Small white "tubes" on glass (HELP)

rogersbw · #1 12/14/2003, 03:28 PM

I was forwarded here by my Girlfriend..so pardon the fact that my first post is a question instead of an answer

Recently I returned from a two week vacation to find my tank completely infested with small (from 1/8th inch to 1" long..and less than 1/8" wide) white fuzzy "tubes". They are all over the glass..all over the rocks...but not on the gravel (florida crushed coral) that I can see. Tank contains a lion and a tang...about a dozen snails...and a dozen hermit crabs. No other invert exist.

They almost look like anemones(sp)...although im not an expert given the fan looking apparatus protruding from the end. The only research I could find was on a common pest similar to this..but they seem to be much larger brown anemones? These are not even close to the pictures and descriptions given on the web so I can only assume this is something else.

I purchased a long nose butterfly on the hopes it would find these appetizing...however he seems to be more content with the small white "bugs"(copepapods?) that also exist on the glass...and is paying no attention to the tubes.

Ive attempted to clean the glass ...but the tubes have since infested the prefilter siphon trap in the tank as well.

(Tank is a 100G saltwater)

Any ideas?

eric2524 · #2 12/14/2003, 03:50 PM

I have them too. I have been just keeping an eye on them. They have not spread much in the last 2 months but they are well established in my 110 gal salt. None of my fish or cleaning crew seems to be intrested in them. Unless there a threat to my reef or fish I've just decided to leave them be.

BallaBooyeaH · #3 12/14/2003, 07:11 PM

Hi There,

I have had a similiar problem I think. Do the worms go and hide in your sand once the lighting is on? I had small worms like this and after a few water changes (More than normal) they all seemed to disapear.

So my suggestion is to try that. Worked for me.

Good Luck

drock59 · #4 12/14/2003, 08:16 PM

BallaBooyeaH
those worms sound an awful lot like pods. Pods are a really good sign in your tank and you do want to keep them.

rogersbw · #5 12/15/2003, 01:03 AM

Nope..worms dont hide or do anything..in fact they appear to be on everything BUT the bedding.

drock59 · #6 12/15/2003, 01:11 AM

i was talking to BallaBooyeaH not you, sorry.

mherrb · #7 12/15/2003, 01:56 AM

I think, if I read your description correctly, that you are seeing a type of urn sponge. They are a sign that your tank is healthy. I don't know of a way to get rid of all of them (other than cleaning them all off by hand).

crpeck · #8 12/15/2003, 11:36 AM

I have them all over the sides of my sump and have seen pods in there too. I think it's a good sign, but it sounds like you have too much of a good thing.

Every time any algae builds up on my glass, there are all kinds of pods stuck to it crawling around. I just run the mag cleaner over them and scatter them off the sides. They keep coming back, so it doesn't seem to hurt anything to redirect them back to the sand or rocks.

I've heard wrasses eat pods?

I don't know really either, so I'll follow and see what you find out.

Cathy

rogersbw · #9 12/15/2003, 01:40 PM

Well this is the odd part about that....they only seem to be growing where there ISNT any algae. The snails keep the front and sides of the tank pretty free of algae....and subsequently its coated with these pods....the back of the tank is overrun with algae and it hardly has any of the pods on it :/

Ohwell...perhaps the butterfly will get hungrier

gig · #10 12/15/2003, 01:55 PM

Sounds like the tubeworm/fatherduster shells (or whatever they live in), I have these two, with tiny bright red feather dusters sticking out of them. I noticed these mostly in the overflows, there are some in my live rock with dusters still in them, because my two angels can't reach them, so they've managed to survive.

rogersbw · #11 12/15/2003, 02:56 PM

Here is a pic...there is ZERO color in these things at all. pure white.

mherrb · #12 12/15/2003, 04:16 PM

They are called Sycon (Urn sponge). The descripton from "Invertebrates: A Quick Refrence Guide" by Julian Sprung p.33

"Small urn-shaped sponges. Commonly introduced to aquariums with live rock."

"Sycon proliferates in aquariums on live rock, under corals, in filters, pipes, and other shady areas"

There is also a picture showing the dense 'hair-like' siliceous spicules coming out of the top of the sponge

rogersbw · #13 12/15/2003, 04:30 PM

Ok...so are they good? bad? ugly? Dangerous to any of my fish (Lion, tang, butterfly, snails, hermit crabs, etc)?

Will anything eat them?

mherrb · #14 12/15/2003, 05:24 PM

They are, according to Sprung, completely reef safe. I would think maybe some of the sponge eating Angels might nibble at them, but I've never seen any of my fish pay any attention to them. It seems to me that I had a bunch of these for about 6-12 months after I set up my tank, but over time, as I added more animals, they gradually disappeared. I now only have a few on the bottom of a pump (this tank is now 6 yrs old). Perhaps they don't compete well for nutrients ?

rogersbw · #15 12/15/2003, 05:28 PM

Well..id have to assume they help clean things if nothing else....I dont mind the ones in the siphon box...or the rocks for that matter...but they just look ugly on the glass :/

drock59 · #16 12/15/2003, 06:32 PM

I had a bunch of these in my skimmer at one point. I figured they were good so i left them. didnt seem to affect anthing positively or negatively.