weird creatures in tank

honsbeek

New member
Hi,

Forgive me, I am still new at the hobby but am liking it very much , and I am dedicated to do it well.

I have a new 50 gallon marine tank set up for about 1 and a half years now, and keep a tang, angels, damsels, and a harmless puffer together.

PLEASE BEAR WITH ME WHILE I'LL TRY TO DISCRIBE IT ! ! !
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Yesterday I noticed a weird looking formation on one of the liferocks. Which I can only discribe as looking kinda like a butterfly cocoon with a diameter of about 5mm. in width and about 20mm in length. It had striped along it's surface almost like a moth larve or any larve for that matter. The color could be discribed as purple with also white in it, purple almost as the same color the algae have which grows in tanks from the lights. Then underneath it looked like a sort of adhesive (purple) which fit around it body almost in perfect dimensions, almost like a bed where it was lying on. Now the weird part is , when I try to disturb it with the long crabers, it was as hard as STONE and would not budge.

Today I looked to my surprise it had totally disappeared.
Not a trace left , and even the bed it lay on was gone.

This kind of stuff freaks me out totally , and let;s me think about the Alien movies , and that disgusting "facehugger" creature.
What the heck is growing in my aquarium besides the fish and bacteria.

Thank you for listening

Ralph Honsbeek (Seoul)
 
I was thinking chiton (polyplacophora) maybe. Try looking them up on google. It is like a snail that has plates instead of a single shell.
 
By God, you are right on the money , a Chiton, But where has it gone to ? Can it be eaten by the fish or Puffers. It felt really tough and hard with the grabbers. How is it possible that this chiton exists in my tank?
where did it come from , how do they grow, I know I never bought one (^_^) !!!!
 
They are common hitchhikers and can do well in tanks. They probably have no "macro" predator, as they move about at night, and as you already noticed, have quite the shell that sucks to the substrate.

Extra reading here.
 
Why do you want to get rid of it? They are perfectly harmless grazers and will help control nuisance algaes. So...it's a bit ugly, who cares!
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6519480#post6519480 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by romunov
They are common hitchhikers and can do well in tanks. They probably have no "macro" predator, as they move about at night, and as you already noticed, have quite the shell that sucks to the substrate.

Extra reading here.
Yes, pleased read the link that romunov posted in your thread a few days ago.
 
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