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

[Sugar Magnolia]

Top is just a harmless sponge. The anemone is some type of bleached majano; pest anemone. you'll want to inject it with kalk slurry or one of the commercially available aiptasia removers.

[Hokies83]

What do we have here?

[SushiGirl]

Sponge & aiptasia.

[Hokies83]

Originally Posted by SushiGirl

Sponge & aiptasia.

I smacked them around with my Sand rake and they just folded up and did not go into rock.

So i think there some kind of polyp.

[cloak]

They look more like hydroids to me.

[ReeferKimberly]

I totally see the issue here

If you are looking for 1 creature that takes up the whole yellow square, it looks like 1 bleached aiptasia.

But what Cloak is looking at and what appears to be actually there are 3 creatures in the middle-left of the square, right? 3 tine white stalks with open ends.

I thought aiptasia at first too....but when you said hydroids I saw those three stalks and now I think the "aiptasia" was just a trick of the rock. There are grooves in it and when you are not paying really close attention it just looks like a bleached aiptasia taking up the whole yellow square.

[Hokies83]

Bad hydroids?

[cloak]

Not in my experience. They usually just run their course given time. When my tank was first set up a had quite a few. Now, very little, if any. Just keep an eye on them. GL.

[Hokies83]

I hit them with boiling water and they seemed to have shriveled up and died..

It was just a test to see if it worked used the plunger out of my red sea kit ..

There still afew i see but atleast i kno now i can deal with them if they get out of hand.

[SushiGirl]

Kimberley's right. Right before I read Cloak's post I zoomed in more on my phone (was on the excercise bike at PT the first time LOL). I had a bunch of those a while back. Took a long time but i'd be hard pressed to find one now. Just keep after them while your tank's not full of coral.

[Fishareawesome]

Howdy All. Can anyone help id this "anemone"?

The tentacals are translucent/clear but looks like they might have a colored tip. It's very small, maybe 1/4 long.

I assumed it was just a manjano or maybe a flat aiptasia but it doesn't have any foot or pedestal to speak of. What really has me wondering if it isn't something else (crossing fingers) is that it appears to have a coral like base to it. The white radial lines appear to be hard, calcium like structures, not goo.

I found 2 others, and one that looks like the first but is dead (no tentacals ever out). When I touch that it is defintely hard, coral skeleton like. The 3 alive ones do retract the tentacals at night.

one other id: can anyone confirm that the second file is just some orange version of bubble algae? The color is so beautiful I might just leave it for a little while! Hard to tell from the pic but there is some type of internal structure around the edges of each bubble that look like tubes if that helps.

Thanks for the help!!

oh, and how the heck do I embed an image verses upload a thumbnail!

peace

[cloak]

The first picture looks like a hidden cup coral. The second one is probably a sponge of some sort. Both harmless.

[SushiGirl]

2nd may be red bubble algae.

[Fishareawesome]

wow, thank you!

I google hidden cup coral and positively id'ed it as Hidden cup coral (Phyllangia americana). Thanks for the tip!

I even just spot fed it so baby brine and it loved it!

If your correct about the sponge (very possible as the live rock is covered with several different types of sponges) I am just blown away by the live rock vendor. The rock I bought was $4 a pound and I received (upon request) 2 huge peices with the largest being 19" long that included:

a 4" brain coral (which all but died as it was shipped in wet paper towel such a shame but about 15% is still holding on and seems to be growing back)

covered completely in several different shades of beautiful coraline algae, several different color flat sponges, foraminiferans and halimeda.

several types of fan worms (feather dusters)

about 9 large bi-valves (again, only 2 survived transport in wet towels however, phew they stunk!)

a bright orange box/ball sponge and one bright red tree sponge. Amazingly the tree sponge seemed to survive the trip. it became white on the outside a little the first couple days but seems to have regained it's deep, rich red color after 4 weeks in the tank.

The second peice was about 13" long and almost completely hollow with a tunnel going through it that my shrimp love and now add to the list 3 Hidden Cup corals.

55lbs shipped for $220

I don't know what the policy is about referring vendors so I won't post anything but if anyone wants a reference just send me a PM.

I've uploaded the picture he send me before I bought it and a second in my tank!

thanks again for the help with the ID!

[ReeferKimberly]

Wow. THAT is live rock. I wish I needed more I would so pm you! Congrats. I am envious

[Pez68]

So, I nuked the aiptasia yesterday by taking out the piece of rock it was on, and burned it with a little mini torch I have, and scraped what I could off. Last night I was checking on the tank once I had the lights off, and noticed something absolutely devouring the rest of the dead aiptasia. It looked like some kind of shrimp? It was mostly translucent with a small bit of brown on it's back. This morning, the dead aiptasia is all but gone.

Thoughts on what it could be? It seemed to be able to move pretty quickly. I wish I could have got a good picture, but it was in a really tough spot on the rock.

This was the best I got:

[cloak]

An amphipod perhaps?

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-09/rs/index.php

[rmcaum]

The first picture is of some unknow yellow polyps. They are probably tunicates or sponges, but much different than others that I have in my tank. The second is of some white polyps attached by runners growing on some halemeda. Anyone got any suggestions? Thanks in advance.

[Dectr6]

Found this in my tank today and have no idea what it is. It's approximately 1 inch tall and the shell is heavily ribbed and very coarse-grained. It does not look like any type of normal snail. The whole underside is a foot similiar to a limpet and it is very very firmly attached. I tried pulling on it very hard to dislodge it but it felt like I would have pulled it in two and killed it if I tried to pull much harder. Just noticed it today and does not appear to be moving. Any ideas on what this is and if it is safe or not to keep in my tank? Thanks, David

[Pez68]

What are these pink and white things, that are growing in the hole in my live rock?

[Dectr6]

It just detached and I removed it to take clear pictures. Appears to be a clam or mussel of some sort but if it is, the shell fits together very tightly and the joint can't be seen. I'll post the best pic since I haven't figured out how to post more than one at a time. Looking at these pictures, this must be what I've heard is a common hitchhiker called a turkey wing mussel. In some of the pictures it looks very much like a birds wing. Hopefully more Experianced members will Id it for me. Thanks

[pagojoe]

Dectr, it's a not-so-distant cousin of the Turkey Wing, but is considered to be in a separate family. It's Cardita variegata, probably "most likely to hitchhike" in its family.

http://www.seashellhub.com/Carditidae.html


Cheers,



Don

[SushiGirl]

Pez, I think cloak is correct. Pink things are foraminiferans. Please take a look through this entire thead, my albums or my homepage. Most of these things have been IDd here already, some in the last couple pages.

Rmcaum, your first pc looks like a featherduster, but not sure I'm looking where I'm supposed to be looking. 2nd pic may be zoas? Hard for me to tell on my phone, it's blurry when I zoom in.

[Pez68]

I've been through pretty much the entire thread. I'm just completely new to this, so have a really hard time telling whether or not they are the same thing as other people's pictures. Sorry about that.

There seem to be a billion different organisms that can come in on our live rock, and a lot of them look really similar. Crazy.

I appreciate the help.

[Nizz]

I am not sure exactly what these are?