want to know what these hair like things are

[brucesly]

A couple a days ago I bought a nice looking pulsing xenia which was mounted on a rock. Today I noticed a lot of hair-like things coming out of the rock from the bottom. Anyone know what this might be? Problem or not? Looks like a strands of hair with black spots in it. Thanks in advance.

[Nabob89]

Sounds like it might be digitate hydroids....if not then some other kind of worm. Go to melev's id list and see if you can find it there. If it is the digitate hydroids, then it shouldn't be a problem. I see lots in my tank every night and they have yet to do anything bad to the tank.
http://www.melevsreef.com/id/crawls.html

[T Man]

Could you provide a picture? It could be several things like sweeper tenticles to a dead or dying patch of turtle grass. Does it "cast out" into the water column and then retract? Most soft corals have this mechanism, I have even seen them coming straight out of live rock also. If it is sweepers, it is just part of this wonderful new world you are discovering.....Welcome to Reef Central brucely !! TinMan

[brucesly]

thanks for all the info... i tried comparing it to all the resources on the web, but the closest thing was the digitate hydroids. Can this injure my xenias? should i tried to pull them out? what should i do?

[bertoni]

Digitate hydroids can spread, and might sting the Xenia. I'd probably just watch them for a bit, but I tend to like hitchhikers and am willing to take risks. The safest approach is likely to remove them.

[brucesly]

how should I go about removing them? yank em out or is there a more surgical way to do it?

[drummereef]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10400062#post10400062 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by brucesly
how should I go about removing them? yank em out or is there a more surgical way to do it?

Do they look like this? If so, hydroids are a real pain in the rear. Short of removing the rock and manually removing them, nothing in our hobby so far consumes or kills them. Some people have blow torched their rock while others, like myself, baked it. Your choice, but you'll kill everything on the rock if you boil or bake it. But the alternative isn't good either. ;)


http://i202.photobucket.com/albums/aa113/drummereef/Hitchhikers/UnknownID2.jpg

[bertoni]

Can the rock be removed from the tank? If so, the hydroids can be cut off with a utility knife blade, and then a lime paste applied to the infected areas of the rock would likely take out the remnants. I'd rinse carefully before returning the rock to the tank. This approach does have some risk, though, since removing the rock can kill various organisms, and some will release toxins.

[brucesly]

yeah i can remove the rock. where can i find lime paste? hey im new i'll try anything. thanks for everyones help. anymore suggestion will be greatly appreciated.

[bertoni]

You'd want pickling lime or kalk to make kalk paste. Just add the lime to a small amount of water. Depending on the type of lime, the water might get heated a lot. Be careful!

[hmello@bermexin]

If there is nothing else on the rock you want to keep blow torch them. Then rinse the rock off real well with salt water (maybe the water you will throw away on your next water change) then return the rock to your tank.