What is this vein like growth on my glass?!?

[boozeman27]

for the last couple days in the morning I have had a couple of these “vein” like growths going up my glass from my substrate. I have never seen them before in my tank or in any posts. Not sure what they are. Any help is much appreciated! TIA.

 

[boozeman27]

With a magnifying glass you can actually see the tips moving or pulsing!

 

[boozeman27]

Trying to post a ipad video but it won’t let me

 

[boozeman27]

DFFA9058-2C06-4E13-A1BA-DBBDD382A205

• boozeman27
• Mar 10, 2018

Weird glass growth

 

[Tautog]

Does it retract back into the sand?
Looks like a worm, Harmless

 

[boozeman27]

No itdoes not retract. I thought of spaghetti worm but is not.

 

[boozeman27]

It goes 8-10 inches up my glass.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Are they like this ?
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/super-freaky-cobweb-surprise-eeek.263727/

 

[boozeman27]

Yes it looks exactly like that. I had some yesterday and scraped it off but it is back.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Mine faded with time. Basically just a bloom.
I also have a small dragonette that makes short work of the little bugs.

 

[boozeman27]

Ok thanks for the info. I’ll scrape em and keep an eye out!

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Ok thanks for the info. I’ll scrape em and keep an eye out!

You’re welcome.
Yes belive the veins are a part of the spawning process. The rest of the time they just clean up the tank.

Nature is pretty cool.

 

[Big G]

Are they like this ?
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/super-freaky-cobweb-surprise-eeek.263727/

Yikes! Creepy.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Yikes! Creepy.

I kinda miss them....

 

[XNavyDiver]

Are they like this ?
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/super-freaky-cobweb-surprise-eeek.263727/

 

[Labridaedicted]

Yeah, saltyfilmfolks is 100% right on the id. Also, the original subject of this thread made me legitimately laugh out loud.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Yeah, saltyfilmfolks is 100% right on the id. Also, the original subject of this thread made me legitimately laugh out loud.

Lol.

Glass. It says glass...

 

[cristata.reef]

Hi I'm gonna revive this thread real quick. Although I don't have a definitive answer on what these are but here are my two cents. I have the same thing in a really really dirty ten gallon that I use to breed pods and macros (kinda like a trashy fuge). I have two "colonies" at the moment. At first I though they were the silicate spindles of a sponge until I realized that overnight they would catch and kill some copepods. I don't think they are worms since a gentle tap from a toothbruh bristle cuts them in two. However, I do thik that this could be a type of primitive bryozoan which are a type of encrusting animal (like a predatory sponge). If you look at the tip of each "branch" you will see some similarities to the structure of a bryozoan's "mouth" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bryozoa#/media/File:Ectoproct_generalized_01.png) just imagine the tentacles as the cobweb. I hope this helps!

 

[cristata.reef]

Nevermind the bryozoan thing. I correct my mistake and have found a positive ID. The growths are a protist called Labyrinthula that act as commsensals, mutualists, and pathogen. Now it only gets crazier from here. These guys can use algae (mainly chaeto; which they act as a mutualist), sea grasses (pathogen), and sea stars(pathogen) as host. In fact the devastating "Seastar Wasting Disease" is caused by these things. Now in reef tanks they shouldn't possess much of a problem thankfully (unless you plan to keep seagrass or coldwater sea stars). The reason that they move around is how they reproduce. They kinda just break off some cells and send them off into the water column where they eventually settle onto something . The filaments are how they move around short distances.

 

[Krzydmnd]

Nevermind the bryozoan thing. I correct my mistake and have found a positive ID. The growths are a protist called Labyrinthula that act as commsensals, mutualists, and pathogen. Now it only gets crazier from here. These guys can use algae (mainly chaeto; which they act as a mutualist), sea grasses (pathogen), and sea stars(pathogen) as host. In fact the devastating "Seastar Wasting Disease" is caused by these things. Now in reef tanks they shouldn't possess much of a problem thankfully (unless you plan to keep seagrass or coldwater sea stars). The reason that they move around is how they reproduce. They kinda just break off some cells and send them off into the water column where they eventually settle onto something . The filaments are how they move around short distances.

I'm still going with aliens.