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

OK I stand corrected. Either way they are gone... I don't want a freebie possible harmful snail endangering my paid for corals.

Thanks for the correction though. :thumbsup:
 
hi guys ...
is this aiptasia ?
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I woke this morning to find a damsel stuck head first in a hitchhiker that came along with some LR.

Any idea what kind of anemone this is?- the flowery looking' thing... It's currently about the size of a nickel to quarter in diameter and its body when free of the rock is about 1/2 to 3/4 in tall. It moved around 3 or 4 times before settling into a hole where it is now.

I pulled the damsel out but he only lasted an hour or two. His whole face was screwed up and his tail was a bit messed up from me grabbing him to get him out.

Thanks for any info on this critter. I guess I now know what happened to my peppermint shrimp and a couple of crabs - both of which I have found misc. pieces of but no full body.


Steve


P1040567 by getyourbone, on Flickr
 
Should I Remove This?

Should I Remove This?

Hi I bought a piece of rock with a Gregorian coral on it. After being in my 90 tank for about 9 months it growing lots of green algae and has several feather dusters? Should I take these out of the tank or try to manually remove as much of the algae and feather dusters?
Thanks for any advice....
 

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Sorry for the bad quality. I had to zoom quite a lot to get into the right angles of my sump:
This guy has been here since forever. He doesn't move, grow, spread or bother anything it would seem. I don't feed him.
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Some kind of branching algae? It started off super tiny and pitch black. Now the colour has faded, but it has grown so much compared to the little string it started as.
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Regular spaghettiworm I take. It's just that I haven't seen them on the rocks before.
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This little guy is super tiny. About one mm. in width and two mm. tall. I haven't seen it before, and just above it (on the same rock, but out of camera reach) is a "colony" of 3 ones as well. They don't sway in the current, nor do they seem to move at all by themselves. Algae? Polyp?
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I hope you guys can tell from the blurry pictures.

Thanks
 
A couple of hitchhikers

A couple of hitchhikers

Are these pests?

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I think this one is some kind of flower anemone.
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Thank you
Tad
 
I have a sea slug/nudibranch looking thing in my tank. Unfortunately I can't get a picture, as it's only about half a centimeter (5mm) long. It is clear with brown stripes (like the stripes of a peppermint shrimp if they were brown) and looks exactly like a slug you'd see on land, with all the tentacles and stuff on the face. It also has a "bubble" on it's back.
Just seeing if anyone can ID exactly what kind it is. Or maybe has ine and has been able to take a picture. My Live rock came from the gulf of California if that helps.
 
I have a sea slug/nudibranch looking thing in my tank. Unfortunately I can't get a picture, as it's only about half a centimeter (5mm) long. It is clear with brown stripes (like the stripes of a peppermint shrimp if they were brown) and looks exactly like a slug you'd see on land, with all the tentacles and stuff on the face. It also has a "bubble" on it's back.
Just seeing if anyone can ID exactly what kind it is. Or maybe has ine and has been able to take a picture. My Live rock came from the gulf of California if that helps.

Maybe these links will help.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-05/rs/index.php

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2004/10/inverts

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2004/12/inverts
 


Thanks! But unfortunately none of those look anything like the one in my tank. They are incredibly small, and if they are "newborns" or "juveniles" then the color ai described nay just be temporary. Not sure though as I know nothing about this family of creatures.
Fortunately, I found a second one closer to the front glass, so I got some okay pictures of it. The pictures definitely don't show the color, but sort of the shape and features.
Coupled with my description above, hopefully someone can ID them.
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Just want to confirm. Flat worm right? good, bad, ugly?


Just a cool picture of a Munnid Isopod and Copepods. I think it's cool because you can see the green algae in it's gut.
 
Best picture I could get. He/she is right on the end of a piece of algae, sticking out into the water column. And again the picture doesn't accurately show color.
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Sorry for the bad quality. I had to zoom quite a lot to get into the right angles of my sump:
This guy has been here since forever. He doesn't move, grow, spread or bother anything it would seem. I don't feed him.
87O6JQL.jpg

I have some of these same creatures (mine are bright red) on my rocks which seem to have appeared in the last couple of months. Started out as one and in the last few weeks has become about five. They close up when touched. One, which I assume is the same species, seems to have caught a pellet and sucked it in. It's body had elongated during feeding, looking like a tree trunk beneath the head, and I can see the pellet inside. The trunk is a transparent orange now.
 
long time lurker, first time poster lol

we have a well established nano tank, but recently have decided to take the plunge and setup a whole new tank from scratch, especially as our blue tang has grown faster than we thought she would and we cant just give her up yet :fun2:

after running it for 2 weeks to get the water right (to save money on salt water we used tank water to fill, ran phosphate remover through it for week and then added salt) yesterday came the time to add live rock.

apart from a 2 brittle stars and an asterina starfish, we found this little beauty in the container the lr was transported in. A quick google search and we found it is a feather star...

Popped them all in the nano tank until the new one is cycled and established. Apparently does not do well in captivity, but heres hoping I can keep it going - I have managed well with goni corals, actually getting them to grow which I am told is difficult (Can't tell you the secret to it, as I have no idea how I did it lol)

I personally think setting up a new system is the exciting time. So many new creatures come out (we have learnt to be picky with our LR, we spent an hour picking out our pieces to make sure we got some decent hitchhikers, such as button coral, got a fan coral, starfish, etc as well as the right shape, etc).

I tend not to worry about good and bad hitchhikers too much. I was told to pull bristle worms out, but I leave them be. Even a couple of small crabs that came in are left alone. I am sure I have a pistol shrimp in the nano tank (haven't seen it, assuming from the clicking) but even it is left be - only because I cant find it and it doesn't seem to be hurting anything.

<a href="http://imgur.com/nNqUB1E"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/nNqUB1E.jpg" title="source: imgur.com" /></a>

<a href="http://imgur.com/npSHtTT"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/npSHtTT.jpg" title="source: imgur.com" /></a>
 
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Pix & ID: Critters that come in your rocks: the good and the bad.

What is this?
I had two little spots show up but it looked like they were dying back so I ignored it. I didn't realize there was some growing in the back side of the rock as well, and it's spreading FAST. It slightly moves in the current in places.
Also, should I leave it alone or try to remove it?
First picture was yesterday morning. Second and third pictures were taken just now. Third picture is to show detail, right now is the first time I've seen all those little spots.
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