Is it real or just algae

[OldFish]

Hello,
Well I have a question about a weed looking growth in my tank. I have a 16 gal. bow nano tank. Been setup for over three months. I have a green strip mushroom frag, a Sinularia Leather coral,bottlebrush acropora, a red gonipora lps, a green button polyp frag. pllus a few others. I aslo notice a weed looking type of something? It looks like fine long hairs,clumped together. It was sitting at the lower part of my tank about a week ago. It has since moved to the middle of the tank. It looks like a weed you would normally fine in your lawn. It has long stringy hair like arms that extend about 1 inch. When it first moved to this new location, I noticed a short worm like object in the middle of the clump of hair. It kept wiggling, like it was diggin itself into the rock. Since then all that is left is a patch of round green algae
with about 7 fine hair-like arms extending form the middle of it. the arms are constanly moving(waving) in different directions. Is this real or am I getting just some type of algae. Thanks! any ideas are welcome.

 

[Russellaqua]

Do you have a pic of it? It's hard to tell from a description.

 

[shred5]

Do you have a pic of it? It's hard to tell from a description.

Agreed a pic would help allot...

Dave

 

[OldFish]

No pics Can't seem to get a clear and focus shot. This thing must be alive. Yesterday afternoon it looked dry and not showing any life. Today I kooked it again and it seems to have grown more strands of hair-like arms. It looks like there is a tiny black worm in the middle of this thing, sticking it's head out of the rock and moving side to side! This thing is about 1/2 inch around,flat and it's arms are now about 2 inches long. It will retract it's arms and look like a dead patch or grass! I will try to see if I can figure out a way to get a picture in focus.

 

[tazzy695]

sounds like you started with some hair algae and a worm possibly a spegetti worm from your discription happened to be in your tank and ate it and is now living in that spot

for taking the picture hold the cammer realy close to the tank and use the macro setting the one that uses the little flower for a symbol

 

[shred5]

Yea sounds like you may have a spaghetti worm... They are harmless if it is...


Dave

 

[OldFish]

Hello and Thanks to each and every one of you for your help! You guys are GREAT! I looked at some pics on spaghetti worms, and sure enough, that's what it looks like. The worm in this case is black and the spaghetti arms are green. I was afraid it would be some pest that would start destroying all my corals and life in the tank. I guess this would have been a lot simple if I would have said it has spaghetti-like arms.

 

[nicklas56]

What is it?

My 50 g reef tank has this leafy looking stuff growing on everything. I had to go out of town for a few weeks and I got back yesterday and it is everywhere. Before I left I only had a couple patches that I cleaned up, but now it's all over. Any ideas?

 

[oceanparadise1]

you should do a search on google and find something it looks like,then post it so we can help you!

 

[Lytehouse]

you should do a search on google and find something it looks like,then post it so we can help you!

Not a bad option at all....

 

[jonbar1]

Nicklas, if you're talking about the little brown squares with a red spot on them, they're Acoel Flatworms.

 

[oceanparadise1]

lol get some pics!

 

[masnart]

looks like a case of flatworms mate.

 

[oceanparadise1]

O boy,those are not good.

 

[nicklas56]

Oh Man!! I will keep vacuuming them out. Does anything eat them?
Thanks for your help!
Sorry I put this in Old Fishes Thread.

 

[jonbar1]

Some six line wrasses eat them. Siphoning them out is what I did and their population never got too bad. I never got any ill effects from them being in the tank, since most damage they cause is from completely covering a coral and starving it for light.

They make flatworm exit to kill them off...but you have to follow the directions exactly, and it can still be pretty stressful on your tank.

 

[oceanparadise1]

a 6 line should eat them right up

 

[coral diver]

That is a BAD case of Flat Worm infestation 6 line wont be able to do the job use and follow the direction of flatworm exit that my recomendation but first ready and prep enough water to do 2 water change after treatment

 

[EliteReefs]

make sure to get out as many as you can prior to using the flatwormexit. with an investation that large the high level of death that will occure when you use the exit could cause a large swing in your tank.

clean sand, vacume the rocks the best you can. have lots of charcoal on hand.

 

[reefsandrotts]

looks like a flatworm outbreak to me.