Spiral hard polyp or something

[brightonjg]

Can someone please ID what these are? They’re whitish purple, hard, spiral, and popping up everywhere!!

 

[blaxsun]

I have no idea - but they're super cool, so will be watching with interest...

 

[vtshadow]

Looks like a dead vermetid snail shell.

 

[Gtinnel]

I’d guess vermetid snail also.

 

[ying yang]

+1 on vermitted snails,spiral base and often red in varying sizes depending on type,they feed and reproduce by expelling a mucus net which they grab food with then reel in and eat,some dont mind them,some find they don't cause no bother but some find they irritate corals.
If want to remove can grab pair off tweezers and snap off at base ensuring to get all off it,can pull rock out off tank and use needle nose pliers to twist/snap off/some use little dab off superglue and glue the end shut so they starve to death as cant expel the mucus net to feed/I've read some have had success with adding bumble bee snails.

What is that!! A R2R guide to common new tank hitchhikers.

One of the greatest things about starting a reef tank is getting your live rock in and admiring all the diversity within it. The rock comes to life different creatures. This is a guide that I, along with a very well known critter identifier @KJ , have put together for the new reefer on what...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[brightonjg]

Omg thank U so much!!!! So glad it’s harmless. I don’t mind how they look, but I thought my tank was done for thank you guys

 

[vtshadow]

Omg thank U so much!!!! So glad it’s harmless. I don’t mind how they look, but I thought my tank was done for thank you guys

I wouldn't say they're harmless - they can irritate corals with their web, so it's good to manually remove them if you find them before there's too many.

 

[jDoSe]

If you see any of them, grab a knife and start popping them off now (and trashing them, don't let it fall to the bottom of tank and stay there). They will take over entire tanks, and with high enough numbers their mucus strands can harm corals. They also get incredibly unsightly and make it look like you dont take care of your tank when you really do (guess this depends on the person though, but to me it’s like seeing a tank with aiptasia).

I personally hate these so much I’ve restarted multiple tanks. Some people say they are unavoidable, but that is not true in the slightest. You can buy gulf liverock with tons of hitchhikers, and still have a tank vermentid-free.

 

[Tired]

They're invasive in some tanks, a mild annoyance in others. I kinda wonder if there are multiple species running around, for some people to have few/no problems with them and some to have a pest worthy of a tank teardown. Removing them is probably a good idea. At worst, you've removed a minor annoyance. At best, you've prevented a mega headache.

 

[brightonjg]

I wouldn't say they're harmless - they can irritate corals with their web, so it's good to manually remove them if you find them before there's too many.

They’re starting to take over. I don’t know what to do. Any help on how to remove them after they have taken over and are going to be really hard to remove manually?