually only 2'' in length and imported in LR to your tank. They are reef-safe and are suspension feeders or detrivores.

The spider web looking things in your tank are probably coming from a vermitid snail or some worm's feeding secretions. They also could be comming from a slimy coral or sometimes even palythoa polyps.

 

[burdman_22]

well, i had already checked around my tank once, but obviously not good enough. I found the darned goby. He had attempted to run away I guess, but only made it to my carpet... . Are there any sand sifting gobies that arent jumpers? And all those things you listed for the spiderweb things, are any of them bad? I also forgot to mention that when the lights are off I can see like 10 or more of them, but when the lights come on most retreat, and I can only see a couple then.