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

[Aaarrrggg]

Sounds like amphipods. They're a big type of pod; good guys.

 

[eledile]

How would I have gotten them in my tank?? Do they just randomly show up from time to time? I have no way of taking a picture of them....stupid camera..So the best I can do is just describe them well enough to you.

So, as I stated before, they look like mosquito larvae when they move, all twitchy and flippy, but they also swim too. They are more twitchy when in the display part of my tank where there is a lot of flow..In where my return pump is, they appear to be swimming, and will follow a light..I can see two small black dots at one end, I'm assuming they are eyes..They are overall transparent creatures, maybe 1/8th of an inch in size, and there's TONS of them.. I am seeing less now than I did last night. (I think my return pump is killing them off slowly because there seems to be less of them that are moving and more that are just flowing with the current..) The main part of their body, in the middle, has a brownish to reddish color to it. I can almost swear it looks like a shrimp, but at the same time it also looks like a baby guppy. If that sounds like the description of the amphipod, let me know asap so I can get me a mandarin or dragonette! lol

 

[SushiGirl]

big_cats, that actually sounds like hermit crab babies. I had that happen in my tank once, too. I spent a long time getting as good of a look as I could (I couldn't catch them), and hours looking on the internet and finally found this (bottom of page 1) and this. I thought mine were mysis too, at first, but since the hermits were right there where it was going on, and they looked exactly like what I found, I figured it out.

 

[miyzfrider]

I just setup our new 90 gallon tank and are in the process of cycling. I've found two of these little things attached to the glass from the LR I got from the LFS. Are they tiny aiptasia? They look like a little anemone of some kind. I siphoned the first one out, but then this one appeared.

 

[SushiGirl]

Looks like it. With them on the glass, hold a piece of ice to the outside of the glass and see if they let go into a net LOL.

 

[eledile]

Thank you sushi, that is exactly what they are then. Shoulda clicked sooner to me because the person I got my hermits from said that theirs had been having babies in their tank. It just scared me when it happened because they werent there an hour before I looked at the tank..lol

 

[miyzfrider]

Looks like it. With them on the glass, hold a piece of ice to the outside of the glass and see if they let go into a net LOL.

I'll take it out. Thanks for the help.

Found a couple of these little guys running around the rock too. Doesn't look like the other photos I've seen here on the thread. Has antenna, but moves like a bug with longer legs, rather than a worm.

I find looking and finding an interesting thing and kinda fun, especially since I'm a newbie and the tank is just getting going.

 

[BassandReef]

I got some live rock from a guy that was full of aptasia and I think I saw a worm. I (hopefully) have killed all of the aptasia. But should I dip the rock in freshwater anyway just to be sure I don't have any other undesirables in it?

 

[SushiGirl]

miyzfrider, that's an amphipod. Good guy.
carlii, if you dip the rock in freshwater, you'll lose more than bad stuff.

 

[UCT]

Purple creature

Purple creature

Found this today. Purple and looks like a snail without a shell

 

[SushiGirl]

Stomatella snail. Good guy. It has a shell, it's just small.

 

[SauceBoss]

I don't know what kind of worms those are, but I've seen them before.

Well, this my first post on RC as a long time lurker and first time poster. I finally created an account to tell you all what these 'worms' are. Tanaids are what make those burrows. Here's an article on them you may enjoy:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-02/rs/index.php

I have many in my reef tank and my yellow coris wrasse certainly enjoys hunting them.

 

[Bens_Reef]

I just found this in my fuge. i cant figure out how to get a better picture. it has a smooth shell like a muscle or something and can hold onto the rock well.

 

[SushiGirl]

Sauceboss, thank you! I hadn't seen that article before.
Bens_reef, sorry but I can't tell from that pic. There are hitchhiking clams at the bottom of this link. Are you thinking it's some kind of clam?

 

[Bens_Reef]

i thought it was some sort of slug, until i went to feel it and it had a shell. in the picture you can kinda see a line vertical through the middle of the object. the right side of that line is the shell. i didnt see anything on that link that looked like it

 

[Sk8r]

Could be a barnacle. I had one once: our tanks usually don't have what they need to live.

 

[Gibbnal]

How about these little blue tubes amongst the Aiptasia? Some kind of Sponge? How large might they grow?

 

[SushiGirl]

Yeah, that's sponge.

 

[UCT]

worm?

worm?

Cleaning around some rock and found this. Then noticed some growing out of rock too. They extend and contract, becoming short and fat or long and thin as a hair.

 

[Sk8r]

Nearest looks like the extensile part of a peanut worm; but they don't get thread-thin: spionids do...so can spaghetti worms. The good news is all those things are beneficial.