What are these?

[James5214]

So I have these white string things coming out from my live rock any idea what they could be? It's like little short white stringy stuff. And also I'm attaching a video as well hopefully you guys can see this hugeeeeeee copepod I just found while taking pictures of the white stuff. So excited that my tank now has a good established copepod population and if you look hard which I know my camera is garbage sorry but you can see small little white spots moving on the glass which I'm surprised they are out as of now and not at night but anyways wanted to see if you guys know what these white strings are and share the copepod population with you guys!! I know its hard to see the huge copepod but look right above my sandbed line you will see his legs and antennas moving lol

 

[James5214]

Here's a better video of the pods! I'm so excited! Also anybody have any idea what is on the sandbed as you can see they aren't clear like the copepods in the glass they move like them but you can see they have more of a color to them not see through like pods on glass any thoughts?

 

[Brucealmighty]

Vermetids have calcareious (calcium like ) tubes they're wee worms who sift and work to grab suspended matter in tank for feeding.they are reasonably harmless and somewhat glue your rocks together over years if the rocks don't get moved around

 

[James5214]

So they are like roots?

 

[Brucealmighty]

No I would say more like creatures that build perfect moonbase type structures, a sealed tube for growing living and maybe the tubes themselves pull in other smaller dudes for them creatures to eat too who knows, they stick like wavey tentacles in the water column and pull in food that way usually they are visible like almost clear tentacles protruding from one of the ends of the tubes, a root would grow so to speak those tubes will funnel out a little larger at the end the creature is fishing from depending on how long you can keep them for,

I'm not sure who, but crabs, snails or the fish demolished any visible ones years ago in my tank, but if I was to try to pull the rocks apart, 100s of those tubes working together are strong enough to pull 2 rocks from the bottom accidentally, to then snap halfway out the tank and drop the bottom rock onto the glass or sand, just as a future heads up if you were ever to move any rocks around in the years to come

 

[James5214]

Ok thanks for the knowledge! Yes I plan eventually when I get the space and money to get a bigger tank and take all the live rock from this tank and seed the new tank

 

[Brucealmighty]

Yeah I have done exactly that through the years twice have kept everything except the last super dirty water from emptying, even that a 1/2 pint got poured in the new water for bacterial needs, I even ran my old external filter on my sumped system for about 6 months after I got it. Nice pods too BTW, I still see them if I'm early in my tank before the wrasse's get up

 

[James5214]

Thanks! They came in the LR I bought from TampaBay salt I live in Tampa so was able to do local pick up and they have awesome LR and covered in so much biodiversity! Would recommend them to anyone starting a new tank. I'm about to buy some pods from algae barn to get even more diverse pods. Different types and such. And you can never have to many pods lol

 

[James5214]

And what's crazy is those are the big fat pods if you look closely in video you can see very small tiny pods! So from what I can tell my tank is loaded but I want more as a mandarin dragonet is an amazing fish!!!!!

 

[James5214]

Sorry I know some of you can't see video but here's a screen shot of the big fat pods I don't know what species they are but they are right above the sandbed line you can see all the legs and the body's. Little clear jokers

 

[phpwebdev]

Thanks! They came in the LR I bought from TampaBay salt I live in Tampa so was able to do local pick up and they have awesome LR and covered in so much biodiversity! Would recommend them to anyone starting a new tank. I'm about to buy some pods from algae barn to get even more diverse pods. Different types and such. And you can never have to many pods lol

We are moving to Tampa soon and setting up a new reef tank. Glad to see a recommendation for TBS, we were thinking the same thing. Did you do a photo blackout period with the rock when you got it, or just plopped it in?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Looks like poriferan sponge

 

[WheatToast]

The strings personally look too whispy to be Vermetid snails, which also lack the curled bases of Vermetids. My guess is that they are harmless, filter-feeding tube/fan/feather dusters:

I could only spot one Copepod in the video, quickly darting to the left at the beginning. Undoubtedly, there are more in the tank, though:

The larger sandbed “pods” and huge “pod” are Munnid isopods, which are beneficial grazers of algae and feed larger livestock. I am not sure if the adults are small enough for mandarins and dragonets to consume:

 

[James5214]

We are moving to Tampa soon and setting up a new reef tank. Glad to see a recommendation for TBS, we were thinking the same thing. Did you do a photo blackout period with the rock when you got it, or just plopped it in

I would totally recommend them!! And I love being local as you don't have to do the minimum of 200$ of LR I only have a 20L as of now and already had over 20pds of macro rock so I got about 4pds of their premium LR. And no I didn't black out they told me to just plop it in there.

 

[James5214]

The strings personally look too whispy to be Vermetid snails, which also lack the curled bases of Vermetids. My guess is that they are harmless, filter-feeding tube/fan/feather dusters:

I could only spot one Copepod in the video, quickly darting to the left at the beginning. Undoubtedly, there are more in the tank, though:

The larger sandbed “pods” and huge “pod” are Munnid isopods, which are beneficial grazers of algae and feed larger livestock. I am not sure if the adults are small enough for mandarins and dragonets to consume:

Did you see the screenshot I posted? What kind of pod is that? And yes my camera quality is terrible so there is so many more of those small pods you circled just really hard for my camera to pick up

 

[WheatToast]

Did you see the screenshot I posted? What kind of pod is that? And yes my camera quality is terrible so there is so many more of those small pods you circled just really hard for my camera to pick up

These are also Munnid isopods. I wish I still had some; they’re really fun to watch.