Any ideas

[Rick76]

Over the past few weeks a few of these have been popping up. I only have a nano reef & the are four or five of them now. Should I be concerned?

 

[mikecc]

Plant or animal?

 

[Oxylebius]

Looks like a Hair or Spaghetti worm (a Cirratulid or possibly Terebellid). Those are it's feeding tentacles. They are good and aid in the clean up. Usually they live in the sand. You can see in some of the longer tentacles the banded colors. All tentacles come from a central body.

Cirratulids are deposit feeders which gather food from the sea bottom by means of their palps. They are worms which bury themselves leaving only their gills and palps visible. Some are free-living and inhabit tubes, while others are capable of burrowing through corals, shell or rock.

Here is some information on it - Spaghetti and Hair Worms

 

[Lisa B]

Swimming Anemone??? Just a good guess.

 

[Mike Johnson]

Spaghetti worms are a great addition to a clean up crew.

 

[Rick76]

Thanks Oxylebius! Thats good news.... I'm glad I don't have to worry. My tank is only 4.5 mths old & I keep seeing new little critters each week - it's fab!
Also thank you for the link... I'll have a read

 

[Oxylebius]

DianaKay has some large ones in her tank also. We did a coral frag swap and now I have some of these, but the ones I have are little.