Small Daisy's taking over my reef

[Smo]

Help!!!
I have these little flower looking things I call daisy's growing all over my LR and one is on the glass. The reef tank is a salvage job from a poor caretaker. He told me these things will are like tribbles and more than double in numbers as each day goes by. He's right about that!

The first pic is the daisy looking things. They are about 4mm - 6mm across. The one on the glass (no pic) has a white foot kinda like an anemone.

The second pic has a single branch of frogspawn in it for size comparison.

What are these, should I get rid of them before they take over the reef?

Thanks all, and I really enjoy your site!

[tims]

hi Smo!
can you get a more focused picture?
it is hard to tell but they kinda look like tube worms/ feather dusters.. they are not harmful..
you said they were sprading like mad.. usally when you see this that mean Captian Kirk ( didn't think i caught your trek refernce didya!) has too much nutrience in the tank.. if the poor caregiver that had it before was feeding and feeding and feeding, fish , corals , whatever then the nutri. levels are high and the worms love that.
if you do a good cleaning and run your skimmer very well that should help.
what is you substrate?
of course all of this is if they are fan worms....
i fthey are apitasia then using something like Kalk paste or joe's juice on them will kill them. or gettig a few pepperment shrimps how like to eat them will also dothe trick.....

HTH

[drsyme]

Look like hydroids.

They are not good, they sting.

I have a lot of these too.

[Smo]

Thanks for the quick replies.

They are not dusters, I have a few (many) baby ones growing right now.
The poor caregiver let the tank go and didn't do anything to it for 3 months. When I got to his house, the reef and glass were all covered in grass algae. The water level was so low the skilter was burned out!
All this is another story. BTW, he never fed anything for the 3 months!
Setup is:
30gal BareBottom w/single layer crushed coral for decoration
35lbs LR
Berlin protein skimmer
83watts CF half Actinic half 10,000k
Asst Leathers, frog spawn, red frog spawn, 1 very large open brain and 1 roving inhabitant (mandarin goby)

All water tests fine, here are today's tests:
Specific Gravity 1.023
CA = 405
NO3 = 0
NO2 = 0
NH3/NH4+ = 0
ALK = Normal range
PH = 8.0
Temp 77°

Hard to get a more focused picture, they are about the size of a pencil eraser and smaller.

Thanks again!

[VWD]

apitasia , That what they look like to me , If You can get a better picture May be able to say for sure . If they are apitasia,You want to get ride of them , Vince

[Smo]

Vince, i tried to pluck them out with my fingers, but they are attached very well. The previous owner said he removed them with tweezers.
3 days ago I saw 20 or so, today they number about 40.
I'll clean the glass and shot a few more macro's and see how they turn out!
Thank you!

[Smo]

Here's the best shots I can get

[wharyat]

look like majano anem's to me; they are not good, you can use a kalk paste like stated, or if you don't have any kalk, you can try to squirt some salt on them.

[tims]

yup the bad buggers..
DO NOT TRY AND PULL ON THEM
if you tear any of them that little piece will make a new one..
trying to rememer... i think it is butterflys that will eat them , but not sure if they will cause problems with the rest of the tank..
using Joes' juice and or Kalk paste on them shoudl kill them. if they are majo's pepperment shrimp will not go after them, if they are apitasia them pepperment will eat them up

[Smo]

Kalk's paste at the LFS, here I come!
Thought I was going to bed, but, now I have to research this stuff.

Thanks everyone for helping out! I may be experienced as heck in FW and SW setups, but I am a newbie when comes to reefs.

[Smo]

Stole this fine reading from another forum *cough* *cough*

Tried, how, exactly? I had a great deal of fun injecting Aiptasia with Kalkwasser when I had an infestation. You'll need a syringe with a needle, like a diabetic's syringe. Just mix up some Kalk, exactly same procedure as you would use to drip in your tank, and when it's ready, fill the syringe with Kalkwasser, and (carefully!) sneak up on the Aip with the syringe. Aim to poke the syringe into the stalk, near the bottom, so when you move it won't have time to react. Stab the needle in, and unload some Kalk into the Aiptasia. It should start to shrivel immediately. If you miss, and it retracts into its hole, follow it in with the syringe. If you're careful, you'll feel the needle poke into some softness, that's the Aip. Unload some Kalk, and with all due luck, it won't ever come back out.

Kinda makes it sound fun, although I know it may not be.

[yardboy]

Oh but it is fun. I just wish they could scream, it'd be even better. I was shooting an infested patch of zoanthids yesterday, they were actually attached to the stalk of the zoanthid! Gave me great pleasure to stick them. Even better was when I looked this morning and they were alllllll gone!

[wanareef]

It's not fun when you can get to them - sometimes a curved needle will work just right.


On that kalk - make it a little thicker with ro/di and I add a little vinagar to the mix too.

[WilyGuy]

I recommend the Peppermint Shrimp (maybe two small ones).

If it is aptasia, they should eat it (provided there isn't too much excess food for them to eat).

The peps are safe for everything else, as opposed to the butterfly.