Spinoids or Colonial Hydroids?

[AstroCoral]

So I’ve had these in the tank for a few months now. They don’t seem to be irritating anything at the moment but they started to multiply in numbers quite rapidly so I started scrubbing and vacuuming out a large number of these white hair-like projections from my rock. I was convinced these were boring spinoid worms at first but now I am not so sure. They are single projections (not two antennae), maybe 1cm tall at the max, sway in the current but are brittle enough to be brushed away, and do not move/retract at all.

Should I be concerned or leave them? I honestly was just going to tear the tank down and restart after reading some of the spinoid worm horror stories on here but that may be too drastic of a decision.

Thank you for the help!

 

[Troylee]

Need better pictures in better “white lighting”

 

[AstroCoral]

Need better pictures in better “white lighting”

Here is a better image.

 

[Troylee]

I’d lean more towards hydroids after seeing that picture myself.

 

[AstroCoral]

I’d lean more towards hydroids after seeing that picture myself.

Thank you for the help!

 

[AstroCoral]

Well I looked into the hydroids for awhile but I see absolutely no type of crown on the end of these white hairs. Seems others don’t have an answer for these either, I collected a bunch of images from reef2reef that all seem to show a similar type of worm/hydroid/bryozoan.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Based on the newer pics, I’d guess they’re some species of Feather Duster worm.

 

[AstroCoral]

I could see it potentially being a feather duster type, I’m just surprised I don’t see any type of crown or anything sticking out of each hair - I don’t know how it’s getting nutrition.

 

[MrGisonni]

I think they are worms. Colonial hydroids tend to have a branching form

 

[AstroCoral]

I think they are worms. Colonial hydroids tend to have a branching form

I believe they are as well, some type of strange stationary worm that does not retract or cast any type of crown or webbing out. I’m absolutely lost on how to get rid of these things or if it’s even possible to get rid of them.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

I'm leaning more toward a bryozoan-type critter. I've had something similar on frags/rocks in the past and they never caused any problems.

 

[AstroCoral]

I'm leaning more toward a bryozoan-type critter. I've had something similar on frags/rocks in the past and they never caused any problems.

Thank you for the response! I honestly have no idea at this point, every answer has been different haha. I’m thinking regardless, I should not restart my tank - I probably should just live with it and brush/vacuum when too many end up on the rocks. It seems to be quite a mystery though, these are the times when I wish I knew a marine biologist haha.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Thank you for the response! I honestly have no idea at this point, every answer has been different haha. I’m thinking regardless, I should not restart my tank - I probably should just live with it and brush/vacuum when too many end up on the rocks. It seems to be quite a mystery though, these are the times when I wish I knew a marine biologist haha.

What fish do you have? Some might snack on it...

 

[MoshJosh]

Not sure what they are but I have them. From the reading I have done they are fairly innocuous, but do spread a bit, mostly in shaded areas. I tried to scrub them off but they just cam back. . .

I just leave mine alone now.

 

[AstroCoral]

What fish do you have? Some might snack on it...

I only have a nano goby (trimma-type) so the hairs are about half his/her length haha. It’s in a 3 gallon pico tank.

 

[AstroCoral]

Not sure what they are but I have them. From the reading I have done they are fairly innocuous, but do spread a bit, mostly in shaded areas. I tried to scrub them off but they just cam back. . .

I just leave mine alone now.

Sounds like a plan to me! I will probably just brush them off on occasion if they become too plentiful

 

[MoshJosh]

Sounds like a plan to me! I will probably just brush them off on occasion if they become too plentiful

bryozoan!!! that's the word I was looking for, think that is what I settled on them being!

I will say I did have concern about them bothering corals (the euphylia picture you posted looks very unhappy) I had a bubble coral that limped along for a while with these bryozoans on the skeleton. . . it was pretty unhappy for a while but doing fine now. . . I can't say it was the bryozoans for sure or not. But in theory they could prevent the flesh from fully enveloping the skeleton. . . any euphylia experts care to chime in?\

 

[AstroCoral]

bryozoan!!! that's the word I was looking for, think that is what I settled on them being!

I will say I did have concern about them bothering corals (the euphylia picture you posted looks very unhappy) I had a bubble coral that limped along for a while with these bryozoans on the skeleton. . . it was pretty unhappy for a while but doing fine now. . . I can't say it was the bryozoans for sure or not. But in theory they could prevent the flesh from fully enveloping the skeleton. . . any euphylia experts care to chime in?\

My frogspawn had a bad spell for awhile but I think it was unrelated to the white hairs, just a lighting mistake. I will say that all of the images from post #6 are not images from my tank, I collected a large number of images from R2R that resembled my issue as I searched the form for answers (I would brush/scrape them off before they achieved these population levels). The images from post #6 show much better detail than images from my tank so that is why I posted them.