Friend for Foe?

[Eklikewhoa]

I found this thing crawling up the back wall of my tank....

is it good or bad? looks like some sort of slug

 

[mamagoose45]

By the looks of it I would say it is a Stomatella snail. He's on the good guy's team.

Here's a link to a thread where I asked the same question when I found one in my tank...

Stomatella Snail

 

[Eklikewhoa]

upon closer inspection it seems as though that is what it is.....thanks mamagoose45!

 

[Eklikewhoa]

Found another interesting hitchhiker in my acro...

can I put it back in or should I nuke it?

 

[pagojoe]

Don't know about your crab, but your snail is Stomatella varia, as you suspected.

Cheers,


Don

 

[Eklikewhoa]

Anyone have anything on the crab?

 

[1F2FRFBF]

That's an acro crab. It won't hurt your corals.

http://www.reefcorner.com/SpecimenSheets/acrocrab.htm

 

[Eklikewhoa]

greatly appreciate the replies!

 

[Eklikewhoa]

Found another hitchhiker......

How do you guys keep from getting these nasty little buggers? I mean there are a lot of other inverts and such that hitch along with everything and some are detrimental to the reef tank so how do you prevent them?

 

[LeslieH]

You don't prevent them. Any protective measure that would kill off detrimental hitchhikers would kill everything. You'd end up with dead rock.

 

[Eklikewhoa]

So does anyone know if the crab above is reef safe? found it wondering around my yumas.

 

[fishyvet]

I think it looks like a Mithrax crab which are generally considered reef safe but occasionally eat zoas when they get large (I have had no bad effects from the two I kept in my mixed reef).

You can prevent adding unwanted hitch hikers by QT all new additions to the tank including live rock. This is time intensive and many people don't do it.

 

[Grunt]

The first two are friends. Stomatellas wont harm anything and acro crabs stick to acros. I like them alot myself. The third crab I have no idea, looks menacing to me.

Cheers

 

[graveyardworm]

The third crabs claws have flattened tips which may indicate that its herbivorous in nature. Not to say it wont eat other stuff most crabs will eat just about anything, but this one may be alittleless of a threat.

 

[Eklikewhoa]

Thanks again peoples!

I'm just gonna leave the last one out just in case.