Can anyone identify?

[saltynovice378]

Hello I woke up this morning to find these long and fine hair like particles attached to different parts of my reef mostly on the live rock. Is this just organic waste? Thanks

 

[GHill762]

vermitid snails. see the little tube coming up the front side of your coral? that's where that trail is coming from, that is a vermitid snail.

 

[saltynovice378]

I just added 10 snails to my tank but they're all in their shells I don't see any shelves at the base of these long strands. Thanks

 

[jzaso]

vermitid snails. see the little tube coming up the front side of your coral? that's where that trail is coming from, that is a vermitid snail.

+1 vermitid snails-do a google search saltynovice378

 

[GHill762]

has nothing to do with snails you added. you can see the vermitid snail (they're stationary) in the picture, it just looks like a little tube with that strand coming out of it. they'll usually send out their lines when food is added to the tank or you stir up the sand bed.

they can annoy corals, and they're certainly unsightly. unfortunately I have never heard of any way of getting rid of them other than manually.

 

[saltynovice378]

Thanks how about removing with a pair of tweezers? I also read that crabs may eat them.

 

[GHill762]

Thanks how about removing with a pair of tweezers? I also read that crabs may eat them.

you don't really need tweezers but that'll work, you can typically just snap/scrape/crush them off with your hands or fingernails.. as for the crab, I'm not aware of any reef safe crabs that would do anything for them.

 

[saltynovice378]

Great... I'll give that a try