What are these animals in my saltwater aquarium?

Question

I bought a turbo snail about a month ago, and it had all these little raised white swirls on its shell, about 2-3mm in length and now they are all over my tank on the glass. They look like they might have some little animal in them, but I haven't seen any. Does anybody know what they are?

Will these hurt anything in my tank, or take over? How can I get rid of them?

Answer 1

These are small tubeworms, similar to the feather dusters you can buy. The get all over the glass and the undersides of the live rock in my tank as well.

These will always stay small (about 1/8 - 1/4 inch or so).


ADDITION: They won't hurt anything, but you do need to keep scraping them off the glass. If your tank is acrylic, be careful to avoid scratching the tank itself. Use a scraper made for acrylic or the edge of an old credit card.

Answer 2

dont worry about them, freshwater aquarists dont like snails or any unknown organisms im there tanks but for saltwater, snails, worms, and any other unknown critter are usually a bonus and good for your system as long as they dont get out of control...as in killing other things, i have had a bunch of the "swirls" all over my tank for years and there is no harm done. they actually eat some of the bad stuff out of the water........so no worries

Answer 3

snails repoduce like crazy and yes they can take over your take. I am sure that your snail had babies and it is extremly hard to get rid of a snail almost immosible to kill. You should not be worried unless you just don't want them in there. but like i said they reproduce so quickly.

Answer 4

Okay, this is really bad for your fish, but change the water. I once had those things in my fish tank, and i just changed the water. After that, it was all over.