what is it, revisited.

[Hara]

I cannot post a picture because these little guys are two small to photograph. I will do the best I can to describe them. First off, they appear like little tiny brown feather dusters. A feathery appendage on a stem. Second, they are not growing apart from each other, they are growing in clumps, in several spots of liverock. They do not appear to resemble any aiptaisia I have seen and the 9 peppermint shrimp do not bother them at all. I have had the liverock about 2 months now. This is the first real growth I have seen on it except for the coralline algae.
I have not seem them close up like the barnacles did, they seem to stay out all of the time.

Best estimate, would these be feather dusters? There are about a couple dozen of them.

 

[reefrunner69]

Do they look like that?

Or do they look like this?

Do they retract into the stem when you touch them? Or close like a coral?

 

[Anemoneman]

Look at my photo gallery under "common hydroids". They can be peeled off in a mat if they get too numerous. They have a powerful sting and can harm nearby corals but on the other hand they are small and tend to stay put.

Mark

 

[Hara]

ok, they look just a little like the first pic RR, these are brown and have more little feathers to them and longer stems. They look nothing like the second one. I do have single specimens of the ones like the first pic, just one here and there. I have not tried to touch them as they looked too small and fragile.

I looked at the hydroid photo, they do not look like that, they are more individualized.