Tiny worms behaving like slime mold

[Shnolby]

So this stuff forms black trails across the rocks and glass. The trails don’t appear to move when looking at it for a brief second. But if you look at it closely, you can see that it’s actually a network of very tiny worms. If you come back a couple hours later they’ll be in a new section of the tank. Should I be worried about my soft corals or lps?

 

[GoVols]

It might be some type of Sea Cucumber

Either way, if it or those, are leaving the deep black tracks, I would carefully remove.

 

[ScubaFish802]

Siphon it out into a clear cup maybe? Weird

 

[Shnolby]

I siphoned a lot of it out during a water change today. It was towards the top of the side glass, so it was real easy to siphon out. After sitting in the bucket for an hour or so, it began to form a network on the bottom of the bucket.

I know I didn’t get it all, I’ve seen smaller patches in different areas today. A couple years ago I had slime mold in a freshwater tank. Never caused any issues and was fascinating to watch move around the tank. Eventually it slowly died off or went down and stayed in the substrate, hopefully that’s the case for this marine version as well. I just think it’s amazing that in macro view of the trails, you can see little tubes moving forward and transporting itself forward

 

[Michael Gray]

ahahhh this makes me laugh because i started athread on this and nobody knew what it was... i have photos and video of them under my scope on here... they went away on their own.. i had em all over my glass.. and when i scrape them off.. they re climb and make a trail again lol.... gotta search for it but my threat is there

 

[GoVols]

I siphoned a lot of it out during a water change today. It was towards the top of the side glass, so it was real easy to siphon out. After sitting in the bucket for an hour or so, it began to form a network on the bottom of the bucket.

@KJ

Do you know what @Shnolby is dealing with?

 

[JPM San Diego]

I had a red motile organism in my tank a few years ago. No radial or axial symmetry. I presumed it was a slime mold, but never could get confirmation. My son helped me create a "video" using a series of still images. It was moving across the back of my tank which was covered with coraline algae. Light quality was terrible, but you can see the movement over time. (I can't get the movie to run using Safari but it works with Chrome.). Let me know if you get confirmation of what your organism is.

 

[Michael Gray]

they are just tiny worms.. type of nematodes or whatever they will go away.....

 

[KJ]

@KJ

Do you know what @Shnolby is dealing with?

I'm thinking bacteria.

 

[Shnolby]

I'm thinking bacteria.

I think Michael is onto something. He DMed me his post he made about these critters, and it looks like he had the same infestation as me. Likely nematodes or some kind of worm

 

[Michael Gray]

I don't have em anymore. Completely vanished