Long stringy threads in my tank??

[pillowfish]

I looked at teh tank earlier today and everything looked great..I've had the lighrts off for about 2 hours now and decided to play around with the flashlight looking at critters...but found long stringy threads instead?? They look exactly like "feelers" or the feeding tentancles that a galaxia or brain would but I have neither and the majority is coming from the rockwork and not on coral? It's limited to the left side of the tank-noticed it right after I put the koralia back into place on that side of the tank. It is on a feather duster, rockwork from, the sandbed upwards in multiple areas(doesn't appear to really have a beginning?) nor like it is coming from one place...can't really get a pic of it because they are so translucent but very long? Any ideas and should I try to remove them? turkey baster?? I have a beautiful sun coral, favia, trumpets and a toadstool in that area(and no, none appear to be coing from teh favia??) And parameters are in check

 

[stingythingy45]

Sounds like vermatid snails.

 

[pillowfish]

Snail eggs?? They look like clear filaments or fishing line(just very very thin...no color??

 

[JohnK]

Vermitid snails are kind of odd snails.

They grow a hard calcerous tube on a substrate and live in it, sort of like feather dusters. They feed by sending out long stringy mucusy streemer/web things that catch food.

They often send out their mucus webs right after feeding or tank cleaning/disturbance.

 

[pillowfish]

thanks so much...so I don't have to be concerned with them?? Goo guys or bad? And what do you mean when you say "odd snails"-I have never knowingly purchased a snail by that name-hitchhiker?

 

[JohnK]

Well they're "odd" because they are snails but instead of slowly crawling around in a shell, they just kind of live on a rock and don't fit the usual snail job description.

They are not a problem unless the stringy web things start to annoy you. They are usually hitchhikers and often reproduce freely in reef tanks.

 

[Behrmon]

Here is an ID thread I just posted re. them.

http://bostonreefers.org/forums/showthread.php?t=58728

 

[pillowfish]

thanks Keviin!