I'm afraid to clean my tank!

**jbicb3** · 11-30-2004, 08:18 AM

While watching my hermit crab, to see if he was going to change shells, I noticed a small black & white worm(?) sticking out of and returning back into one of my live rocks. It's about half the diameter of a pencil lead, and I saw at least 1 inch of his length. I then started looking at the other live rocks. One I've noticed has several creatures on it that look like the cotton end of a q-tip, with a hole in the end that usually has a fan-like protursion. I've noticed them for about a month, but on one of my other rocks, there are many white hair-like creatures sticking out, and retracting. On closer examanation, they appear to have hundreds of little legs, or maybe small stripes on there sides. I got out the baster, and began blowing the sand off the rocks, and found a small starfish on that same rock. From tip to tip it's about the size of a dime, and the body is about the diameter of a pencil lead, maybe a little larger. He's white, and his legs look like the white hair-like things I saw sticking out of the rock. I also noticed some small egg-shaped snails which are pink and white in color. The color is in stripes, or maybe even a checkerboard pattern. There are some more snails which are tornado shaped, but they are very very small right now.

Hopefully some of you can help me identify these creatures with the descriptions I've provided. I've had the tank (75gal) setup for about 2 months. I have a real cheap digital camera, but can't get any decent pictures with it. I do have a 35mm with a macro lens, and will try to shot and scan some pictures of all this new life so I can post it.

I hate to think of all the life I may have already sucked out of my tank doing water changes over the past couple of months!

**Samper** · 11-30-2004, 01:12 PM

Don't be afraid to clean your tank. The worm could be any number of annelids and polychaetes. The q tip looking things are harmless filter feeders and are actually called q tip sponges. Being that it is in the sand and so small I don't think you have to worry about your starfish. Research them and try to figure out what exactly it is. Some eat corals.

**jbicb3** · 11-30-2004, 01:31 PM

Originally Posted by Samper

Don't be afraid to clean your tank. The worm could be any number of annelids and polychaetes. The q tip looking things are harmless filter feeders and are actually called q tip sponges. Being that it is in the sand and so small I don't think you have to worry about your starfish. Research them and try to figure out what exactly it is. Some eat corals.

My tank is FOWLR, so a coral eater shouldn't be a problem. The starfish look like the "Micro Stars" on this page:
http://floridapets.tripod.com/stars.html
But I thought it was larger. Could have been the excitement in discovering it, or the distortion of the water (I was above the tank using the baster). I've done a little Googling, but haven't found anything else on Micro Stars. Anyone know the real name of these, or a good site for starfish research?
Same thing with the snails and worms, any good sites?

Thanks!

**Samper** · 11-30-2004, 01:38 PM

Ninong just gave me this link the other day and I've been reading it since.

http://home.att.net/~ophiuroid/html/main.html

**jbicb3** · 12-01-2004, 03:21 PM

Originally Posted by Samper

Ninong just gave me this link the other day and I've been reading it since.

http://home.att.net/~ophiuroid/html/main.html

Thanks for the link. There's tons of info on there. I'm sure I'll be reading on it every chance I get.

**Samper** · 12-01-2004, 06:55 PM

Glad to share it with you!

**jbicb3** · 12-02-2004, 09:59 PM

I think this might be what I have in/on my LR.
http://www.enature.com/fieldguide/sh...&recnum=SC0068

I can't make out the detail of the the arms (if they have spines or not). To me, it looks like they may be striped. But the disk is brown, and less than 1/4" dia, with each arm being less than 1" in length.
I got some decent pictures with the video camera, but no digital pictures.