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

[ReeferKimberly]

OMG yes I cannot stress enough how much you are gonna wanna attack that bryopsis RIGHT NOW. Trust me. I'd take hydrogen peroxide to it. Read more about that......seriously, the stuff is evil.

 

[ReeferKimberly]

Good God man what IS THIS!?!?

Whatever this hell-spawn is, it's about a foot long and fast. It was on it's way from the rock to the sand in this pic. It is a tiny bit irredescent under LED.

It looks like a fire-worm in this pic, but it doesn't have the hairyness. Where the hairs would be on a fire worm this thing has 2 little....I don't know what word to use.....appendages?

 

[SushiGirl]

Might be a Eunicid.

 

[LeslieH]

Looks like an Oenone. Have you lost any snails or clams? And if you have, were the remains covered in a purplish slime?

 

[axle]

This is a great thread! I scanned thru half the pages and have yet to see what I'm trying to ID. Maybe it's so common everyone else knows what it is?!
I recently rearranged my rock and cleaned off nearly all the hair algae, then a few days later noticed these pale green things that look like a disc with a tube. Many more underneath another rock. Good...Bad?

.

 

[ReeferKimberly]

Looks like an Oenone. Have you lost any snails or clams? And if you have, were the remains covered in a purplish slime?

I don't have any snails or clams besides stomatellas. And I bought about 20 from a LFS and let them breed so I don't know if I have lost any to this guy because there are so many. I have not seen purplish slime.

Yes it really looks a lot like a Oenone Fulgida. In that pic it was very stretched out as far as it would go. It looked fatter when it wasn't.

Sushi you could also be right. It looks like a Eunice Valens as well.

I don't think anyone could distinguish the two with just the bad pic I was able to get before he hid.

I have been reading, seems pretty dang hard to trap them. I am leaning towards Oenone Fulgida because of Eunice Valens' range, which is not where the live rock came from.

I am not planning on having clams in this tank and I only like stomatellas. If he eats stomatells he can stay, I will need something to curb their population anyways. If he eats corals he will be toast one way or another.

Thank you guys! Whatever he is, thinking about him in there CREEPS ME OUT!

 

[ReeferKimberly]

This is a great thread! I scanned thru half the pages and have yet to see what I'm trying to ID. Maybe it's so common everyone else knows what it is?!
I recently rearranged my rock and cleaned off nearly all the hair algae, then a few days later noticed these pale green things that look like a disc with a tube. Many more underneath another rock. Good...Bad?

.

Look like little sponges to me. Or tunicates I guess possibly. Do they respond when you blow them with water? If they retract they are probably tunicates/sea squirts. If not, and they have a spongy texture, then they are sponges. Neither are bad, both are beneficial UNLESS they begin to overcrowd other things. Both tunicates and sponges have the ability depending on the species.

 

[LeslieH]

I agree with sponges.

 

[glweek]

i agree with sponges.

+1

 

[LeslieH]

Yes it really looks a lot like a Oenone Fulgida. In that pic it was very stretched out as far as it would go. It looked fatter when it wasn't.

Sushi you could also be right. It looks like a Eunice Valens as well.

Definitely would not be a valens and to me the shape of the parapodia (the paired appendages on each segment) is all wrong for any eunicid; also I don't see branchiae (feathery gills) either. On the other hand, you actually saw it & I didn't. )

Oenone is a switch-hitter when it comes to feeding; that's why they can survive in a tank without molluscs. I don't recall any reports of them ever eating coral, however, so your tank should be fine.

 

[axle]

I just did the test to see if the tubes retract and they don't. They're soft and 'spongy' so I guess they're sponges.

Thanks everyone for your help......

 

[ArrowCrab]

ID this ugly snail please

and confirm this as an asterina star

Thanks!

 

[SushiGirl]

Stomatella snail, good guy. And yes, it's an asterina.

 

[Dmorty217]

Can someone please tell me what this is?

I hope this works I haven't had luck posting pics on here for some reason

 

[Dmorty217]

Looks kinda like a spiny Astraea but it isn't nearly as big but has the star points around the shell or if someone can help me with posting a pic! Have photobucket but still no luck

 

[SushiGirl]

Try posting

after it. Your description sounds like a star astrea. There's a sticky post in the Photography forum that gives detailed instructions on posting from Photobucket.

 

[GeorgeMonnatJr]

Looks kinda like a spiny Astraea but it isn't nearly as big but has the star points around the shell or if someone can help me with posting a pic! Have photobucket but still no luck

FIFY

Note: You just need the "direct link" Photobucket provides for each picture, click on the little photo icon above the post text editor, and paste in the link. Or put the img tags like SushiGirl said above.

 

[LeslieH]

I'd go more towards a species of Astralium (called star shells) or Dentarene. Send an IM to PagoJoe - he's the most knowledgeable person on RC when it comes to molluscs.

 

[Dustin1300]

Ok...While cleaning out my frag/grow out tank noticed that I have a couple flatworms that I could spot. They were under the frag racks so hard to snap a good picture as the acrylic is dirty below the egg crate line. They honestly don't look like the AEFWs I've seen in the past but have never had any flat worms in past tanks

Not perfect shot...

 

[LeslieH]

That's an Amphiscolops sort of flatworm. They're harmless copepod predators.