Acropora W/Feather Duster Type Thing? (Nope…Sounds Like Neat Little Barnacles To Me) – 05/16/08
Good late evening/early morning WWM crew:
<<Greetings…is late Friday evening here now>>
I recently made a purchase at a LFS that has me worried.
<<Uh-oh>>
I bought what appeared to be a small 2" Acropora frag, species unknown. I inspected the coral thoroughly in the store's tank, but the main 400 watt halides had yet to come on (only actinic lights and the ceiling lights on at the time). Not seeing anything unusual, I had the employee bag it up and took it home. After a few stops along the way (90 mile drive from store to house), I got home and placed the coral still in bag in my sump to temp acclimate. I forgot about the coral and went out to dinner; arriving home several hours later and began acclimating it to the tank's water. All in all, the coral was in the bag for no more than 8 hours.
<<Okay>>
After several scoops of tank water into the bag, I proceeded to dump half the water out and repeat; this process went on for approx 45 min, all the while I was prepping the rubble that I wanted to attach the frag to and clearing a spot on the sand bed to place the newly acquired piece (I know; no QT is bad, I'm shaming myself for it now).
<<Lesson learned then>>
By the time I was ready to attach the frag my main lights were out for the night, so I glued the frag to rubble and again, gave the coral a thorough visual inspection while out of water waiting for the super glue to set. After a few minutes, I returned the coral to my specimen container with tank water to make sure it wouldn't fall off (need to find a better glue, but that's for a different discussion). After another few minutes, I placed the coral in the center of the tank on the sand bed and called it a night. The next day, the polyps were extended on half of the coral; the other half, where polyps should be, there were larger holes with fan/feather type extensions that would open and close.
<<Ah! Barnacles! It is not uncommon to see Acropora species hosting the interesting creatures>>
In appearance, somewhat similar to the webbed-appendages on a porcelain crab that they use to catch particulates in the water column.
<<Yes indeed>>
These fan/feather things react to food; I tested with feedings of Cyclopeeze to which their movement in and out increased dramatically. They are almost completely transparent and not only do they move in and out of the holes in the coral's skeleton, they can rotate 360 degrees when extended.
<<How lucky you are… Do watch and enjoy these organisms…while they last>>
In searching through the internet and WWM, I came across a question from another hobbyist to which Adam replied that the critter in question was a Aeolid nudibranch.
<<Mmm, nope…not in this instance in my estimation…is a barnacle by your description>>
While the affected coral in question is clearly not a Montipora (to me at least, wish I had a digital camera to get a picture for you to confirm),
<<Me too!>>
how much risk is there that this can spread to my other small-polyped stony corals?
<<Virtually non-existent… You will be lucky if these filter-feeding organisms survive for more than a few months in captivity, much less propagate>>
Or what I should ask first is: do I in fact have a nudibranch infected coral or is it possible that the coral frag grew over some other sort of deceased coral skeleton to which these fans were still attached?
<<No…you have nothing to fear here>>
I have seen feather dusters great and small; but my eyes have seen none that grow from within a SPS coral.
<<Indeed>>
And I am positive that there were no white spots, lesions or other signs of damage to the coral when purchased--the usual slight loss of tissue at the bottom where it was recently fragged and subsequently grown directly in the sand bed was the only visible thing wrong with it. Since acquisition on Monday, there has even been a small amount of new tissue growth at the base as an effort to encrust onto the piece of rubble. I have several varieties/colorations of plating, encrusting and branching Montipora in the tank, as well as pocillopora sp., Acropora sp. and pavona sp. Not to mention numerous Zoanthids, palythoa, euphyllia sp. (2 diff specie); short tentacle plate coral; 2 trumpet/candy cane corals; 2 gorgonians. The tank in question is a 40 breeder with 20 L sump. Tunze 9010 skimmer; lighting 400 watt SE XM 20k halide; lots of macro for nitrate removal; refugium on reverse light cycle from DT. Pair of modded Tunze 6025 powerheads and MJ 900 for added flow (1 or 2 additional Nano Streams will be added once my tax return finally comes :). Current readings are 1.024 sg; 7 dKH (always run on the "low" end despite dripping saturated lime water at night and dosing 2-part regimen daily);
<<Perhaps trying a different test kit is in order>>
calc 400 ppm. I dose the 2-part solution according to the mfg's recommendations to raise/maintain loss of 1 dKH loss of alk and 10 ppm calcium per day. No detectable ammonia, nitrites, nitrates. The coral was purchased Monday of this week. At the writing of this letter it is 1:35 am on the East Coast.
<<I too am on the East Coast (SC)>>
So far, none of my other corals have shown any signs of stress, disease, loss of color; all show normal polyp expansion/extension.
<<This unexpected hitchhiker on your SPS frag is no reason for concern>>
Any advice is greatly appreciated.
<<Take a deep breath and enjoy them while they last>>
Thanks for all you do to keep hobbyists like me loving and better understanding the beautiful and magnificent creatures we have in our marine tanks.
-Eric
<<Is a pleasure to share. Eric Russell>>

