My tank has developed a myriad of tiny critter colonies ranging from flatworms to feather dusters. We have copepods -- smaller than the period at the end of a sentence -- and amphipods, a little larger with barely visible legs. They eat microscopic algae and creatures, and they are a welcome sight.
There are tiny brown flatworms, which send some reefkeepers into a frenzy because there are species that eat corals... but these seem happy on my glass eating who-knows-what, and many species are harmless, so I'm not worried. There are worms that seem to live in the rock, unrolling themselves like a tiny sock when the lights go down, and other worms who have built a hard case about 1/4" long and extend near-invisible webs to trap food. (I found this out by watching the brine shrimp that the clownfish missed; some seemed to get stuck in spiderweb like strings, and a few hours later had been reeled in to the end of the tube.)
Tiny many-legged starfish about 1/8" long trawl through the rock. Scarlet red feather duster worms are spreading in the shadows, and one even hitches a ride on a hermit crab.
The only worrying inhabitants so far are the bristleworms.
Fortunately, this is not so much a problem for the tank as it is for me personally. I like bristleworms; they eat dead and dying animals, helping prevent ammonia spikes from rot. They generally stay hidden away, coming out at night to search for food. I once had one that was almost 2 feet long, and he never bothered anything that wasn't already on the way out. (His name was Grendel.) The only problem I have with them is that I'm allergic to the bristles; all it takes is me picking up a rock with one on the bottom, and I have blisters for the next two weeks. And now I'm seeing enough baby ones that I would estimate about a dozen or more are actually thriving in my tank.
I'll just have to resist the temptation to reach in the tank, which is probably best all around.
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