Critter ID on zoas

[J.Orchin]

Hi everyone!

I received my first ever corals the other day. I dipped them in Coral RX and also hydrogen peroxide to remove some algae. I’ve been watching them constantly on a frag rack to make sure there’s no nasty critters or aiptasia before fixing them into the tank.
Today I’ve noticed these little things have suddenly appeared! Are they tiny feather dusters or tube worms? And will they take over my whole tank once I place them in?

Thanks,
Jo

 

[blaxsun]

At a quick glance these look like either tiny feather dusters or aiptasia (can't see clearly enough). Is there a hard tube that they retract into when touched or gently squirted with water?

 

[williamCreery]

Hydroids. Nothing to worry about. They disappear over time. Even I have some since the beginning of my tank after 3 years there still 2 or 4 left over on my rock work.
If you want to get ride of them micro dose this stuff.
Best part is I’ve seen Hydroids in my quarantine tanks and just a little bit of this and GONE!

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

I'd guess either Aiptasia (or another "pest" anemone) or hydroids (I struggle with differentiating the two when it looks like this). You probably don't want either.

 

[J.Orchin]

At a quick glance these look like either tiny feather dusters or aiptasia (can't see clearly enough). Is there a hard tube that they retract into when touched or gently squirted with water?

I’ve just squirted them with water and they instantly retracted into what looks like a hard tube.

 

[J.Orchin]

This is the closest I could get with my camera.

 

[Derrick0580]

If it’s a hard tube then it’s definitely vermitid snails, add a drop of super glue over the end of the tube or they will spread in your tank.

 

[J.Orchin]

If it’s a hard tube then it’s definitely vermitid snails, add a drop of super glue over the end of the tube or they will spread in your tank.

Oh ok! I didn’t think vermitid snails had a flower shaped head but I could be wrong will probably glue them shut anyway just to be safe. Thank you.

 

[EricR]

I've never seen vermetids with that kind of fan-shaped soft tissue (but that doesn't mean some similar species doesn't exist).
Not sure which tube worms have hard shells like that (if any) but the hydroid-looking "fans" are cool.
I'd be interested in what experts say before I discarded them, personally,,, but I guess better safe than sorry.

 

[J.Orchin]

I've never seen vermetids with that kind of fan-shaped soft tissue (but that doesn't mean some similar species doesn't exist).
Not sure which tube worms have hard shells like that (if any) but the hydroid-looking "fans" are cool.
I'd be interested in what experts say before I discarded them, personally,,, but I guess better safe than sorry.

That’s exactly what I thought. I will feel bad for killing them if they’re just harmless filter feeders.

 

[blaxsun]

If it’s a hard tube then it’s definitely vermitid snails, add a drop of super glue over the end of the tube or they will spread in your tank.

Feather dusters produce a semi-hard tube over time. Refer to this post and let us know if the "critter" more closely resembles a feather duster. If a feather duster, they're harmless - so I'd just leave them.

Vermetide snail or feather duster...

Sorry, I am new-ish, 3 months in the hobby... I have had these tube worms since day 1 in my tank, been killing and supergluing them ever since. Now one has established itself into my Zoas so I was waiting for it to rise above them so I could glue without harming the Zoas. Then today I see this...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

That’s exactly what I thought. I will feel bad for killing them if they’re just harmless filter feeders.

These might be feather dusters but more likely they are colonial hydroids, which you DO NOT want in your tank!! I wouldn't risk it - try to move the coral to a new rock/plug or chisel off the part(s) of the rock containing the hydroids.
Definitely not aiptasia and definitely not vermetids.

 

[J.Orchin]

So this morning I took a super close look and saw lots of other little tubes forming and thought they must be hydroids. The tubes looked hard but when touched, they were very bendy.
I decided the best thing to do was to scrape off as much as I could and then covered all areas around the zoas with reef glue.

Thank you all so much for helping me with this. I love this community