Hydra's on a crabshell?

[PaulP]

Can anyone help me to identify something that I am unable to get a picture of.

 

I have a couple crabs in my nano that are covered with some type of critter.

 

They look like maybe feather dusters - the shaft is maybe 1-2 mm long (1/32-1/16") and at the top is a crown of about 10 little arms/feathers/whatever. The do not retract, they are always waving in the currents.

 

Thought maybe it was aiptasial, not really sure what micro-miniature ones would look like.

 

The confusing part is the shell is covered with hundreds of them. It all most looks like the crabshell has hair. They don't seem to be coming off and transferring to my tank, just the crabshell. And he doesn't seem to mind it.

 

Any ideas on where to begin my search. Pictures that I could compare to would be helpful.

 

thanks

 

Paul P

[birdman204]

sounds like a type of "vermetid" snails... search for vermetid

[pat_man_ta]

sounds like hydroids or some sort of tube worm to me.

I have a bunch of different tube worms and hydroids in my nano and q-tank. Eventually they will likley die off, being outcompeted by something else.

[birdman204]

Hydroids generally do not have a shell as he stated... and most of the smaller sessile "tubeworms" we encounter in marine aquaria are vermetids...

 

hydroids

 

a type of vermetid

 

but i'm guessing something more like, polychaete tube worms.

or

 

I am assuming it wasn't the latter though, as he described them as feather duster like. I assumed he already looked up for feather dusters.

 

HTH

[PaulP]

Thanks for the pictures and that's not them. My LFS has me convinced they are rock anemomes (aptasia). I took a tooth brush to them.

 

What ever they were, there gone for now. We'll see if they come back

 

Paul