What is this on my live rock?

FishguyJosh

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Hi I'm fairly new to the saltwater side of the hobby. I'm starting a quarantine tank (QT) so that I can add more fish to my established 180g FOWLR. I picked up a used 75g setup with live rock (dead rock really since it was dried out for awhile). After getting it up and running I noticed what look like dead/dried out worms and eggs on some of the rock. Are these remnants of bristleworms? If not any clu
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e on what they might be?
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snorklr

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if the rock was dry for some time the worms are long dead and all you have left is the tubes they create to live in...otherwise you'd see a little feather duster looking thing on the end...now i have no clue what those other things are...do they move around? were they always there or did they recently appear
 

louivee

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if the rock was dry for some time the worms are long dead and all you have left is the tubes they create to live in...otherwise you'd see a little feather duster looking thing on the end...now i have no clue what those other things are...do they move around? were they always there or did they recently appear
I’ve had so many rocks with them but like you said if it’s dry they are long gone just visible tubes
 

Nicroper

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The brown cases look like some sort of fly pupae to me, probably from the die off of living organisms, when the rock was first left out to dry.
 

Saltwater_newbie

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I have the tubes on my live rock too. They appeared as hitchhikers I assume. One is even growing on my magnet scraper that pretty much hangs out in the back of the tank in between glass cleaning. I too wondered about their existence in the tank as far as good or bad.
 

louivee

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I have the tubes on my live rock too. They appeared as hitchhikers I assume. One is even growing on my magnet scraper that pretty much hangs out in the back of the tank in between glass cleaning. I too wondered about their existence in the tank as far as good or bad.
It’s most definitely a pest they multiply like flies lol
 
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FishguyJosh

FishguyJosh

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Don’t have to worry tooo too much about the tube worms they are common hitch hikers but too much of anything is bad right ?
Thanks I started to do some research on tube worms and they ain't all that bad as you say.
 
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FishguyJosh

FishguyJosh

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if the rock was dry for some time the worms are long dead and all you have left is the tubes they create to live in...otherwise you'd see a little feather duster looking thing on the end...now i have no clue what those other things are...do they move around? were they always there or did they recently appear
I think those dark brown pods have been there awhile, they look like empty egg sacs of some kind?
 
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FishguyJosh

FishguyJosh

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The brown cases look like some sort of fly pupae to me, probably from the die off of living organisms, when the rock was first left out to dry.
This makes a lot of sense as the rock was stored in buckets in the previous owners garage.
 
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