Identity help?

[spoondigity]

Hi,

 

I have to identify something that has spread in my tank. Just the other day this guy popped up alone.

[spoondigity]

Around the same time, about 20-30 of these little guys showed up on my substrate. I was told by one person who looked at them that they will turn into burrowing worms but I am not sure. What do you think.

[spoondigity]

I kind of thought maybe that main guy reproduced all of the little round ones on the substrate... They are round little balls with darker dots or possibly stubby arms on them. They have just been sitting on the bottom for awhile.

[jjharrisx4]

do you have any corals in this tank...it's hard to tell from the pics, but that almost looks like the little buds that my colt coral drops off everywhere. They sprout up wherever they sit for any length of time.

[spoondigity]

Hmmm, I haven't added any corals myself. I do have some live rock with a lot of life on them but nothing large. The top picture is the first thing I have spotted that looks anything like a coral. He is about the size of a nickel in diameter, about a centimeter high at most, and was the first to show up. He has no stalk it seems. He is just a lot of little arms waving from the rock base. There is only one like him. The other ones (bottom picture) are almost the size of pencil eraser at the largest and are more like little hollow looking round balls with the spots or small stubs on top.

[jjharrisx4]

Based on your description, I'd call the first one a featherduster or tubeworm. I have a bunch of those with red feathers.

 

The others, by your description, sound more like a sponge or tunicate...I'm afraid others will have to give you further detail.

[spoondigity]

Thanks for taking a look at it. I am still trying to decide if I should manually remove the ones on the bottom or just leave them and see what happens. Thinking I might just wait a bit longer to see what they do.