Pix & ID: Critters that come in your rocks: the good and the bad.
- Thread starter Sk8r
- Start date
Thanks (as always) SushiGirl...
Don't suppose you happen to know what this green hard type of substance is that has also just sprung up overnight. Is most prominent on the rock in the attached photo, although I have noticed small patches on my other rocks as well.
BTW, the cycle is now at around day 13.
Don't suppose you happen to know what this green hard type of substance is that has also just sprung up overnight. Is most prominent on the rock in the attached photo, although I have noticed small patches on my other rocks as well.
BTW, the cycle is now at around day 13.
Attachments
Ok, cool... I thought that Coraline was mostly pink/purple, so am just wary of anything unknown (which admittedly is quite a lot given that this is my first saltwater tank haha).
The guys down at my LFS don't seem to be worried about anything. They just said to leave it all alone, no water changes, don't worry about algae, critters etc. You can just get paranoid somethimes when you read about things that you HAVE to remove from the tank before they spread/etc
Can't wait until I get to the point where I can just know what everything is and whether or not any action is required
The guys down at my LFS don't seem to be worried about anything. They just said to leave it all alone, no water changes, don't worry about algae, critters etc. You can just get paranoid somethimes when you read about things that you HAVE to remove from the tank before they spread/etc
Can't wait until I get to the point where I can just know what everything is and whether or not any action is required
SushiGirl
Premium Member
Coralline comes in all colors. Over the years I've had pink, purple, green, tan, orange, red, white, and maroon. I've heard of blue, but I've never had that. I think the pink/purple is just what ends up liking tank conditions the best.
I'm still not at the point where I know what everything is, and sincerely doubt I ever will be...there's just too much out there!
I'm still not at the point where I know what everything is, and sincerely doubt I ever will be...there's just too much out there!
Aaarrrggg
New member
Does anyone know what these are...?
#1 White/clear tubes
They're translucent / clear white tubes and they're all over the place in the shadows on one side of my tank. I'm hoping they're some sort of sponge rather than hydroids. I've never seen a feathered crown or any movement, but they appear to be growing quite rapidly. They're not rock hard, but they are quite stiff... I waved the magfloat near them and they wobbled a little in the current.
#2 Lines in the sand
I'm guessing these are caused by some sort of worm or maybe just trapped gas in the sandbed? I was curious if anyone knew any more. They're very small... my sand is quite fine (Pink Fiji)
#3 Algae Strands
I've got a lot of this popping up in my Nano. It feels and looks a lot like chaeto. Can chaeto grow like this in the DT if it escapes the sump? It is often a single strand which starts curling around itself... kind of like green pubes, for lack of a better term! :lol: I'd like to know if it's a good guy or not before I move some of my nano LR over to my new tank.
#1 White/clear tubes
They're translucent / clear white tubes and they're all over the place in the shadows on one side of my tank. I'm hoping they're some sort of sponge rather than hydroids. I've never seen a feathered crown or any movement, but they appear to be growing quite rapidly. They're not rock hard, but they are quite stiff... I waved the magfloat near them and they wobbled a little in the current.
#2 Lines in the sand
I'm guessing these are caused by some sort of worm or maybe just trapped gas in the sandbed? I was curious if anyone knew any more. They're very small... my sand is quite fine (Pink Fiji)
#3 Algae Strands
I've got a lot of this popping up in my Nano. It feels and looks a lot like chaeto. Can chaeto grow like this in the DT if it escapes the sump? It is often a single strand which starts curling around itself... kind of like green pubes, for lack of a better term! :lol: I'd like to know if it's a good guy or not before I move some of my nano LR over to my new tank.
MitchellB
New member
whats this??? about 3/4" to an inch long. Found it walking along the front of the glass.
whatisit by in his image, on Flickr
whatisit by in his image, on Flickr
MitchellB
New member
Thank you SushiGirl
here are some pics of the possible skeleton shrimp isopod
Isopod1 by in his image, on Flickr
Head
Isopod head by in his image, on Flickr
Tail
Isopod tail by in his image, on Flickr
Isopod by in his image, on Flickr
here are some pics of the possible skeleton shrimp isopod
Isopod1 by in his image, on Flickr
Head
Isopod head by in his image, on Flickr
Tail
Isopod tail by in his image, on Flickr
Isopod by in his image, on Flickr
softieatheart
New member
The big "bristle worm" I was pleased to discover in my live rock turned out to be a coral savaging eunicid worm.
It maimed a brand new Wood's Polyp frag three nights ago and finished it off the next night, moving on to the Kenya tree frag last night. :furious:
I have never seen it's butt out of it's rock but I did see a good 10 inches of him, so he is decent sized.
I tried the bottle trap for a couple hours but got impatient and reading here and other site kind of indicated that this kind of worm rarely goes into the bottle traps, so I pulled all my rock out and have him submerged in a deep bowl filled with 6 liters of club soda.
