Little white things that look like they have legs attached to the tank what are they?

Question

I have a bio-cube established about 2 weeks ago. When I bought the tank, I also got live rock established saltwater, and live sand. One week ago I had the water tested at the pet store, they told me I could add the following items: one cleaner shrimp, two blue crabs, two hermit crabs, and 4 snails. I tested the water again last night with the test kit from the pet store, all of the water tested good, do I have anything to worry about?

Answer 1

The little white things are likely a type of bristle worm. I would not be too concerned about it though. Keep an eye on it, and if they start growing like crazy, you might then want to do something about it. Many bristleworms are harmless. If you decide that the worms need to go, get a 6 lined wrasse to eat them.

Answer 2

There are a lot of possible things these could be since you have live rock. I was thinking more along the lines of smaller shrimp (mysis or gammarids), copepods, or isopods. I've even found tiny bristlestars in my filter. The bristleworms I have in my saltwater tanks have a orange-pink body and white bristles, but these tend to be larger. You don't give an approximate size or shape to go by, so it's difficult to narrow something down.

Chances are that whatever this is, it will be a harmless invert that came in with the live rock, and will just be a snack for one of your larger inverts (or eventually a fish). I have 3 saltwater tanks at present, and I still find new organisms in the tanks for months after adding any live rock (try going into the room and looking with a flashlight after the lights have been off for a few hours to see even more critters!).

You might look through the photos in the links below to see if you can identify exactly what you have:

Answer 3

not only do u need those snails to eat the worms but the extra food u feed the fish...thats how u get fungi on the rocks and in the sand....get them