Quarantine Live Rock

[MHG]

I have read in a few threads to quarantine live rock that you intend to use for seeding. I have a tank full of dry rock and I am cycling it now. I bought a few pounds of coraline encrusted LR from the LFS. Bagged in water and placed in my QT so I can keep an eye out for unwanted pests.

Well there is a micro star fish and some sort of a snail looking thing and a bunch of what look like amphipods... what am I looking for that is bad? I do see the ocasional stringy things reaching out. some have strips and some are clear and hair thin.

 

[AquaticFins]

The main things I look for are the bigger pests - large worms, crabs and shrimp. It helps to put a bit of meaty food on the bottom of the tank and see what comes out - mostly at night, with the help of a red flashlight. If you've identified something that needs to be removed, it's usually not too difficult in a QT tank (either with a glass jar leaned up against the rock or through more forcible techniques).

The "snail looking thing" is probably worth trying to identify as well - most snail hitch-hikers are good to have, but some of the predatory whelks are not exactly uncommon to find.

The other point of QT'ing the live rock is to allow time for it to lie fallow; if there are eggs/cysts of coral or fish parasites, you want them to hatch out and be unable to find a host to complete their lifecycle.

 

[MHG]

Well it blends into the background rock so I lifted it in photoshop. It has a clam/oyster/scallop type shell.

 

[AquaticFins]

It appears to be Stomatella varia. They're excellent clean-up critters that will reproduce in your tank. They're good to have.

 

[MHG]

Thanks... that looks like it...