weird worms and maybe sponges?

[mtpvteye]

i cant find any answers anywhere so here i am again. I have this shinny worm that sticks out of my best coraline rock. its body is very narrow like a pin and the bodys start out blue in color then tapers and ends in green. sometimes they stick straight out (but never ever come out or move along) and some just lay against the rock. nothing bothers them. Is it even a worm? they are sooo strange. too little to photgraph. and then i have these q tip headed white things growing on my "not the best" rock and in the shadiest parts of the tank. at the tip they flare like a pod or something. are they sponges? is this a "new tank" thing and they will go away? should i pick them off? and there are a bunch!! I also have tons and tons of stomatellas. my tank, at night, looks like something out of the twilight zone!! OMG!! do i need to thin those little buggers because man they are reproducing!! lol. HELP!!! and is it true my metal halides will kill off my coraline algae?

[DevonM]

I pulled this off of wetwebmedia.com here.


"Syconoid sponges
Just a quick question. I have recently noticed small objects that appear like small white tuffs of cotton. Like the ends of a Q-tip. These things are everywhere. After a few days they pop open and become a small mound of transparent tubes that seem to quickly fade away. So, what are these awful things ,and how do I get rid of them...Thanks for your help. Warren
<not really awful at all... they are Syconoid sponges and they appear in mature tanks with live rock. Booming populations suggest a nutrient control issue (overfeeding, skimmer that does not yield a full cup of skimmate 5-7 times weekly, etc). But the syconoids themselves are quite beneficial filter feeders. Best regards, Anthony>"

I really like wetwebmedia.com for classifying live rock hitchhikers .

Oh and Coraline algae doesn't care for really high lighting but it still grows just fine with it. It will tend to stack up in shaded areas.