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

[Envieddesigns]

Hi SushiGirl heres the pick of that hitchhiker crabs claw wacha think? He's not even an inch in size. http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=6231&pictureid=42915

 

[Chris1zhere]

Plenty of goodies

Plenty of goodies

Hello, first post here on RC. I just finished searching through this entire thread, all the links and many other great places that google has brought me to. After all my research I think I have found a positive ID of 3 out of 4 of these critters. I should also note that all of my LR is Florida grown.

Pics 1 and 2: Sponges?

Pic 3: Vermetid Snail?

Pic 4: Some type of colonial tunicate? I had some tunicates on the rock originally but they died out so I believe this may be them coming back. It looks and feels like jelly, covers ~ a 3 in x 3 in area on a rock. The left half has orange underneath the gel-like covering while the right has white underneath the gel.

Pic 5: same rock as pic 4 and is in the middle of the "tunicate" described in that pic. There is also another one ( or possibly the same one coming from a different hole) on the opposite side of the rock. It lets out these tentacles and slowly retracts them pulling along whatever it grabs into the hole. Once the tentacles have retracted, it seems to "puke" from its tiny hole. I just counted and there are 15-20 tentacles coming from the hole.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

thank you in advance

 

[SushiGirl]

Cool, Ryno.
Envie, looks pointy to me.
Chris, I'll take a look when I get home unless someone else beats me to it, phone isn't cooperating with the pics.

 

[SushiGirl]

Pic 1 could be a lot of things, sponge, bryozoans, foraminiferans. Those are always hard to tell.
Pic 2 the top tube looks clear, like a sponge siphon tube.
Pic 3 definitely vermetid.
Pic 4 looks like sponge to me.
Pic 5 is a spaghetti or hair worm.

 

[Envieddesigns]

Live Rock Question

Live Rock Question

Hi, Heres a few pics of my live Fiji rock. Is this dark purple/red normal for the rock?

 

[Envieddesigns]

Hey Sushi girl since its pointy get rid of it? what do you normally do? Do you KILL the poor little thing? :deadhorse1: :hmm2:

 

[Poisonpink]

Whats happening in my tank?

Whats happening in my tank?

It's been two days since I set up the tank to cycle and I have something long and branchlike growing in the back of my tank on the live rock and some bug-like creature crawling around on a piece of dead coral I added just for giggles.

 

[SushiGirl]

Envie, it looks like purple and burgundy coralline, which is good.
As for the crab, I haven't had that issue, but I have a refugium. If I ran across something like that, that's where I'd put it if someone else (or LFS) didn't want it.

Poison, looks like sponge in the first pic, 2nd pic looks like an amphipod.

 

[lclark209]

Quite awesome you're taking the time to id all this crazy stuff for us sushi...much appreciated.

So I have this random flat piece of LR the has a bright pink...something...and bright blue...something else growing on it. This pic was taken about a week ago, I looked at the sponge (?) thing again today and there's no longer the space between the blue and pink things. The pink one is growing much faster. Should I be scrubbing this off?

 

[SushiGirl]

I enjoy IDing stuff, it's what hooked me on the hobby LOL.
The pink is sponge, it's fine to leave, I have quite a bit of it. The blue looks like coralline, which is very cool...rare. Let us know if that spreads!

 

[soul4surfin]

First, let me apologize for the quality of the pictures between my camera and phone.....i have problems with both being able to focus.

For the ID's

First picture looks to my like a starfish that is blue. Definitely moves around and looks like a star



Second two are different angles of what appears to be a white fuzzy ball with some tentacle like things at the top. I have dealt with brown aiptasia on this same rock, so I don't know if the is the "white" version or what. They are popping up all on this rock and the second pic I believe is the same creature, but it appears to have much longer tentacles.





Edit: I think I found the 2nd pic to be pineapple sponges...but I would like to confirm. So this still does not look like the third pic...any help on that one?

 

[SushiGirl]

1 could be asterina, kinda far.
2 Pineapple sponge
3 aiptasia

 

[devildog999]

Please ID. The "worm" came with a feather duster and the "shrimp thing" came with a frag. Also if good or bad. Thank you

 

[EastCoastFishes]

Live Rock Party

Live Rock Party

I couldnt find anything about these.. maybe a polyp and some algae balls? Any ideas would be awesome.. (= thanks

 

[SushiGirl]

devildog, bristleworm & amphipod, both good clean up crew.
East, 1 is aiptasia (bad) 2 looks like maybe grape caulerpa. Can take over a tank very fast.

 

[devildog999]

sushigirl, so it IS ok to put in my tank, corals, fish, inverts and all will be safe? Just want to be sure. And thank you much

 

[cloak]

These white dots, there not snail eggs, there pyramid snails. Now I know why I lost my Derasa clam awhile back. Keep a weather eye. HTH.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-09/jf/index.php

 

[devildog999]

Please identify this too, some sort of snail. Never seen in my tank before til this morning. Looks harmless but never know...

 

[SushiGirl]

Devildog, that's a stomatella, great clenup crew too. If you have more they'll breed. The worm & amphipod will eat leftover food, etc.

Cloak, hate to hear that. We had them on our snails, so we got a yellow coris wrasse. All were gone within a month.

 

[EastCoastFishes]

devildog, bristleworm & amphipod, both good clean up crew.
East, 1 is aiptasia (bad) 2 looks like maybe grape caulerpa. Can take over a tank very fast.

Thanks for the reply.. all those aiptasias have 8 fingers each and havent moved. they go into a tube when the lights go out. how do you get rid of them? Tweezers?