ID hitchhiker please?

[rica5tully]

I have a new set-up that is about 3 weeks old.

I have little things growing now on some of my rocks. They look like tiny, brown, fat, feather dusters. (Sort of)

A couple are about as big as an Advil tablet. They look like fat little tubes, are brown, and they have little bristles coming out of one end.

Any ideas?

 

[OrionGirl]

Touch? Sound like a sponge that's pretty common--are there more of them where there's lots of water movement? Or check here:

http://reefs.org/hhfaq/

 

[rica5tully]

Thanks. I looked at that link and, because they have hairs/spines coming out of one end, it seems like they might be hydroids? The link says that they can sting corals and be a problem. I don't have any corals yet, but I'd like to get some.

what should I do? Just keep an eye on them? any suggestions?

thanks again,

 

[OrionGirl]

Well, if they are larval jellyfish, they'll eventually die, as jellies can't live in box aquariums very well. I'd probably just let them go for now--it's unlikely they'd survive for very long, and if the tank is cycling now, that too may kill them. I'm a big fan of thinking for a bit on the unkown critters, especially if there isn't anything in there now for them to hurt.