Help Identifying Hitchhikers? Pics

[Salukis97]

Hey all. I've taken some pics of a few hitchhikers I've seen on some live rock I bought recently. I'm pretty sure these are nothing spectacular, but I am a newb to saltwater and would appreciate knowing if these are good guys or bad guys.

These guys disappear into little balls when the lights are off, then slowly come out when the lights come back on. I have no idea what it is.

The next two pics are of the same type of critter, just on different rocks. Some sort of tube worms? It's the brown patch in the middle.

Are these another type of worm?

I'm guessing some sort of hair algae?

And this is the only one that I'm fairly sure about. Feather Duster?

Like I said, I really am not positive what any of these are. Do I need to get rid of any of these? Thanks

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

I agree with you on the last two pictures.

The third one from the bottom is definitely Colonial Hydroids.

I don't think picture 1 is the same type of thing as pictures 2 and 3. Your description for picture 1 makes it sound like a type of button polyp or zoanthid. Those will respond to light. Pictures 2 and 3 look more like Colonial Hydroids again. Colonial Hydroids won't care about light, but will respond very quickly by retracting into their tube if disturbed.

Colonial Hydroids can become a problem in tanks if the population gets out of control, but in small numbers they're not bad. I've got several little clumps in my tank and they don't bother anything. You can get rid of them by grabbing them with a pair of tweezers and pulling them off of your rock in a yanking/twisting motion. You might have a siphon tube handy to suck up any stragglers.

 

[thincat]

Pictures 2,3,4 look like
Hydroids, Picture 6 is a minifeatherduster. 5 i think is some sort of macroalgae. I don't think it's hair algae. 1..a guess only might be a kenya tree coral.

 

[Salukis97]

Thanks for the info.

I have confirmed that Pic 1 is a kenyan tree coral. I saw the same thing for sale at a lfs.

After looking around, I have also found some zoanthids I think. They look like small buttons. When I have my led moon light on they glow a neon green. Does this sound right? They look pretty cool.

 

[thincat]

Yes it does seem like zoas. the only one to watch are the hydroids as they can become a pest and sting your corals. If you can remove that rock, either burn them off or really scrape them off.

 

[Salukis97]

This is probably a stupid question, but will removing the rock to scrape off the hydroids kill the tree coral while it is out of the water?

I'm guessing as long as I move quickly everything will be fine. Or should I submerge the rock in question in a 5 gallon bucket of prepared water and then scrape off the hydroids?

 

[thincat]

I would just get everything ready and then just scrape it. Scrape it good or it will come back! Good luck...By the way...Kenya tree corals grow like weeds so be careful what you wish for.

 

[Salukis97]

I've noticed the tree coral has already grown in the past two weeks. Can parts of it be removed when it gets too large?

 

[thincat]

Sure just snip it and frag it and give it to a friend. They break off and start new animals all by themselfs.