Hydroids? Feather worms? Aiptasia?

I just noticed an explosion of thousands and thousands of these tiny "feather duster" looking animals in the low flow, shaded portions of my tank (BC29). Their total length has got to be less than 2mm, and have a black dot at the center (possibly a primitive oral disk). They grab at the water and wave naturally, collecting food i assume. I just nuked a very small aiptasia (<4mm) out of a zooa frag last Thursday, so I'm terrified hat these are aiptasia larvae.

I am not sure at all what hydroids look like, especially when they are this small.

Literally thousands of them.

 

It's hard to tell in the pictures. Do they seem to come out of a small tube?

 

It's pretty difficult to tell, Jim. But I would say, no. They are stalked, however, and look like they are pulling food into their mouth and not retracting into a tube, kind of just compressing the tentacles.

 

Hmmm... What do I know, I'm just a lousy engineer. I've asked my brother to take a look. He's a marine biologist so hopefully he can actually put that fancy masters of his to work!

 

Sweet thanks. I need to get a better camera!

 

They are most likely feather dusters. Pretty typical when i come to any tank, esp a new tank.

 

Thats strange because I had those and they turned brown and dissipeared. Dont know what they are

 

Feather worms, nothing to worry about

 

While it is hard to tell. They look like hydroids to me.

 

I am in the Hydroid camp.