please ID worms? on paly

[steeliathunder]

Hi, I'm new

I have had this colony of green/brown pays in my tank for 2 weeks they have been doing excellent. after the addition of more live rock to the tank 2 days ago, i noticed these on the stalks of some of the palys. what is it? will it kill the palys? what can i do? any help is greatfully apreciated.

close up shot of worms:

the colony is living on a rock with what i think are small colored feather dusters. red/blue, red/white, yellow, blue/white and red. heres a bad pic of some of the dusters:

please help out a noobie-noob

 

[paintballer768]

IMO they arent worms. Look like glass anemones or something like that, but to be honest I havent heard of them mounting on zoas before. Therell be more opinions soon though so lets see what happens.
And yes those are some pretty hitchhiker feather dusters.

 

[steeliathunder]

hmmm glass anenomes... i'll run a search on those...
thanks paintballer! i love the dusters, i hope they live, the rock is covered with them and about 150+ polyps which seem to be crowding them out terribly.
mostly im concerned about the ugly hitchikers...
hopeful for more replies

 

[chilwil84]

def look like aptasia (aka glass anenome)

 

[steeliathunder]

boo aptasia! i thought those were brown... maybe i just caught these as babies. they are tiny tiny like 2mm.
i guess i'll be adding some peppermint shrimp.
My water parameters are great, so i think it would be okay to add them.
what do you all think... 1 pep in a 10gallon? or would 2 be okay? or does it have to be odd #s?
EDIT: one of them extended itself to a half inch and disconnected itself from the polyp. i took the opportunity to remove it with a straw. then i popped another one off gently and it was consumed by a polyp. i still dont know what they are... but they do not have a good grip. i could not locate any more of these on the new live rock. live rock was purchased cured.
still curious as to what they are, hoping i wont have thousands of them

 

[paintballer768]

Aiptasia can be brown or clear. It just is bleached or something. If they dont have a good grip, I guess you could use a straw and suck on it to remove it, but you might injest it hahaha.
One peppermint shrimp would be fine. Dont want to take up the tank with em cuz eventually all the aiptasia will be gone and youll be stuck with some ugly shrimp (but its your opinion.) Just one pep and keep an eye out.
They might not go after the aip right away but if you starve them for a few days they will.

 

[reefkprz]

those are not aiptasia, aiptasia does not build sand encrusted tubes. I would say its some sort of polychate possibly (annelid or serpulid).

 

[steeliathunder]

yes, they definately have sand-encrusted tubes. they seemed to leave no affliction on the palys. if they are a polychate, then they are okay to hang out in the tank from what i have read.
if they start multiplying rapidly, i'll get a peppermint, but i was saving that spot for a fire shrimp honestly

thanks for the help guys!