Pest or Not?

[GQ22]

Hi guys

Throught out my tank there are these hardformed spiral worms growing on rock. They create a brownish clearish hard spiral shell and emit some sort of slime from their tips. I feel they maybe irritating my other corals. Only a very small tip of the worm appears. they can be broken off, but how else do i get rid of them. is there any natural predator? sorry i dont have a pick, but i think it maybe a common pest.

 

[Josh]

Sounds like a non-predatory tubeworm. Normally a good thing. I used to have them all over my rear glass.

If you have a pic we could get a much better ID.

 

[maxpower2112]

i second everything Joshsaul just said. just tube worms probably but a picture would help out
Don

 

[delv]

Vermatids....kill them. Cover with crazy glue....and you're done.

d.

 

[jackson6745]

Vermatids....kill them. Cover with crazy glue....and you're done.

d.

Yeah, thats what it sounds like. I had a big mother on one of my colonies. It would spray out a sheet of snot about 4"x4".

 

[maxpower2112]

lol, ok i guess what i had was something different. i had tubeworms, no slime here

 

[jenniebutterfly]

they really are not harmful at all. actually they are great filter feeders. thats all the slime is. basically it is a sessile snail.

 

[delv]

Their slime fouls, traps detritous, and harms SPS....I thought the same, they're harmless, after time I noticed that the areas with vermitids weren't growing, or were dying back.

For the record...really to strengthen my correlation, I don't lose corals...maybe 5 out of 200 plus. Don't experience STN either...not on my corals at least.

d.

 

[GQ22]

is there

is there a natural predator for these? there are so many of them and i have so much rock, it would be hard to individually get rid of them all

 

[Missy Johnson]

i used to have a few in my tank. i would think that any predator wouldn't be reefsafe. broke mine off with pliers but if you have alot that isn't practical.