Bristleworm Babies?

[atwise21]

I recently did some excavating on the bed of my tank. Afterwords, I noticed some critters in the crushed coral that I quickly identified as bristleworms. After doing some reading, I called the wife and put a stop to the copper treatment to kill them off. I'm a little worried though. I was told that these guys reproduce like rabbits. On two of my live rocks, I have a bunch of little (my camera wouldn't pick it up) green things...looks like either crab crap or possibly larvae of some sort, just curious if the bristleworms reproduce by laying these things all over the tank or what. I know that "without a picture it's a guessing game" but this is the est I can do. The green things are about a half a centimeter in length, if that.

 

[TCTFish]

It really is hard to tell without a picture, but I wouldn't worry too much about the bristleworms. Fireworms are a problem for soft coral. If you feel you ever need to put a check to their population, arrowcrabs have done nicely in that department. Caution though. An arrowcrab can take down little gobies too.

The green things may be algae or even a type of snake polyp. As mentioned above, can't really tell without a picture. Little round green balls clumped together would indicate bubble algae that when busted open, release spores for hair algae. Emerald crabs are good for eating bubble algae.

Good call on telling the wife to forget the copper treatment. Any chemically based medicine can kill a reef.

 

[Fluff]

The green stuff could be a macro called caterpillar weed.