First Live Rock

falesdk

falesdk

New member
Ok so I just got my first Live Rock, added to a 3 month old Fish Only Tank. I don't have a digital camera yet so I can't post pictures....But I put the rock in the tank and walked away for a few hours...I came back to find what looks like a very small brown star fish attached to the back wall of my tank, maybe the size of a dime but smaller, except it looks like it has three legs (or arms, not sure of correct term). Also there are two very small (maybe 2 cm) similar starfish looking creatures, these appear to have five limbs, but are nearly clear, with a light brown coloring. Is it possible that these are actually small star fish? If so what special care will they need being this small?

Also on the live rock are several quite large string looking plants. They are white and look like the roots of a bean (or similar) plant. Please tell me these aren't the Aptasia that I keep hearing about?

I know, stupid questions but I'm fairly new (five months with a smaller tank, three with the 70 gallon) and the LFS is closed.

Help would be wonderful.
 
Pictures would help, but it sounds like it might be. Do a search here for a picture of one if you'd like something to compair it to.
 
Hmm maybe a good idea, and boy thats kinda scary. After staring at the tank for a good ten minutes I can see the two littles starfish looking things moving around so I'm really excited about that, just confused about the one that looks like it has three limbs.
 
i just got live rock also.. i found about 7 mini star fishes already. they are what you discribed.. very small and thin long arms and a clear like color. they like to hide in small holes in the rock with there arms sticking out. ive also seen a couple of those branchy things in my tank.. i dont know what they are either.
 
Ok so I did a search on both yahoo and altavista and all the pictures that came up of aptasia were brown and had tubes. When I say white I mean stark white the color that comes out when your white clothes are bleached, kind of white. There are no tubes and they really do look like the roots of some sort of small plant that you just pulled out of the ground. If this isn't Aptasia what could it be??
 
not sure, ill post a pic of it with my camera if i can get a good one later on today. and see if anyone can id that.
 
That would be great, since I spent all my money on live rock and a digital camera is out of the picture for me until at least next month :)
 
ok got some pictures i had from some of my other posts..
the red circle is the branchy thing i think your talking about
IF SOMEONE CAN ID THIS B/C WE DONT KNOW WHAT IT IS.
2.jpg


P3130497.jpg


and the one i circled in blue here is one of my starfish.. its kinda hard to see.. camera didnt get a good shot
huh.jpg
 
Yeah thats the same white thing I've got, except mine are longer, whiter, and only branch once or twice. I also noticed this morning that there are some little ones that form little tiny circles, and a few that stand up (the longer few cling to the rock) Thats a cute little starfish :) I think instead of being brittle mine are what the LFS called sand sifting stars. I do wonder if the starfish need special care to make sure they live until a good size though?
 
i was told to feed them marine gro pellets... i through them in there the other day... and you can see all of them get out of the rocks and chase the pellets.. it was pretty cool
 
those are some hard to identify pictures...hard to identify being the adjective.... but ya...one of them looks like a kinda worm though....
 
I believe the white tree like organisms are a form of foraminiferan. They are a filter feeder, very common on new live rock.
 
Without a pic your starfish on the glass, they sound like asterina stars. A few people have had asterina that eat their sps corals. But Most people, myself included, have no problems with them. They really require no special care or extra feeding. Soon, you will have tons of them anyway.
 
what did you get?

what did you get?

Man, it sounds like you got cool stuff. I'm just plain outright skert to put my rock in with my quiet little brand new barely cycled 2.5 gallon. I've got a stripey thing with claws. we're talking pincers here about 3/4 inch long on one the other is small of course.

blindcrabsketch.jpg


Any ideas?
 
Heh, I've got no clue about the stripey thing.

The Asterina Star sounds like an accurate guess from what I can find online. I'm actually quite excited about the idea of having a lot of those little starfish in my tank. I don't really plan on having a lot of coral, and what I do get will probably be fairly inexpensive so I'm not worried about them eating that, I havent seen anything to suggest that they would, but will they hurt mushrooms or anemones? If I end up getting anything other than fish it will probably be a GBTA and a few mushrooms...so it'd be nice to know ahead of time if I'd be wasting time and money. Also I see that their algea and detritus eaters, but will they sift my sand at all....or should I get some sand sifting (stirring?) stars for that...?

I havent gotten a chance to check out my tank at night (no flashlight) but I'm hoping I got some other cool hitch hikers with the LR too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

T
75g 4’ stocking
Replies
6
Views
280
Toolfan333
T
NancyT3
Display tank - algae bloom - (19 wk old 140 gal)
Replies
11
Views
386
Hong Kong
Hong Kong
W
Potential 65G
Replies
11
Views
138
kharmaguru
kharmaguru
Markarian421
Parting out our 120 gallon tank -- Fremont
Replies
5
Views
361
Markarian421
Markarian421
NancyT3
Thankful for Dr Reefs QT Fish, Hooked on invertebrates....
Replies
2
Views
340
griss
griss
Back
Top