weird weird things going on in my tank...help!

[fishman]

Ok first of all I have a 125 gallon FOWLR. I have about 70 lbs of LR and recently put about 15 lbs of new LR in there. I have a couple of questions:
1) I recently walked by the tank and noticed a long centipede dude crawling on one of the rocks. He is red and has lots of legs and moves slowly. What is this and is he harmful.
2) With regards to the above, I saw the "centipede dude" sniffing if you will my tube worm (feather duster I assume you call it) and the worm retracted. Since that time the worm has not come out of its tube. Did the centipede harm the worm? Do I need to catch the centipede and take him out of the tank?
3) lastly. in looking at the LR, I noticed a couple of little black looking pearls that look like marbles and are the size of a pencil tip. They appear to be soft in nature and have just appeared. They are real shiny and when you touch them they are soft. What could these be? Eggs of some sort?
I have 12 hermit crabs, 2 clowns, 1 yellow wrasse, 1 LM blenny, and one damsel. Other than a few turbo snails this is it. I am just getting a little ansy with all of these new things popping up. I assume they are all good but want to make sure.
Thanks

 

[snapcrackler]

I recently walked by the tank and noticed a long centipede dude crawling on one of the rocks. He is red and has lots of legs and moves slowly. What is this and is he harmful.

Bristle worm, if it does not have pinchers on the fromt, it is probably th OK kind.

2) With regards to the above, I saw the "centipede dude" sniffing if you will my tube worm (feather duster I assume you call it) and the worm retracted. Since that time the worm has not come out of its tube. Did the centipede harm the worm? Do I need to catch the centipede and take him out of the tank?

Feathers retract at the slightest touch so its probably ok

3) lastly. in looking at the LR, I noticed a couple of little black looking pearls that look like marbles and are the size of a pencil tip. They appear to be soft in nature and have just appeared. They are real shiny and when you touch them they are soft. What could these be?

bubble algae maybe, if not too many of them no big deal otherwise lift them out by cutting the stem if they get big.. do they have a greenish tint like metallic?

 

[sumphead]

Well now not all bad news:

1- Sounds like a bristle worm. bristle worm in general are a harmless detrivore that adds to the varying life on the reef. Sort of a cleanup critter. I like em', some don't
2- While it is possible I suppose that a bristle worm could try to nibble on a feather duster, I wouldn't think so. If you have one bristle worm you probably have a hundred, most of which you cannot see. Since you have a wrasse (known for munching a bristle from time to time) I wouldn't worry much about the worms. Unless they are large and red looking more like huge caterpillars which could be fireworms I'd leave them be, but that's just me. do a search on bristle worms here and form your own opinions.
3- tha black/geenish looking pearls from discription sounds like bubble algea. A picture would clarify this. They are no danger to your tank though some if not most reefers just don't like the looks. they can be removed carefully with tweezers or scraped fromthe bottom off the rocks. But if don't want them be careful not to break them as when they pop they can release more spores into the water causing even more bubbles. If they don't bother you leave them be until they do.

Again a picture is worth a thousand words and could clarify all of my opinions here. But all in all I think the more you get into this the more life you will notice on your rocks. it is very diverse and i doubt if anyone could positively ID everything in thier own tanks. 'part o the fun!

HTH,
R-

 

[sumphead]

SIMULPOST. Kudos snap!

 

[snapcrackler]

Kudos!!

LOL

 

[fishman]

Well the centipede as I like to classify him as is about 1-2 inches long and does NOT have pinchers on the front. He looks like between a catapiller and a centipede for sure. Sort of hairy and none of the fish seem to mind him. Now that I think about it, he sort of mimics a catapillar in that he will raise the front portion of his body off of the object he crawling on and act as if he is sniffing the area around him. Seems harmless enough and doesn’t stay out long. He is very slow moving.
Also on him touching the feather duster, he stayed next to feather duster with the front of his body poking into the feather duster. Of course the duster retracted and has been that way since last night.
On the bubbles….they appear to me as black. About the size of pencil tip so Im going to leave them. They are only on one rock that is purple in nature. Will let them be.
I will try and get a pic of these 2 but the bubbles are really hard to see and the centipede dude has only been out 2 times in the past week. Will try and get a snap of him as well. Thanks!

 

[snapcrackler]

Cool we look forward to the pics, keep an eye on featherduster.