Need Help Finding Out What The Heck This Is!!!!

PBearslax36 · 08-03-2005, 07:00 PM

Hello Everyone,

Haven't been on here in awhile. I have been working on the fuge. It's coming along nicely and I have put some pics up in my gallery of the progress. Anywho, on with the question.

I found something very odd and interesting today. I need help finding out what it is.

I originally saw this critter under my substrate, but pressed against the glass. When I got him out and above the substrate, a tube came out of the top. It grew, then went back into the body.

I have attached some pics so you can see what I am talking about.3

PB

Awestralian · 08-03-2005, 07:51 PM

Thats a feather duster or tube worm.

Normally they are anchored to rock, but he must have been knocked or fallen loose.

If your water is up to scratch you will end up with more of them around your tank.

wharyat · 08-03-2005, 07:52 PM

May be a spaghetti worm.

Is it in a shell? Is it soft? How big is it (in mm)?

Loverotties · 08-03-2005, 11:47 PM

Some kind of feather duster.

tdwyatt · 08-04-2005, 12:58 AM

it is not a spaghetti worm, but rather a fanworm, the shelll formed is calcareous in nature. I will try and take a few pix of the ones I have in the tank tomorrow when the lights are on. The worm may leve the shell if it is disturbed, so leave it in place unless you want to try and move it to another system. I have several in shaded areas throughout the display tank (12 sq feet of substrate). This particular sp. seems to prefer areas either in the sand or just above the sand in areas of shade.

PBearslax36 · 08-04-2005, 08:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tdwyatt

it is not a spaghetti worm, but rather a fanworm, the shelll formed is calcareous in nature. I will try and take a few pix of the ones I have in the tank tomorrow when the lights are on. The worm may leve the shell if it is disturbed, so leave it in place unless you want to try and move it to another system. I have several in shaded areas throughout the display tank (12 sq feet of substrate). This particular sp. seems to prefer areas either in the sand or just above the sand in areas of shade.

Are they good or bad to have in your tank?
Are they cool like a feather duster, meaning do they do something or just eat like a starfish?
And can they live under 2" of cc or is that too heavy?
I did disturb it when I was trying to take pics, but then covered it back up with the cc.

tdwyatt · 08-04-2005, 11:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PBearslax36

Are they good or bad to have in your tank?
Are they cool like a feather duster, meaning do they do something or just eat like a starfish?
And can they live under 2" of cc or is that too heavy?
I did disturb it when I was trying to take pics, but then covered it back up with the cc.

This is opinion on my part, as I have no data to back it up: These creatures prolly need to have the top of the tube flush with the top of the substrate, and I believe they prefer sand to a crushed coral substrate. You should be using a sugar sized sand anyway, as the CC substrates are nitrate factories and detritus traps, are of inadequate surface area for sandbed stratification regarding the oxygen tension for the sandbed, provide little in the way of denitrification, and develop biofilms that prevent successful supplementation of calcium and alkalinity as purported by some in the hobby, although they do slowly dissolve into the water column. They are usually not of small enough size to provide for the colonization of many desirable benthic rganisms, and require extensive maintenance to keep microalgal and cyanobacterial blooms at bay.

Other than those few little issues, crushed coral is ooookkkaaayyyy...

...but most benthic critters utilize sandy aragonite more to their advantage.

HTH