worm ID help please

[bentrue]

i put a new piece of LR in my tank today and have been looking closely at it to see different signs of life that might pop out. well, there are many whiteish colored worms coming out from holes at diferent spots all over the rock. what kind of worms are these? are they worms?
i also have seen 5 pink stalks with each having 7-8 green branches off the top of them. is this some kind of polyp?
thanks

 

[tellico tornado]

I have the same type of worms on my new LR that i got about 3 weeks ago. Not sure if they are worms or algae or what. They seem to jerk and twitch like they are trying to get out of the rock or trying to catch stuff floating by. I dont know what they are, but mine havent hurt anything yet. There are also two different anemone type stuff growing in my tank. They are very much alive, they run and hide when i stick my hand in the tank, they can see me and they dont like me. They hide and sink down in the rock when they see me and then if i get real still watching the tank they come back out and their tenecals float around in the current. Sometimes im almost afraid to stick my hand in the tank for fear of what might cling on to my arm! ha ha

 

[bentrue]

anyone know what these might be?

 

[marek]

sound like you _MAY_ be talking about so called glassworms, I'd have to look up real name. I have a zillion glassworms all over my tanks, one particularly has more. they parade sticking their long tubular bodies from the substrate and the live rock. Although they are called glassworms, my are mixed, I see some white, most ARE clear looking though. Many of my are maybe longer than one inch.
The purple 'stuff' you have is I'm nearly sure, from what you've described a purple gorgonian. again dont know the proper name of this species. but if the polyps coming out of the stalk are brown, then this species is photosynthetic... if white, a micro-feeder/filter-feeder.
Take care.

 

[10k]

Originally posted by BenTrue:
i also have seen 5 pink stalks with each having 7-8 green branches off the top of them. is this some kind of polyp?
thanks[/QB]<hr></blockquote>
What you are refering to are probably what are commonly known as Green Star Polyps (Pseudoplexaura viridis). If so nice score!

 

[cyn]

Do the pink stalks end in a snowflake pattern of branches? If so, it could be xenia. Doubt it is polyps, they tend to end in a cup or button shape. Another thing that comes to mind is macro alge, hard to say with the description given though.
HTH,
cyn

 

[10k]

Obviosly you have never seen green STAR polyps. They have purple rigid tubes and from that protrude tiny green pinules. Not cup or button shaped. Take a look see.
<a href="http://exoticfish.com/softcorals.htm" target="_blank">http://exoticfish.com/softcorals.htm</a>

 

[k.lee]

The "worms" you describe sound like medusae worms. In my 70 gallon with a lot of live rock, slender tentacles less than the diameter of human hair extend over the rock (a lot of them) from a single hole in the rock. Bits of detritus are seen being pumped back to the hole along the "worm".
Often, when the lights come on in the morning, I see orangish "worms" with tentacles on the glass. I believe these are medusae worms, but, I'm not sure.
Lee

 

[catherine]

I, too, have some of the little white worm things sticking out of the live rock. So are they good things or bad things?

 

[karlas]

BenTrue your white worms could be peanut worms they are white, grey, of brown these are excellent for any salt tank they clean the detris off of the rock and sand
<a href="http://www.lehigh.edu/~tmm6/nano/peanutworm.htm" target="_blank">peanut worms</a>
the pink things could be foraminiferins these are filter feeders and completely harmless
<a href="http://www.reefs.org/hhfaq/pages/picture_pages/faq_foramred.html" target="_blank">foraminiferins</a>
klee i think the ones you are describing are medusa worms called more spaghetti worms they burrow in sand or lr and feed with their hairlike tenacles good detrius cleaners also. and a highly wanted species
<a href="http://webeducator.net/bermuda/WhatchaSee/sld030.htm" target="_blank">spaghetti worms</a>

 

[kenobi]

It truely sounds like you seeing just regular copepodes. Actually pretty sure. And you'll see many more.