Welcome and need assistance with ID

[Hayden]

Welcome all. Been lurking here for a while reading up and thinking about getting into the Hobby. Tons of great info here. A few month back I finally decided to jump in and get my first tank. It's been running for about 3 months now and I've got 2 different things growing that I can't identify. I'm not sure if they are good or bad and what to do.

 

First some background on the tank.... it's a 28g Nano, 150w HQI, ~2in sand, ~30lbs live rock. Inhabitants include 6*Cerith 5*Astraea and 5*Nerite snails, 5 blue leg and 5 scarlet hermits, 1 skunk shrimp and 2 small (~1in ea.) Ocellaris Clown's. All inhabitants were added in small numbers every weekend over the last 2 months. Last weekend I added a bundle of Cheto with a light running at night in the back filtration area. Oh, and the water parm's (Amon, Nitrite & Nitrate) all are 0 and the ph 8.3 using Reef masters saltwater test kit.

 

The first think I can't identify are these mini anemone/snowflake looking things. They only seem to be on the glass and have been multiplying. I first noticed a handful of them 2-3 weeks ago, and now they appear to be one every 2-3 sq in. on the glass. They wipe off easy with a mag cleaner but they just appear back the next day. They are only about 2-3 mm long. The center white spot appears to be stuck to the glass the the arms do appear to flow with the current. When I watch the snails get near them and touch one the snail immediately flinches and pulls away. It appears like it stinging the snail somehow.

 

As focused as I could get with my cam

 

For size relation next to a Nerite.

 

 

 

The other thing growing are these little white fuzzy tree looking things. I know they are hard to see in the image, there are half a dozen growing out of the brown spongy stuff in the center of the image. I have 6-7 of these brown spongy spots with these white fuzzy things on various pieces of the live rock. I don't now if this is an issue or not.

 

 

 

Thanks in advance for any advice on what these are and what I need to do to identify and remove/control if necessary.

[L8 2 RISE]

The first are small baby serpent stars. For some reason I tend to get an outbreak every time I set up a new tank using LR from my system, or that has been in my system. You'll notice that the majority disappear after a while, but nothing to be worried about. The second pic is of hydroids (I believe) they aren't something you want, however I've never had to deal with them so I don't know what to do.

[lanman]

The little white 'star charts' on the glass are hydroids. They will disappear after a while, and are harmless. I think what you're pointing out in the last picture are tubeworms - feather dusters. Small filter feeders that are completely harmless. They are also the favorite food of copper-banded butterflyfish - mine is always nearby when I move rock, hoping he can find some that he was never able to get to. They don't last 5 minutes.

 

bob

[L8 2 RISE]

The little white 'star charts' on the glass are hydroids. They will disappear after a while, and are harmless. I think what you're pointing out in the last picture are tubeworms - feather dusters. Small filter feeders that are completely harmless. They are also the favorite food of copper-banded butterflyfish - mine is always nearby when I move rock, hoping he can find some that he was never able to get to. They don't last 5 minutes.

 

bob

 

woops, after a second look, the things on the glass ARE hydroids, I still stand by the second ones being a different type of hydroid though, IMHO.

[Coral Hind]

Both types look like hydroids to me.

[ctenophore]

Me too.

[Hayden]

After looking up examples of Hydroids, the stars on the glass look very similar to Porpita porpita/Blue Button (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porpitidae). But the ones on my glass are so very small. 1-2mm. Those were the best pics I could get with my point and shoot dig cam. I'll have to try to find a magnifying glass or someone with an SLR & Macro lens to get some better shots of both of them.

 

Assuming they are Hydro's, do I need to worry about them? It definitely looked like they were stinging the snails that touched them and preventing the snails from moving freely on the glass. Should I worry about spreading more them by wiping them off the glass with a mag cleaner?

 

Thanks again for all the assistance.

[lanman]

I wouldn't worry about them - they always show up when you start a new tank, and then go away in a week or so.