He has been submerged for almost 2 hours and no sign of him. I am almost positive he is in this rock, because it is "his" rock and I saw him pokeing his head out one of the holes moments before I got the rock out of the tank.
So how long can he live in that club soda? My guess is he is dead in there. Now what do I do? Put it in a QT tank and watch for signs of life or an ammonia spike? This is really a big, beautiful rock with three "caves" and all sorts of smaller tunnels so I don't really want to break it open.
It maimed a brand new Wood's Polyp frag three nights ago and finished it off the next night, moving on to the Kenya tree frag last night. :furious:
I have never seen it's butt out of it's rock but I did see a good 10 inches of him, so he is decent sized.
I tried the bottle trap for a couple hours but got impatient and reading here and other site kind of indicated that this kind of worm rarely goes into the bottle traps, so I pulled all my rock out and have him submerged in a deep bowl filled with 6 liters of club soda.
He has been submerged for almost 2 hours and no sign of him. I am almost positive he is in this rock, because it is "his" rock and I saw him pokeing his head out one of the holes moments before I got the rock out of the tank.
So how long can he live in that club soda? My guess is he is dead in there. Now what do I do? Put it in a QT tank and watch for signs of life or an ammonia spike? This is really a big, beautiful rock with three "caves" and all sorts of smaller tunnels so I don't really want to break it open.
I'd suggest putting it in a separate bucket of salt water after an overnight in the soda and using a small airpump or maxijet to keep the water circulating for a few days. Soda water in itself is sometimes useful to adjust ph after a kalk mistake, so it's not poisonous, but it will do a ph number if you don't give it time to resorb salt water before putting it back in your tank. It will be, at that point, dead rock with dead things in it, so letting it stay isolate for a while will be helpful ---you don't want an ammonia spike from the dieoff rotting in the rock. Using discard salt water from a water change would assure it has bacteria to help it along in digesting the dead stuff.
eledile
Active member
Okay, so, I have a very interesting story..I had company over earlier this evening, and everyone was looking at my new salt water tank. I only have 6 hermits in there right now, and 3 brittle stars, so there isn't much to really look at. My company left at 10, and it is now 12:30 my time..I turned the light off to my tank at 10:30.
Just 5 minutes ago, I went out to check on a noise I thought was in our living room where the tank is, and I used my cell phone's flashlight to look into the tank..What I saw was what looks to me like hundreds, if not thousands of mosquito larvae looking things! They had to have popped up when the lights went out, because they weren't there before they went out..
These creatures can swim, and they are attracted to light. I don't think they can cause any harm, and this is the first time I have ever seen them..I have no clue what they are, I was thinking copepods, but these are bigger than copepods..They look like little baby guppies, but just smaller. I really hope they aren't anything bad, because there are literally thousands of them all throughout my tank! I can't get pics up right now, but I will get some as soon as I can.
My tank is relatively new, I started it up in the beginning of December, and the cycle has been done for a couple weeks now, so it is definitely in its infant stage right now. I just don't know what the heck these bugs are! I only acquired 2 pieces of LR from my LFS, and they have been in there since the tank was set up to get my cycle started..So it wasn't any new hitchhikers. They have to have been in my tank since it was started..that or my hermits had babies, but I dont think baby hermits are free floating creatures. To my knowledge they are born with shells right? And even if I had 1 male and 5 females there's no way they would have a couple thousand babies between all 5 females would they? The brittle stars are way too small to be having babies as well, as they are babies themselves..
If anyone has any ideas on what these guys might be that would be helpful. The only thing I could think of would be mysis shrimp, but I don't know how I would have gotten them in my tank..
Just 5 minutes ago, I went out to check on a noise I thought was in our living room where the tank is, and I used my cell phone's flashlight to look into the tank..What I saw was what looks to me like hundreds, if not thousands of mosquito larvae looking things! They had to have popped up when the lights went out, because they weren't there before they went out..
These creatures can swim, and they are attracted to light. I don't think they can cause any harm, and this is the first time I have ever seen them..I have no clue what they are, I was thinking copepods, but these are bigger than copepods..They look like little baby guppies, but just smaller. I really hope they aren't anything bad, because there are literally thousands of them all throughout my tank! I can't get pics up right now, but I will get some as soon as I can.
My tank is relatively new, I started it up in the beginning of December, and the cycle has been done for a couple weeks now, so it is definitely in its infant stage right now. I just don't know what the heck these bugs are! I only acquired 2 pieces of LR from my LFS, and they have been in there since the tank was set up to get my cycle started..So it wasn't any new hitchhikers. They have to have been in my tank since it was started..that or my hermits had babies, but I dont think baby hermits are free floating creatures. To my knowledge they are born with shells right? And even if I had 1 male and 5 females there's no way they would have a couple thousand babies between all 5 females would they? The brittle stars are way too small to be having babies as well, as they are babies themselves..
If anyone has any ideas on what these guys might be that would be helpful. The only thing I could think of would be mysis shrimp, but I don't know how I would have gotten them in my tank..
