weird little ?'s on tank glass-- please i.d.

[sunnygirl]

so, yesterday , i'm cleaning my tank, and i sometimes get this white algae-like film on the inside of the glass. so i clean it off with my magnet cleaner. later, i'm looking real closely in the tank because i've got cichlids spawning in there, and i notice a tiny piece of this white stuff still stuck on the glass. it's anchored to the glass at the base like a tube worm, its about 1/16th of an inch long, looks like a thread, and at the top half, it splits into five appendages, which wave around. any ideas?

[TKOS]

Sounds like a hydra. Not always bad but generally not a good thing. They can kill small weak fish but cichlids should be okay. There are some meds that will kill them off and I know that gouramis eat them but not too much else. Try doing a forum search for hydra.