ID please

[seashells]

I have a couple little criitters growing here. Are they good or bad?

[i have crabs]

they look like somekind of tube worms wich would be nothing to worry about

[hockey nut]

They are Hydroids. They sting and can over run your tank. I have had them. I basically had to take out the rock and cut them out of the rock. I have heard about some people just covering them with coral epoxy. There is a section on this topic in RC.

HTH.

[mr_alberta]

I agree that they look like Hydroids. Get them before they take over!

[marie]

There's an old thread about these guys here
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=16453

Here's a pic of mine .

[Willow]

Originally Posted by i have crabs

they look like somekind of tube worms wich would be nothing to worry about

you might want to work on your id skills before you offer anymore advise on whats ok to let runover on someones tank.

keyhole or black lympets might eat them. i have 2 of them in my tank and they seem to have controled a small outbreak i had. oa sometimes stocks them, they are around 4 bucks i think.

[sumpfinfishe]

Seashells,

You may want to try the cover up route with epoxy first, however if there are centralized to one or two rocks in the tank for what it's worth-pull the rock! Mine were spread in little patches throughout my entire reef so I had to rip down the tank. These things can take over large colonies of coral with powerful little stings. Oh man your giving me flashbacks
The crappy thing about these worms is they can spread really fast in ideal conditions, so don't waste too much time on the matter.

Goodluck!

[Delphinus]

Have to agree. I took the route that "they're probably harmless" and let them be, now every single rock in my tank is almost completely covered. A great way to devalue the live rock.

Black limpets eh? Hmmm. May have to try some. Right now I have two CC stars that I'm letting them go to town on this rock although they don't seem to be touching them. However with the infestation as bad as I let it get in my tank it could take months.

There is some talk about Panacur to treat a tank of hydroids however it is quite unpleasant (it will kill a great deal of other things, including shrimp, worms, and who knows what else) so I would think it is only as a matter of desperate last resort. I looked into doing the Panacur treatment but have elected to hold off on that for now, giving the CC stars a shot.