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

That's interesting! I see that they both have different light and flow requirements (almost polar opposites... LOL) The monti (it does appear to be a sunset) is high up and to the back of my rock and the mushroom is in a crevice of sorts and protected from the flow somewhat (though still on the same side of my tank as my wavemaker). Should I start trying to spot feed them or just let them be? I just turned my lighting on for the first time yesterday, very low and only for 2 hours. Today it will be on for 10 hours. Is this too soon or will they be alright? I have a Kessil A160WE (the controller is on the way). I don't know the intensity but I have it at its lowest setting past "on".
(I guess that means I won't be buying any corals for at least another month. I'll learn how to make these two (possibly three) happy.)
 
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That's interesting! I see that they both have different light and flow requirements (almost polar opposites... LOL) The monti (it does appear to be a sunset) is high up and to the back of my rock and the mushroom is in a crevice of sorts and protected from the flow somewhat (though still on the same side of my tank as my wavemaker). Should I start trying to spot feed them or just let them be? I just turned my lighting on for the first time yesterday, very low and only for 2 hours. Today it will be on for 10 hours. Is this too soon or will they be alright? I have a Kessil A160WE (the controller is on the way). I don't know the intensity but I have it at its lowest setting past "on".
(I guess that means I won't be buying any corals for at least another month. I'll learn how to make these two (possibly three) happy.)

yes they are two very different types of corals. I do not spot feed any of my corals and there really is no need to IMO. how old is your tank? and where did you get your LR from? also if your light cycle has been that low (only 2 hours a day) you shouldnt blast your tank with a sudden 10 hour lights on. you may start to bleach the corals.
 
yes they are two very different types of corals. I do not spot feed any of my corals and there really is no need to IMO. how old is your tank? and where did you get your LR from? also if your light cycle has been that low (only 2 hours a day) you shouldnt blast your tank with a sudden 10 hour lights on. you may start to bleach the corals.

My tank has only been up for 6 days. I wasn't planning on getting any corals for another month or so. I was going to add my CUC in a week or two. I only turned the light on for the two hours when I noticed that they were coloring up, then worried that maybe they weren't getting enough. I'll keep it with the two hours a day until I get my Kessil controller and try acclimation mode. I've been worried about my tank being fully cycled; my experienced tells me it probably isn't. I've been using Seachem Stability since I started it and I have live sand as well as the rock.
I got the rock from a well established tank. I asked them to take all the corals off because I didn't want to kill them. I also have some snails in there that hitchhiked. Neither of us noticed the corals that I ended up with, as I think the mushroom closed up and it's really small (it did this last night when I dropped some food in the tank near it, and reopened in a few minutes). So now that I have them, I want to keep them alive. This will give me the opportunity to learn more about them and help keep the tank stable.
My parameters that I've been testing for are:

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 5 ppm
pH: 8.1
Temp: 79
Salinity: 1.026

There's something else growing out of the rock that looks like a plant (like the leaves on the top of a pineapple.) It looks like it may be an SPS of some sort and I hope not.
 
Odd tube worm-ish looking things

Odd tube worm-ish looking things

Got some new pop ups from a ~6mo old favia (which is doing fantastically btw). At first I thought it might have just been a bit of detritus from Jerry the blenny who likes to hang out above it (he's quite the celebrated pooper).

Anyway, here's one that I got a decent shot of. I've noticed several more under the brain, and they all have the same appearance. They have something of a mound for their base with this tube extension w/ a white tip. I haven't seen anything come out of the tube(s) yet, doesn't mean it won't happen.

Ideas?
 

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Great running thread. Ton of info.
Found this anemone(I think) and I am wondering with how much explosive I should use that won't hurt my Discus. No really, kinda neat, showed up the other night after lights out and it gets next to no light where it sits. I know I dealt with apitasia in a separate fuge but I thought I slaughtered them all with boiling water.
4925posts X(roughly 30 seconds per post, some longer some shorter)= 147750second/60=2462minutes/60=41hours of reading. If no reply by wednesday at 5:30am EST hopefully I will find my answer. :)
 

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I think you can rule out aiptasia, because the ends of the tentacles are rounded. All aiptasia I've seen has pointy tentacle ends.
Sometimes a better picture might get a better answer.
 
Thanks taricha and Magnolia. Not sure I can get a better picture without letting it grow more. I guess since no one gave a resounding "don't kill that" I will execute it with extreme prejudice. Thanks!
 
Anyone wanna play guess that Hitchhiker?

Anyone wanna play guess that Hitchhiker?

Greetings to the community!

I would really appreciate some expert eyes on these hitchhikers, this is my first tank so I am really at a loss for what I have here:)

First, I have these little white things popping up on 1 rock, I thought Aiptasia, feather duster? But nothing Ive found looks like them. They are very tiny.

1.

https://scontent-mia1-1.xx.fbcdn.ne...=4201483ea0233e6728b2c6f0cdfbbebd&oe=564B66D7

https://scontent-mia1-1.xx.fbcdn.ne...=ee5370a23a063e98bbdcf40efe4e2614&oe=564DD1EF

https://scontent-mia1-1.xx.fbcdn.ne...=96abaea7a760f2053d514ad66ba07302&oe=56515DC5


sorry, the camera is pretty bad and they are small, they are translucent and have small feather-like things protruding from the head, more like spines? IDK lol..


then there is this orange blob...

2.

https://scontent-mia1-1.xx.fbcdn.ne...=de1c86f872fc04e3846402d78c20491f&oe=5652FCD3

and this picture...

on the right, what is this purple hair plant?

on the left, some sort of coral or sponge?

https://scontent-mia1-1.xx.fbcdn.ne...=b39387a2e23d4a77effeb1b68e488045&oe=56552E18


The tank is young, two weeks.
The Orange blob, spongy thing, and purple hair plant are all on one premium rock I picked up a few days ago.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

All the best!

Sana
 
Ok, so I was able to get a better pic.. dead center is a creature coming from the rock, like a feather duster? But i should mention that these do not retract or hide when bothered, they really dont move much at all.

then, to the upper left of the center you can see 3 tentacle-like, small string-things growing out of the rock..

Any idea?

Lol, I feel like I am in kindergarten trying to explain a daydream to a teacher..

help? lol

https://scontent-mia1-1.xx.fbcdn.ne...=61485398461574051b4e12675179143c&oe=560F379B
 
Ok, so i think what i was mistaking for a feather duster is a pineapple sponge?

As for the purple plant, orange blob, and coral I am still uncertain��
 
In my tank, what looks like the object in the center would be pineapple sponges, and the tentacle like things would be the arms of micro brittle stars.
 
I recently picked up some live rock out of Tampa Bay and I won't be doing this again as I picked up a ton of hitchhikers, mostly good but Im sure plenty of bad. Aipstasia?
DSC_0043_zpsf5pkz4ss.jpg
 
Brittle Stars?

Brittle Stars?

I think I have some nice hitchhikers, which may be multiplying. This is the backside of my christmas favia. I was killing off some snails, and saw these guys. They appear to be living in some nice looking red sponge (need ID on this as well. what do you think? red sponge? looks very pretty".

Anyways, as the LFS dude was putting into the bag, he claims "Oh look, nice sized little brittle star there!" and it was! He snuck into the rock, didn't see for some time. He's running around in the sand bed now.

But then I see these legs, one set in each hole. Same exact color pattern as momma star. Never could coax the body out, but the legs were very active. Only took a second or two for what I assume to be legs/tentacles to pop out. Brush them, pull mostly back in, and then back out wiggling around.

Amirite?
 

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