need help bad! ID hitchhikers

[reefjunkie42]

guys i just bought 70 lbs of live rock and fear they may have bad hitchhikers on them!. I need an experienced aquarist to take a look art what i quarantined in person! maybe at the frag swap this weekend? please i just have to know weather or not to ditch the rock!

 

[fatrip]

Can you take any pictures? I could probably get over to endwell before the frag swap if you wanted. As for hitch hikers what are you talking about do you think you have crabs, snails, nudibrach?? Is there coral on the rock? I wouldn't ditch the rock, if there aren't any corals on the rock than there aren't hitchhikers that would be highly detrimental to a reef. Melev has an id site for somethings http://www.melevsreef.com/id/ check there.

 

[reefjunkie42]

it seems that i may have mysid shrimp, but that leaves a worm, a snail looking thing,and "tiny dots" moving on the bottom of this cup there in. i can literally take a random cup of water from this tub and it will have something living in the water..im just worried as im starting a new tank and the last thing i want to do is start off bad. as for a picture most of the organisms are very very small. i will bring them to the swap to possibly get a id if that will help. i have read that an hypo-salinity soak might work at like 1.040 ppm . what is your take on this? it might also be a spolioid worm but im not sure,as it was floating not stuck onto a rock. sorry for the spelling too..its atrocious

 

[fatrip]

well that is cool if you have live breeding mysid shrimp, but more likely they are amphipods which also are good. was the worm smooth or spiny? color? snail looking, is it a limpid they look like a snail but have a partial flat shell that if they are big there whole body wont fit under. Tiny dots that move my guess would be copepods they are very small shrimp like creatures. Also try this site http://www.chucksaddiction.com/ if you got to the site map about halfway down is a list of id pages for hitch hikers that is more extensive than melev's.

for future reference, hypo salinity is lowering salinity and hypersalinity is raising it. please dont take offence to my correct I just want you to be informed. aslo I would wait to do anything before you id them because it is sounding that everything is good. the only bad thing so far could be the worm depending.

 

[reefjunkie42]

thats fatrip! they coupled be amphipods but they are just so small i cant see any antenne or features. the worm isn't spiny so i don't think its bristol it is smooth and has a somewhat "pinker head" than the 'body' which is more opaque white. the thing that looks like an abalone has a small feeding tube that comes out of the top of the shell, and when you pluck it off a rock it slowly starts to look like a peanut. and thanks for the correction on the salinity matter, thats what im here for is to learn! thanks a ton

 

[fatrip]

The word sounds like what people call a peanut worm, not a bad worm but if you can't positive id i would just throw it out. The abalone type snail is a filter feeder, like an abalone if it doesn't move on its own. They are good to have. they all sound like good parts of a reef. But if you still want bring them to the meet and we'll confirm.
Also where did you get the rock, if it was from another aquarist I would suggest to wash it with this method. Put the rock in a trash can or large tub with a heater and power head or pump for water circulation and do water changes bi weekly in the tub for 2 weeks. This will help to get phosphates, nitrate and amon out of and off the rock in case it was a neglected tank. You can also do this in a display tank but I like to use something that doesnt let light in if there aren't any corals on the rock.

 

[reefjunkie42]

cool sounds good to me im going to try that. i will also bring the worm and abalone looking thing to the meet.

 

[fatrip]

Cool. Bring the little live dots too. Also just curious how larger of a tank are you setting up? I saw the post where you are looking for more rock.

 

[reefjunkie42]

90 to 190

 

[fatrip]

gotcha so lata rocks...lol

 

[reefjunkie42]

lol yep. i got about 150 or so if i had to guess. id like to add 50-100 more pounds to that. i believe in biological natural filtration like mother nature

 

[fatrip]

yea. are you doing a fuge than too?

 

[reefjunkie42]

yea 40x26x18 should be about 40 gal total when its filled to the desired level. man im looking forward to getting the tank! t encore custom acrylic 60x30x24.