Pix & ID: Critters that come in your rocks: the good and the bad.

[Reefing Newbie]

Looks like you have an asternia star getting a free ride. Most are harmless, but there is a species that have a taste for coral though.

 

[SushiGirl]

Reefing newbie, I can't tell from that pic whether those are small aiptasia or hydroids because I can't see the base. Are they in a kind of tube looking base? If so, you have the same hydroids I have, which haven't really spread very much.

+1 on the asterina star ID for Gibbnal.

 

[Reefing Newbie]

They do have a round base. Also can't be aptasia as my peppermint shrimp loves them too much to let them grow that much. You are lucky yours aren't spreading SushiGirl! I found out afer I posted that they are now on another rock. They were only located on the rock I pictured above for the past few months. I used to have them in a gigantic cluster, wish I still had a picture to show you.

 

[Seagull_3]

Hi all, last night whilst looking around in my new tank (only on day 6 of cycling), I noticed for the first time some type of tiny little crab crawling around on the live rock. I tried to catch it with my little claw grabber, but it got away & found a new hiding spot somewhere out of sight. It was quite well disguised & looked to have some sort of fine grass growing on top of it.

I know that as a general rule crabs are bad, but do I need to be worried about this at this stage? Obviously there's no fish in there yet, and I have no idea which type of crab this might be & how big it might eventually become. I guess if it does get much bigger it will become easier to catch. I just wanted to know if there's anything I should be trying to do at this stage, or if it's fine to just let it go for now. Who knows what else is hiding in there at the moment anyway...

 

[SushiGirl]

Reefing, mine came in on the original rock, which has been in there a year now. I noticed the other day there are a few on another rock now. So they're spreading, just not fast.

Seagull, you can try trapping it, which you'll probably want to do since it sounds hairy. Take a clean glass and put a piece of food in the bottom, and tilt it against the rock you saw it go into. It'll crawl in but can't crawl out. Or you can use a bottle trap. Once you get it out, you can take good pics of it & get an ID.

 

[Gibbnal]

Asternia Star

Asternia Star

So how quickly can these reproduce in a small tank? One thing I am learning is that if you see one small creature on your rocks, there is usually another one in there somewhere.

 

[SushiGirl]

They'll reproduce pretty quickly, usually by dropping legs that turn into new starfish.

 

[Modern-Revolution]

what are these orange "cracks" that move around in the back of my pod tank? they look white in this pic.

 

[seeya]

are they good or bad to eat

 

[eledile]

Okay, I'm looking to find an ID on two creatures. One I have no idea what it is, the other i know is a starfish, but just dont know what type.. In the picture, in the middle, right next to the small white spot on the rock, is a small orange-ish colored creature that I am thinking may be a sponge??

diagonally up and right of him, right next to the large white area of the rock, is the starfish. He is pink and green. Pink in the center and the legs have a greenish tint to them. TIA:bounce1:

 

[SushiGirl]

I don't see what orange creature you're talking about.
The starfish looks like an asterina.

 

[eledile]

Would the asternia be a bad one or a good one? Some of them eat corals right?

The orange guy is facing horizontally, and is to the right of the small white spot on the rock. He looks more yellow in the picture than Orange. He has two red spots on him near his base.

 

[SushiGirl]

No way to know on the asterinas until you catch them eating coral. Sorry, I don't know what the other thing is from the pic or the description. To me it just looks like the red spots are coralline algae on a small bit of rock. A really close up clear pic of it would help, but I know that's not always possible.

 

[eledile]

Well, that is the best picture I could get of it unfortunately..the only reason i am leaning towards sponge is because I have no lights on my tank, it's fresh off a cycle, and I can't really think of anything else that could be thriving in that environment.

 

[Joshporksandwic]

Zoa eating Nudibranch and eggs

 

[SushiGirl]

And that spiral above it is its eggs.

 

[UCT]

what is it?

what is it?

Found this guy on my snail. Moves fast when the light hits. Has some antenna or feelers. Looks clear but might have picked up the green color from the flash.

 

[mjm7757]

Looks like an amphipod which is great, they're smaller crustaceans that are a great source of food for the other inhabitants of your tank.

 

[mjm7757]

what are these orange "cracks" that move around in the back of my pod tank? they look white in this pic.

Most likely they are just really fine bristle worms, as long as they don't get oversized they shouldn't pose a threat to anything.

 

[Seagull_3]

Hi guys, lots of things starting to pop up now...

Any idea what these 3 x things are?