worm thingy?

[dwinzent]

I got some new live rock in hopes of turning the bioball nitrate factory in the second chamber of my biocube 29 into a refugeum. The guy i got the rock from is a good friend of mine that actually has a really nice reef setup but thats not what im here for. lol after inspecting his tank closely i noticed he had a pretty bad aptaisia problem and in my tank seems how a good part of my rock was fake rock i have no pests. so i was going to boil the rock to be safe. i had the rock sitting in a spare bucket of fresh mixed ro water overnight so i could boil it tonight. when i pulled the rock out i noticed this little worm guy in it that keeps squirming around and looks pretty nasty but kinda looks like a bristle worm. so my question is should i throw out this water or can i still use it? when i put refugium in i want to fill the back higher so there is more water in that chamber so i was planning on using it to top it off tonight but im not really sure what i should do. i noticed aptaisia in his tank there were some diatoms on this rock and theres this worm guy. are any of those transfered through the water? keep in mind the bucket i had it in is unheated as well. the worm im concerned about is in the middle of the small piece of cheato and what i believe is a dead pod that for some reason is really dark red.
thanks, Derek

 

[Bifferwine]

That looks like some sort of starfish... with a lot of legs? Does that sound right?

 

[dwinzent]

well upon further inspection the green thing is a starfish so i gues i would like to know if he would be safe in my tank of not. its green with white bands and it is kinda furry like most brittle starfish but the red thing is just a single strand that keeps moving around i kinda wonder if it is one starfishes leg because it seems to be moving without any sense of direction. are all brittle starfish reef safe? all i have is one zoa frag and a frogspawn frag that i got for free cause it fell off of my friends coral. i am planning on only keeping soft corals so should all brittles be safe with them?

 

[Bifferwine]

If it's a starfish, it's safe. Their legs can break off and grow into new starfish.

 

[dwinzent]

ok thanks biff. im gonna try to keep it alive in the bucket because its actually my moms tank and she hates the way they look. im probably gonna set my own tank up again pretty soon so hopefully it will live till then!