Critters I need ID'd, good or bad? 5/16/08 Greetings, I have 55 gallon reef tank with: green brain coral, green and orange button polyps, green Zoanthids, pumping xenia, 2 toadstools leathers, a torch coral, one large condy anemone (in a spot by himself, not near my coral), and a crocea clam. Fish include: yellow tang, two Percula clowns, green clown goby, scissortail goby, coris wrasse, three chromis, and a yellow headed sleeper goby. Also, a cleaner shrimp and a few feather dusters.  With that said, I have several tiny "anemone" looking things spreading across my live rock (critter4.jpg). <Possibly Aiptasia? I'm sorry, I can't really tell from that photo.> I thought they were glass anemones, but they are far too small and the largest they get are about 3 mm. Any idea what they are? The second photo (critter3.jpg) is of a little guy that keeps peeking out from under one of my zoos. He is red with what looks like black hairs? <The pic is pretty blurry, but it looks like a feather worm.> Again, any idea what he is? I also have several little white spiral things on my glass. <These are likely spirorbid worms.> Any help in identifying these things would be great. Thanks, Jared <Best, Sara M.>

<maybe Aiptasia? <feather worm

Saltwater Tank - Aiptasia? 5/16/08
Hello wwm,
I got a saltwater tank for Christmas and did all the necessary stuff to get it started etc. I have been maintaining it well but lately I have noticed some weird stuff in the tank. It is a 29 gallon biocube. Anyways there have been about 20 of these...Anemone looking things with tentacles and they eat the food I put in the tank. Do you have any idea what these are? They don't really look like anemones more like these little bases with tentacles coming out
of it and a mouth sort of thing.
<Could these be Aiptasia?
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/marine/inverts/cnidaria/anthozoa/Aiptasia/aiptasia.htm>
Also there are two living barnacles in the tank that filter feed quite often and was wondering if that will harm anything. My big concern is these purple pinkish things that grow on the bottom of the tank on the sand. they have a jelly looking base with these tentacle like hairs coming up from it,
<These sound like spaghetti worms.>
Look like tentacles made from fibers, is any of this bad or is it normal, or can you identify them? thanks for the help
<Hmmm... you have my guesses, but it's impossible to truly ID these things without pictures.
Best,
Sara M.>

thousands of teeny tiny creatures on my aquarium glass!  05/09/08
Hi WWM crew!
Love your site. I have a question. A couple weeks ago I noticed these little almost microscopic white specks on my aquarium glass. I have a 29 gallon
freshwater aquarium. They almost looked like tiny white specks of residue left from a paper towel I used to wipe the glass. But upon further inspection
they are moving! Slowly along the glass and some are even floating in the water. These are tiny, minute creatures. I've searched planaria but they are
so small it is difficult to make out the tell-tale shape of the usual planaria look - being worm like with two protrusions on each side at one end.  These are almost about the thickness of a strand of baby hair. and the longest I've seen are a little over 1/16 of an inch long. They are barely visible unless you get close to the glass but there are thousands of them on the glass. Are they copepods? They are so small..too small to even get a decent photograph. I've noticed that the fish don't seem to mind and are relatively unaffected. Are these something to worry about? I've not added any new rocks or plants. I have a bamboo plant that has been in the tank for about 8 months. I've done water changes and vacuumed the gravel and tested the chemistry and everything seems normal except ever since these have appeared the water has been pretty cloudy. I feed my fish once a day, and only the amount they can eat in 10 minutes. Do you know what these could be?
- thanks
<Annie, yes, these are most likely copepods (or similar) if on the glass. Absolutely harmless in themselves, but the fact they are growing at all indicates they are finding lots to eat. Couple that with the cloudiness of the water, and there's perhaps an over-feeding or under-filtering issue. Fish need only sufficient food they eat in 1-2 minutes. Honestly, it's better to err on the side of caution and feed too little. Do also check your filter is up to snuff, perhaps starting by rinsing the media once every 3-4 weeks. If needs be, upgrading the filtration system. I always recommend a filter that offers 4 times the volume of the tank in turnover per hour _at minimum_ for small community tropicals, and at least 6 times the volume of the tank for bigger fish like cichlids and goldfish. Cheers, Neale.>