Spiderwebs in Tank?

[fitnessmom769]

I noticed what looks like spider webs in my tank. Upon closer examination, I saw these tiny creatures protruding slightly from their individual tubes(looked kind of like tubes from small feather dusters). They were stringing the web back in & eating the little particles which had been caught. These tiny creatures are camping out on my candy cane and there are a couple of them on the clam shell. Every now & then you see these spiderwebs and then later they are gone. Anyone know what I'm talking about? Has anyone else ever seen such a thing? My camera does not zoom in enough to take a pic of these things. They are the size of the tip of a writing pin.

[Texreefer]

yes,, they are a type of tube worm i believe,, this is how they feed,they send out these threads to catch food and then draw it back in i have several af them in my tank. should be harmless

[seamonkey2]

ditto

Jose

[SaltyJim]

look up "Vermetid Snails". If that is what you see, then they are harmless.

[discuspro]

Harmless yes, but if they get big enough they can really produce some large webs that can disturb coral polyp extention if they are right on or next to a coral. I've killed a few of these guys, with joy, because they were snotting up the corals next to them and making the corals look like they were suffering slightly from the webs being all over them.

[Ram_Puppy]

yeah, they hurt bad if you grab a piece of live rock wrong and drive one of those shells into the meat of your fingers... ouch ouch ouch.

[SaltyJim]

yes, very painful, but also very easy to snap off the tubes. Just break the ones you see close to your corals.

[loans_n_fishes]

Sounds like what I had in my tank shortly after set up. I believe the consensus was sea squirts (tunicates). Harmless and feed off the nutrients in the water.

[apedroza]

Tex was actually correct they are a type of tube worm. The little stringy things are used for feeding and also for building up their tubes. They are for the most parts harmless but if they get too big they will disturb coral polyps.

[SaltyJim]

Sounds like what I had in my tank shortly after set up. I believe the consensus was sea squirts (tunicates). Harmless and feed off the nutrients in the water.

Tunicates will have a distinct in and out hole. They also do not send out the mucus strands that were being referred to. Take a look at this (http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-01/rs/index.php). Look at the pics there, if that is what you have, then Vermetid it is.

[apedroza]

Okay that is something totally different than what I've seen in my tank. Usually I only see 1 to 2 very long strands sweeping across the water. Not whole webs. Weird

[loans_n_fishes]

Mine looked like spider webs (whole webs) on the tank glass. The sea squirts looked like little spider eggs in the webs--though more oval. Sounds like yours are different from what I had. Interesting! Pictures?

[Ram_Puppy]

vermitids are NOT tube worms, they are sessile mollusks, i.e., they are related to the snail.

[JimD]

vermitids are NOT tube worms, they are sessile mollusks, i.e., they are related to the snail.

Yup! And they can get very large and impossible to manualy remove, not to mention they can hock up substantial ammounts of snot that can booger up a tank in no time. I usually seal the opening with superglue.

[fitnessmom769]

Looked up Vermetids...YUP! That is what they look like. Thanks for everyone's replies. :D