Strange filter feeder "hands" in my coral

[T.J.]

Now that my coral has been identified as a Galaxy (thanks forum!), what are these filter feeding "hands" coming out of it?

 

Here's another closup of the feeders. Are they part of the coral?

 

Here is the whole coral. I am keeping an eye on its sweepers, making sure it doesn't get to my zoo's next to it.

 

Some of my zoo's.

 

Thanks for all the help. This is my second go at a reef tank. My first one was a 55gal, and was very successful. Now I just have this 7 gal nano and a 45gal freshwater.

TJ

[caja]

Those are just hitchiker fan worms. No worries.

[birdman204]

yup, thats what they appear to be. surprised they arent getting stung, do they appear to be a diff animal, or is it coming from the Galaxea ( really looks like one now, nice pic )

[T.J.]

They don't appear to be getting stung, the tenticles touch them all the time. They stick out of a small bulb in the coral skeleton, birdman, so your guess is as good as mine. I target feed the coral the invert gumbo, and I make sure to spray some on the fans as well.

TJ

[brahm]

I was looking at the same type of coral, the same "hands" were on that rock aswell.

[JohnnyMTB]

I have a bunch of fan worms growing around and on some of my corals, seems the feathers are immune to the stings, much like a clown/anemone situation, probably gives the fan worm some protection.

[Fant]

could be barnacles, do they flick out and flick back in repeteadly or do they stay out all the time?

[T.J.]

They go in and out: hand opens up, closes, goes into a small hole, comes out again. Barnacles, huh? Cool.

[eidolon]

I have some of these in my tank too. Ditto with the post above, DaveESPI helped identify them for me as barnacles.

[kennerd]

Fant with the call: yep: barnacles.