 

As you can see - you would need a better picture of the other things. If they are hydroids (the other sort), they will be 'branching' and have what looks like tiny flowers on the ends of some of the branches.

 

bob

[davelin315]

The first picture is of a hydroid jellyfish. You'll notice that they will swim off periodically and they hatch only so often and then disappear completely. I recently had some hatch again and see them about every 2-3 months if not more often. They are relatively harmless and I have never had any issues with them.

 

 

The 2nd picture is a hydroid, which is different from the first. They can become a nuisance as they multiply and take over rock. They are very difficult to remove and often you'll need to remove the rock and then either chip them off or burn them off with something like vinegar or even flames. Dbartco battled them for a long time in his tank and he resorted to creating a very scientific and fancy system. He hung a tea kettle of boiling water from the ceiling and connected it to a tube that ran down into his tank and poured the boiling water onto them.

 

If you let them go for too long and they start to multiply, they'll choke out whatever is trying to live near them. I believe they also pack a sting and may be toxic.

[lanman]

The one I think people are trying to say the second picture is are Athecate Hydroids - hydropolyps:

 

 

This is what I have had in my tanks on a few occasions. While they do tend to spread, mine just all up and disappeared after a while.

 

Keep in mind that hydroids includes stinging jellyfish, and stinging fire coral - all hydroids have stinging cells. So handle with care, even though mine never bothered me. But I still need a better picture to be convinced. Apparently all hydroids go through at least a brief 'jellyfish' stage. So it's possible the hydroid jellyfish you see on the glass are the jellyfish stage of the ones on the rocks.

 

bob

[Hayden]

Thanks for all the info everyone. The 'hydroid jellyfish' do seem to come and go. I'll wipe down the glass and won't see them for a few days. Then one morning they are all back, like another batch just hatched. What's their food source and can it be removed or used up if something new is introduced? Also, what are the chances of them latching onto fish? With the snails flinching when they touch one I'm sure it's stinging them. Can the same happen to the fish in the tank?

 

I'm still trying to find someone with a decent camera with a macro lens or just a manual focus for the second item. It doesn't seem to have spread in area over the last week or two but I have seen one or two other small places where it has cropped up then seems to go away after a few days. I'm a little hesitant to start pouring boiling water into a 28g tank (even in an isolated area) for fear of a temp spike, but it sounds like an interesting solution I can try. My rock work is far from permanent. It'd be easier to remove and deal with outside the tank. Would dropping the corner of the rock where they are growing in boiling water for a few seconds work? Will that have any affect on the other half of the rock? It's still a new tank so I don't have a lot of growth on the rock, but I'm starting to get some nice purple algae in some spots on that rock that I'd like to not destroy if possible.

 

Thanks again.

[zygote2k]

Instead of worrying about how to kill them, you should be concerned with how they live and what their life cycle is. They are a natural part of your reef and their population will ebb and flow along with many other invertebrate populations in the tank. They might even be beneficial, but you won't know if you kill them.

Maybe you should study them and take notes on their life cycle...

[truestelf]

i'd agree with Rob there, study them and learn something don't kill them off.

[dbartco]

Don't know if the second pic are the same as I had, Dave. But I think both pics are still a type of hydroid. Most are not that big a deal. Depends what you want to have in your tank. Most hydroids sting a bit. If you are hatching fry, they're leathal. Other wise, the ones in the first pic are not big deal.

 

The ones in the secound pic could irritate corals. I don't know what they are exactly. You could take the time and study them, allow them to spread, the result in proceedures like Dave mentioned I had to take to exterminate them because they were irritating my coral. I also pulled out rocks and blasted them with a blowtorch, another method I wouldn't say is standard op proceedure. In other words, if they start spreading quickly, you may want to irradicate. Your tank. Learn what you can, but don't wait till it is too late and you are pulling out ALL of your rock.

[gmubeach]

Blow torches shouldn't be recomend:) steve outlaw feel free to chime in