what is this

reefanova · Jul 16, 2014

So i am pretty new to the reef tank an i have found this on my frogspawn,and im am not sure if it is new growth or lil worms cause that is what it looks like to me.please help i dont wanna lose one of my favorite corals already,and i found a little mine starfish on it tonight sorry no pics of this yet.the pics sre not that good but all i got for now..

tyler1503 · Jul 16, 2014

Looks like a tube worm. Is it growing off the skeleton or the rock? It's a bit hard to tell in the pic.

reefanova · Jul 16, 2014

yes on the base the hard part off the coral not onthe tissue

reefanova · Jul 16, 2014

yeah sorry the pic is poor old smart phone

Squishie89 · Jul 16, 2014

Sounds and looks like a vermetid snail.

reefanova · Jul 16, 2014

Squishie89 said:
Sounds and looks like a vermetid snail.

It looks like a little tube,kindy of spiraled and two of them are purple looking,the other ones are white.what is the vermetid snail?is it bad are good for my system?

Ringo® · Jul 16, 2014

Squishie89 said:
Sounds and looks like a vermetid snail.

Agree. A bit of a pest, but tough to avoid.

reefanova · Jul 16, 2014

Squishie89 said:
Sounds and looks like a vermetid snail.

So will this hurt my frogspawn?

Squishie89 · Jul 16, 2014

reefanova said:
So will this hurt my frogspawn?

I doubt it. They put out mucus nets to catch their food. Sometimes theae nets bother corals, so just keep an eye out. Minr have never bothered the euphyllia corals.

stiky · Jul 16, 2014

Frogspawn is darn near indestructible. Don't worry.

reefanova · Jul 17, 2014

Squishie89 said:
I doubt it. They put out mucus nets to catch their food. Sometimes theae nets bother corals, so just keep an eye out. Minr have never bothered the euphyllia corals.

ok think u squishie,i well keep an eye out and i have found a tiny starfish i think these are bad news,rite?

reefanova · Jul 17, 2014

stiky said:
Frogspawn is darn near indestructible. Don't worry.

i hope so being my first reef,it is growing like crazy,so that is good.Thanx for the reply

Squishie89 · Jul 17, 2014

reefanova said:
ok think u squishie,i well keep an eye out and i have found a tiny starfish i think these are bad news,rite?

There are 2 main types of tiny starfish. Brittle stars which have super thin creepy legs and a round middle/body. And asterina stars which are fleshy, fat stars with short legs. Brittle stars are good. Asterina stars are iffy (and I have no experience with asterina stars).

reefanova · Jul 17, 2014

Squishie89 said:
There are 2 main types of tiny starfish. Brittle stars which have super thin creepy legs and a round middle/body. And asterina stars which are fleshy, fat stars with short legs. Brittle stars are good. Asterina stars are iffy (and I have no experience with asterina stars).

Cool i fond a brittle star under my monti cap last night along with what appears to be a feather duster.as for the other asterina stars i for sure saw one and now that guy is gone dang i know to get that kind out as of now thanx to another article.thannk u for your answers.

Jc_ellis · Jul 17, 2014

Asternia stars need to be watched because there are species that eat corals and no way to tell those apart from the beneficial ones. I'm lucky and have benign detrivores/algae eating asternias but only time will tell with yours.

NanaReefer · Jul 17, 2014

Astrenia stars come in several colors. From solid white to marble and shades of brown. It has been my experience along with many others that it is the solid white ones that are harmless algae eaters. Those with any color should be watched if not removed.

footballdude2k3 · Jul 17, 2014

If you really want little things like this to go away, Melanurus and Christmas wrasses hunt these kinds of things, I believe 6 lines do as well, but they can usually get pretty aggressive for a little guy, definitely a bit of Napoleon in them.

stiky · Jul 17, 2014

If you end up with tons of white star fish you can get a harlequin shrimp. Pretty awesome little guys. But their only good source is star fish. So when they are gone they will die...unless you chop up choclate chip stars and feed them to him. I just return them to the store once they are done doing their job. Mellanarus are nice big wrasses but will be the pig in the tank. Very active and pretty...just eat lots of food very fast. So slow eaters are left hungry.