Stringy Mucousy substance when changing water

[JOberloh]

Hello,

I'm relatively new to this hobby and I'm absolutely loving it. My tank is a little over 2 1/2 months old and every time that I'm doing water changes, a little bit of the substrate gets mixed up. When it does that there is tons of this stringing mucousy materials they come out of the substrate and cling on to the live rocks and corals I have in the tank. Can anybody identify what this is for me? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[n4s]

Looks like vermetid snails

 

[JOberloh]

Looks like vermetid snails

Can you elaborate? Never heard of that..

 

[n4s]

Its like a worm that lives in a tube like in the picture that cast mucus net that captures food. Usually you'll see them while feeding or cleaning as in your case. Several types of wrasses have been known to eat them. Also less feedings/detritus are known to cut their numbers. Harmless for the most part, but may irritate certain corals.

 

[James Kanouff]

A couple critters emit this stuff.
Most soft corals leathers, mushrooms, etc emit a mucus when disturbed.
I believe I see Green star polyps on the side of the rock in the picture, there closed up. They gunk up when disturbed for sure.

A common tube worm many call them snot worms send out a strand and capture food then retract it back. But this is seen all the time thru out the day, not just after a water change.

some fish also create a mucus cover at night for safety.
I would not say its harmful from what I see.
Maybe check your new salt water salinity n temperature and make sure its the same as the out going water.

 

[Reydin]

Its like a worm that lives in a tube like in the picture that cast mucus net that captures food. Usually you'll see them while feeding or cleaning as in your case. Several types of wrasses have been known to eat them. Also less feedings/detritus are known to cut their numbers. Harmless for the most part, but may irritate certain corals.

Thank you for this. I could not figure what was creating this stringy mess in my tank it is exactly what I’m dealing with.