Tube worms?

[Nano Gabe]

I believe these are tube worms. Are they harmful?

 

[Nano Gabe]

Here’s the picture

 

[Brofessor]

Do they send out little feathery-looking shoots?

 

[Nano Gabe]

Yeah

 

[Brofessor]

Probably feather duster worms then. Tube worms/vermatid snails are red and extend out a single long tentacle. They're easy to spot after you've scraped algae because it gets stuck to them.

 

[jeffchapok]

Feather dusters are good guys, harmless filter feeders.

 

[flsalty]

Probably feather duster worms then. Tube worms/vermatid snails are red and extend out a single long tentacle. They're easy to spot after you've scraped algae because it gets stuck to them.

Tube worms and vermetid snail are two different things.

 

[Brofessor]

Tube worms and vermetid snail are two different things.

Really? The last time I Googled 'tube worms reef tank', all I got were pictures of vermetid snails. Have I been wrong all this time?

 

[flsalty]

Really? The last time I Googled 'tube worms reef tank', all I got were pictures of vermetid snails. Have I been wrong all this time?

This is the problem with using common names. Vermetids are snails and tube worms are worms. The term "tube worms" is pretty generic and encompasses a lot of worms. Coco worms, feather dusters, spirorbids, etc are all tube worms. I'm too lazy to look up the name right now (making me a part of the problem...lol), but there is a tube worm that looks like a vermetids tube. I suspect that a lot of these threads incorrectly identify harmless tube worms as vermetids. Nobody asks specifics. They just say vermetids and tell you to get rid of them. Thousands of innocent tube worms are killed each year...lol.

The main way to tell them apart is that vermetids cast a thready "net" that catches particles in the water column. This net is what is said to irritate corals. OTOH, the tube worms have two little appendages that stick out slightly. These do not irritate corals at all.

 

[Brofessor]

Wow, thanks! So what are the ones that are in a little red tube and throw out a single long tentacle? Because I've been getting more and more of those.

 

[flsalty]

Wow, thanks! So what are the ones that are in a little red tube and throw out a single long tentacle? Because I've been getting more and more of those.

That's a type of vermetid.