hoping anyone can help tell me what this is!

[salty3809]

not sure what these are inside the cave, my best guess so far is aiptasia! but hoping it is something else!

 

[jay0705]

Could b a type of feather duster. But it's hard to tell

 

[jay0705]

Could b a type of feather duster. But it's hard to tell

 

[salty3809]

i thought that to and did alot of picture researching and couldn't find any of them grouped together like that

 

[salty3809]

These are the feather dusters i have in the tank that are small like the mystery friend or pest in my other pic

 

[jay0705]

Hmmm idk. I had similar looking critters on my rock. But they disappeared. I had a few apatsia so I got sum true peppermint shrimp. They took care of it

 

[salty3809]

do the peppermint shrimp mess with zoas much, i have heard mixed reply's on this and worried they will mess with what i have going, i also heard that cleaner shrimp do the job, do you know anything about them?

 

[jay0705]

cleaner shrimp are great shrimp but not for apatasia. Now w zoas. Idk. Alot of shrimp can be sold as peppermint and that's where sum issues arise. Mine don't bother anything.however I also don't have a reef tank. So I don't want to say they wont and then have them damage something. If I bet id say you'd b fine

 

[salty3809]

thanx for the info jay, you said earlier that you had some critters that looked the same and the disappeared, do you happen to know the time frame from when you noticed them and they disappeared?

 

[jay0705]

Np and yes shortly after I got the shrimp.I've heard they will eat small feather dusters so I fig that's what happened. None of my fish would have touched them.

 

[wading-for-fish]

That's a barnical

 

[saxman]

Salty,
From the photo, it appears that your critters are colonial hydroids. These often show up in new tanks about the same time as your pods begin blooming as they eat zooplankton. Sometimes they can grow pretty quickly, but they generally die back to the numbers they can survive at once the food source levels off. In a FO system, they don't pose a problem unless you have any fry you're raising.
And I agree, your "duster" in the other pic is a barnacle...harmless fliter-feeder.

 

[wading-for-fish]

I use to have a barnical tank with a blenny colony, barnicals are great for eating free floating debris and left over food, but one winter my power when out when i was at school and the temp. Plummeted.