Weird Threads In Rock Crevice

[n00bReefer]

So just doing an inspection of my 5 gallon tank I see this odd string like substance in a crevice. I thought at first it's algae but, if I move a light over it, it starts to lift it's "legs" and move randomly. What could this be?

 

[n00bReefer]

Sooo, we saw something underneath the "threads" that they seemed to be feeding on .... I pulled the object out and found out it was one of the ninja star snails! It was still alive and the small "tentacle" looking thing all went back up into the crevice. My wife says it looks like the small brittle star we have wandering around and it spawned some offspring or something because of the amount of "threads" I am seeing. So do starfish reproduce like that and/or do they eat snails?

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Definitely not brittle stars in this case - and while some brittle stars do reproduce in our aquariums (typically the micro brittle star species), almost all brittle stars in the hobby don't eat snails.

I would guess these "threads" are filter feeding tentacles (palps) of some kind of worm (I only see two of the tentacles in the video, so I'd guess either a Spionid or Chaetopterid worm - in this case, these should be perfectly harmless in your tank).

 

[n00bReefer]

Definitely not brittle stars in this case - and while some brittle stars do reproduce in our aquariums (typically the micro brittle star species), almost all brittle stars in the hobby don't eat snails.

I would guess these "threads" are filter feeding tentacles (palps) of some kind of worm (I only see two of the tentacles in the video, so I'd guess either a Spionid or Chaetopterid worm - in this case, these should be perfectly harmless in your tank).

Thanks for the information! Yeah, I looked again for them this morning and they may be shoved up in the crevice further but, didn't see the tenacles, this morning. However, light was just starting to come on so they may have not "woken up" yet.