AJSTITAN14
New member
We have had live rock in the tank since Wednesday night. Water params are terrible but that's why they call it cycling a tank.
We have been having a ton of fun just looking at the rocks to see what pops out.
The live Rock we got had three good sized hairy green mushrooms on it that are flourescent under the moonlight LEDs. Those were something we wanted but that same piece came with 4 good sized aiptasia on it. I didn't know what they were until I got them home and looked them up and that particular LFS didn't offer to take them off. The plan for now is to zap the big ones and get a Pep to eat any little ones when the tank is ready.
We went to the hardware store and got some cheap flashlights to have a look at what happens after all the lights go out.
there are tons of pods running all over the rocks and hanging out in the shadows. We have a small banded brittle star living in a crack. At night he sticks his 5 arms waaay out and waves them around. We think there is another similar star in our other rock because we see 2 tentacles that come out about 2 inches and they are sniffing around on the sand etc.. These tents are red near the tips and brown closer to the rocks.
My girlfriend got a glimpse of a worm but I didn't see it. She said it was dark and shiny so probably some sort of peanut worm. It took offense to the light and didn't come out again. She said it was "big" but take that in the context of we are looking at tiny little starfish arms and copepods. We also think we saw a shadowy scuttling something but it could have been the shadows. The light plays wonderful tricks on our eyes that's for sure.
The highlight for me was seeing a tiny bristle worm twisted into a spring coil catching a ride on the current. He drifted around the tank twice and then straightened out and dropped down to the sand where he proceeded to crawl under all of the nearby bits of debris going from one to the next across the sand.
We are having a blast with this. We are always seeing new things in the rocks. We spent a good two hours watching for life in the tank. great fun =)
We have been having a ton of fun just looking at the rocks to see what pops out.
The live Rock we got had three good sized hairy green mushrooms on it that are flourescent under the moonlight LEDs. Those were something we wanted but that same piece came with 4 good sized aiptasia on it. I didn't know what they were until I got them home and looked them up and that particular LFS didn't offer to take them off. The plan for now is to zap the big ones and get a Pep to eat any little ones when the tank is ready.
We went to the hardware store and got some cheap flashlights to have a look at what happens after all the lights go out.
there are tons of pods running all over the rocks and hanging out in the shadows. We have a small banded brittle star living in a crack. At night he sticks his 5 arms waaay out and waves them around. We think there is another similar star in our other rock because we see 2 tentacles that come out about 2 inches and they are sniffing around on the sand etc.. These tents are red near the tips and brown closer to the rocks.
My girlfriend got a glimpse of a worm but I didn't see it. She said it was dark and shiny so probably some sort of peanut worm. It took offense to the light and didn't come out again. She said it was "big" but take that in the context of we are looking at tiny little starfish arms and copepods. We also think we saw a shadowy scuttling something but it could have been the shadows. The light plays wonderful tricks on our eyes that's for sure.
The highlight for me was seeing a tiny bristle worm twisted into a spring coil catching a ride on the current. He drifted around the tank twice and then straightened out and dropped down to the sand where he proceeded to crawl under all of the nearby bits of debris going from one to the next across the sand.
We are having a blast with this. We are always seeing new things in the rocks. We spent a good two hours watching for life in the tank. great fun =)
