Only visible under low-intensity blue light?

[Ralph Ritoch]

I found a new resident today and I don't know what it is.

It looks a bit like a baby tube worm but it has its own tube. It has tentacles that come out a bit like a barnacle. Sorry for the bad quality picture but it is VERY small. Less than 1 cm high, 1mm diameter, and live in a colony. I recently lost a star coral so could they be baby green star that ejected? I can best describe them as miniature torch corals but the polyp tentacles are thinner than hair that's been bleached 3 times!

With the lights on they aren't even notcable, but under low-intesity blue light the tentacles shine white making them visible.

 

[KJ]

Google hydroids!

 

[Ralph Ritoch]

Google hydroids!

Seems to be, are these "jellyfish" safe for fish and coral?

 

[Ralph Ritoch]

Google hydroids!

I found some info in a different forum which said they would sting coral so I decided to try to eliminate them using toenail nippers. I nabbed two of them but the others retracted.

Would hydroids retract?

I think I just murdered two baby tube worms for no reason, or eliminated 2 of about 20 hydroids. I wish there was a way to know for a fact if these are tube worms or hydroids because I don't fully know the risk/reward here.

What I do know is that sometimes I feel a stinging feeling in my arms after having them in the tank, could be the salt, or could be unseen hydroids.