What exactly am am I looking at?

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Searchlights

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I got around 10 lbs of live rock at my lfs yesterday which has a really good reputation. I brought it home and put it in the tank and these were on the bottom side of the rock. I'm a newb and I have no idea what all the little creatures are yet. I do know my rock came with about 10 or so mini brittle stars. But other than that, this is the only thing that stood out to me in the way of life forms lol.
ab465b3ddfb092b7a7a58d0792bf5a75.jpg
 
That you were able to buy LR that actually has (visible) life on it speaks well of that LFS!

Nice score. There will also almost certainly be pods and other little critters too.
 
Sweet :) I keep on finding little creatures roaming around now. Speaking of, is this an Asterina? I see about 3 on my glass now. Are they good? Bad? I've heard mixed things on them. But I'd like to go ahead and figure it out now since they're easy to remove at the moment lol
2feaee725cca0958bfc65d056a7b1a25.jpg
 
AshlynnsDad said:
Looks like an asterina starfish to me. There's a really good article on them here.

SOme people say they eat coral. Some people say they don't.
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That was a really good read :) hmmmm I assume since I got them from a huge live rock tank with corals and frags from my lfs, that these aren't the coral eating type. Especially since there are already about 4 or 5 on my glass that came from just 10 lbs of rock. I assume they must have a pretty big population in the store's tank. I'll probably just leave them alone and if it eventually gets out of hand I'll just hand remove them :)
 
See that's the problem with these things, nobody can distinguish the good ones from the bad ones. Until that day comes, I'll treat them all as bad. I'm all about having diversity within a tank, but you might want to think about loosing this one. Also, a tank full of these things just looks like it has come down with chicken pox or something. It's not very attractive IMO. GL.
 
I really dislike the 'kill it if I see it' mentality. I usually suggest a different hobby .... Vast majority of hikers are harmless and it's part of gaining experience to not react unnecessarily to the appearance of various critters. In close to 30 years of reefing I can count on one hand the hikers I've had that were really problematic. Couple of mantis , a bobbit worm, some majanos, and a green brittle that grew too large - that's it.
 
ca1ore said:
I really dislike the 'kill it if I see it' mentality. I usually suggest a different hobby .... Vast majority of hikers are harmless and it's part of gaining experience to not react unnecessarily to the appearance of various critters. In close to 30 years of reefing I can count on one hand the hikers I've had that were really problematic. Couple of mantis , a bobbit worm, some majanos, and a green brittle that grew too large - that's it.
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My thoughts exactly. And my green brittle star was bought and paid for, thank you very much. Then he went to live with my 4' Undulated Eel.

As for the asterina stars, I've yet to have one bother anything. Their population, like that of most hitchhikers, will wax and wane as their food source allows.
 
So in 30 years there's never been an Aiptasia, a Zoanthid-Eating Nudibranch, a Montipora-Eating Nudibranch, maybe some red bugs, an unwanted crab, a rouge Asterina star or Flatworms of some sort?
I hate to say it, but I find this very hard to believe. Sorry.
 
cloak said:
So in 30 years there's never been an Aiptasia, a Zoanthid-Eating Nudibranch, a Montipora-Eating Nudibranch, maybe some red bugs, an unwanted crab, a rouge Asterina star or Flatworms of some sort?
I hate to say it, but I find this very hard to believe. Sorry.
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Nope - didn't even come close to making that claim.

Aiptasia? Back in the day, before anybody knew any better, my 60 cube was covered with thousands of them. Unwanted crabs? sure - they live in the sump now, doing their jobs down there. I just have to remember they are down there - a couple have gotten rather large! Asterina's? I have yet to have one bother anything at all. Crawling across a zoanthid and ****ing it off doesn't count - if it did, then you could have only one creature, all alone in a tank by itself. Flatworms? Sure! At least thousands. First a Green Coris Wrasse (that got mean and liked to eat cleaner shrimp) and now a pair of Blue Star Leopard Wrasses have taken care of that quite nicely.

IMHO, however, unless you want a sterile tank with minimal life, and certainly no actual ecosystem, you have to take some of the bad with all of the good. Otherwise, you wouldn't keep soft corals with stony corals (Alleopathy), most anemones because they tend to wander around and can irritate/damage corals or even eat unwary fish, or even many of the fish considered to be "reef safe" because as we have all discovered, they are individuals and can certainly develop a taste for corals/sponges/etc.

Not a single pest you mentioned cannot be eliminated when (if) they become a problem. Rather, it's the "I don't know if this is good or bad, so I'm gonna kill it" mentality that causes a significant number of people to spend way too much time and effort on things that as often as not, will take care of themselves. I would bet that many of the creatures removed for that reason are actually beneficial.


jm.02
 
Searchlights said:
Soooooooooo in other words. I could have a problem or it could be completely harmless? Lol
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Yes, but I think a lot of people tend to turn a blind eye, especially those with larger tanks. Put a bunch of these things in a nano and I'd be willing to bet that most people would change their tune. ;) JMO, GL.
 
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