Little worm

Joeysmissy

Joeysmissy

Reefing newb
I have had my 29gal tank set up for 3 weeks now with crushed coral, live rock and two green chromis. Yesterday I noticed that the crushed coral is turning a brownish orange color. It was originally white. And my live rock is also turning brown but it has some green spots in it. It's a darker brown than when I first bought it. One piece of live rock seems to be growing a coral of some sort. Its to small to take a picture of so I can not show it. Well anyway, this morning I checked the tank for any changes and the brown seems to be getting darker and I noticed something moving so I took a closer look and I saw a two colored worm in the live rock. The worm was sticking out of a hole so I could not see the whole body but it seemed small. Half of the body was pink and the lower half was grayish. I saw another one at the bottom in the crushed coral eating a piece of shrimp that the fished missed. My camera sucks so I can not get a picture of it either. Does anyone know what this is? And is the rock and crushed coral turning brown because of the worms?
 
Those worms are bristleworms. They are great cleaners and as you've seen, will help keep your tank clean by eating waste and leftover food. I bet you have doezens in your tank and don't realize it.

The brown stuff is diatoms -- a type of algae. It's very common in new tanks, and there isn't much you can do about it except keep your water quality up. Diatoms will go away over time, and as your tank matures you'll see them less frequently.

You can help by not using tap water, not overfeeding and doing regular water changes.

As for the little coral thing, google "aiptasia" and "majano". They are very common hitch hiker anemones and are pests that need to be removed from the tank ASAP if it's one of those, as they'll sting and kill other things in the tank. And they multiply FAST.
 
dont clown fish like to host in anemones? or are they bad for them? this is sort of what they look like..its to small right now to see but looks almost like this
 

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There are so many different types of anemones. Some are good, some are bad. Aiptasia and majano are two types of anemones that are bad and harmful to other animals in your tank.

Try to get a picture of the thing that is growing in your tank. We'll be able to ID it from the pic.
 
Does it look like this?

Clown fish only host certain types of anemones.
 

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Yes. But its pink and the tentacles look clear but have a pink tip. But its small and i cant get a good look at it. Right now the tentacles seem to have gone inside the body. Sorry if im not making sense. Its hard to describe
 
the anemones pictured are a type of majano, You should remove it unless you only want a tank full of these guys. As biff mentioned they can sting and harm your fish and corals.

You will need to use aiptasia control to remove it.
 
well i can not take a good enough pic of it but here is something else that is also growing on my LR. Is this a type of Sponge? its not the lower right corner

randompics2010005.jpg
 
ok i tried to take better pics...the first one is the little growth with the tentacles and the second one is the spongy looking one..i hope this works and is clear. Is it what you said it was? you cant see the tentacles because for some reason it stuck them in to hide i guess.


randompics20100062.jpg



randompics20100075.jpg
 
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Looks like a feather duster to me in the pic. As for the growth, Im siding with the ladies on this one that is mejano or aiptasia. The biggest visual difference is that mejano comes to a round or bulbous tip at the end of each tentacle whereas aiptasia have a pointed or cone shape tip at the end of their tentacles. Both are bad news but they have to be dealt with in different ways so its important to identify which one you have.
 
Ok. Thanks everyone for the help. Can i just remove the whole rock with the anemone and it not bother the system or will it still grow everywhere even if i remove that piece of LR? I can take it out and throw it away because its a small piece and it wont matter. I just bought it because it looked nice and it was free from my LFS.
 
dont throw it away, just toss it in a pot and boil it for 20 mins then let it cool and rinse it and toss it back in your tank. If you are lucky the anemone hasn't released any spores yet and hasn't spread anywhere else in the tank. If it has then we'll help you deal with it but for the moment just boil it and you'll be ok.
 
No chlorine! Just make sure that the water is at a rolling boil and keep it submerged for 20 mins... or 30 if you are worried about it.
 

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