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

[SushiGirl]

My guess would be that they're acropora crabs. Keep an eye on the health of your acros to determine if you think you need to get them out or not.

[Seagull_3]

Originally Posted by SushiGirl

My guess would be that they're acropora crabs. Keep an eye on the health of your acros to determine if you think you need to get them out or not.

Thanks Sushi I've tried to take a shot, although it's hard to see clearly as they won't come out of the coral. I can see at least two in there, both exactly the same. Guess I'll have to leave them in for now by the sound of it. Can't seem to find a definitive opinion on whether they're good or bad... I imagine that unless the start eating any of my other corals or get big enough to hassle my fish, there's probably no problem right?

[cheezischrist]

any ideas on this little guy? he was 1/4 inch sunday, now almost a dime. lives in a small cave in just the one rock. i removed him from that rock after this pic last night, to a rock pile on the other side of the tank, and this morning he has returned to his rock . doesn't seem to have a preferance for night or day either. sorry for the blurry pic, my phones camera isn't the best. thank you

[Mike_Noren]

That's one of the numerous species of small starfishes which routinely get identified just as "Asterina" - and it may well be an Asterina, it does look the part. It's not the standard, gray, asexually reproducing half-inch and almost certainly undescribed Asterina found in nearly every reef tank and usually identified as Asterina anomala, it's some other species, and the unusual pigmentation might mean that someone who's good at starfish may be able to identify it to species... But I can't.

I can tell you that it probably does not reproduce by fission (because it's symmetrical, unlike the small standard species), so you probably will never get very many of it, but while most Asterina eat biofilm and algae some do eat coral, so you might want to keep an eye on it.

[cheezischrist]

thank you, keeping an eye on him will be simple for now, the small rock he stubbornly lives on is right up front by itself, and being one of the only visable lifeforms in my tank currently, my girlfriend stares at that rock for ages waitin for him to come out of his cave and make passes around the rock. he doesnt move very fast either. hoping he gets bigger so i can more easily identify him, and stays his coloration, and also turns out to be keepable lol. that photo isnt the best but hes kind of a real pretty green, with orange tips and small dots. i probably wont even begin to start to add coral for at least 6 months, probably more, as well, im still planning on collecting another 20 or more lbs of lr over the next month from all over the place. thanks again

[cheezischrist]

how bout this little yellow guy?

[Pete H.]

looks like a yellow polyp - Zoanthid coral. (At least to the untrained saltwater hobbyist eye)

[cheezischrist]

ha thank you. id like to see the little guy spread and make it through the rest of the cycle, wich test results say is done, but i dont trust it cus its only been a week lol, and im adding a ton more rock this weekend, wich will probably crash the system all over again. ha fingers crossed

[SushiGirl]

Originally Posted by Seagull_3

Thanks Sushi I've tried to take a shot, although it's hard to see clearly as they won't come out of the coral. I can see at least two in there, both exactly the same. Guess I'll have to leave them in for now by the sound of it. Can't seem to find a definitive opinion on whether they're good or bad... I imagine that unless the start eating any of my other corals or get big enough to hassle my fish, there's probably no problem right?

About the only thing you can do is google acropora or acro crabs and see if any look like yours.

[mmmm4life]

Hey all new to the coral tank world for myself. Brother has been doing it for years and has it down but I have a question for anyone able to answer. I have only had my tank up and going for about a month or so, and have extremely well cured live rock that was intrduced to my tank but have what seems to me green coralline algea growth but its very rapidly growing along with the purple. I just want to know if there is a possible bad green item that this could be. I have been useing B-Ionic chem. daily and have heard that this stuff may make the coralline algea growth be this rapid. Any input is good input. Thanks

[SushiGirl]

A pic would help, but it could be coralline.

[mmmm4life]

not sure how to do so yet

[mmmm4life]

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/pi...ictureid=39416

[JDK]

Is this a vermatid? Maybe a hydroid? No clue. Look at bottom left of frag plug:

[IMG]http://i44.*******.com/263ihpz.jpg[/IMG]

[SushiGirl]

Looks like a couple of vermetids, JDK.
mmmm4life, really hard to tell from that far away.

[J2T]

Ok, just saw a few of these guys today, this being the largest. Couldn't get a decent pic but a video seems to show them well. They don't appear to eat at the zoa's but seem to sort of search over the rock...but if they are going to be a problem down the road I want to figure out how to get rid of them. They move pretty quick and their movements are more millipede like than centipede if that makes any sense. Thanks

http://youtu.be/1xHUfUzP0Z8

[JustinFromAL]

Not the best video to tell, but it looks like a Bristleworm. There's definitely some kind of unusual marking on it's back though. Check out google images for "Fireworms" and if it doesn't look like one of those it's probably some kind of Bristleworm variant.

[J2T]

I have bristleworms and have seen pics of fireworms and they honestly look nothing like this guy. He has no bristles that I can see, just legs. Sort of has white spots up his back and a thicker white band before his head. Looks to also have three faint stripes right before the white band.

[Mr. Demeanor]

Just found these hitchhikers. Two red crabs and one spikey crab. The red ones have tiny pinchers but the spikey one has one larger pincher and although he is small now....

I trapped all three in my shot glass / mysis cube crab trap. Mrs. Deamenor wants them to go back in the tank.

[JustinFromAL]

@JT - Weird, some kind of ribbon worm maybe?

[Mr. Demeanor]

I had a fish only fake decoration tank and inherited some rock with some intersting things. The entire tank is going to be replaced with a new 125 so I just have everything in their now. Its built into the wall and its a project I really have to plan out.
Here are the more "intersting rocks" with lots of "stuff". It is my understanding that this rock was quarried and wild seeded in the Gulf.
The orange fluffy stuff I think is a sponge. some of them came off and very quickly attached themselves where they landed on base rock though.

I have several of the Christmas tree worms in the second pic.

[SushiGirl]

J2T, it looks like a bristleworm epitoke, but take a look here and see if you can spot it. Also google epitoke and see if that's it. Most people see those on the glass or swimming crazily in their tank.

Mr. Demeanor, not sure on the crab IDs, you can look here, but crabs are pretty hard to ID sometimes. Typically pointed claws mean they're predators and are more likely to do damage to things you don't want them to damage. More flattened or spoon-like claws (like emerald crabs) will graze on algae as well as other stuff. All are opportunistic, though, and if hungry will eat whatever they can. I keep my crabs well-fed.

The orange fluffy stuff I'm not sure about, but the 3rd pic is definitely sponge.

[Mr. Demeanor]

Thanks. I think I ma going to leave them for now as I am completely breaking this down and rebuilding soon.

[sirbazz]

Curing some live rock in the new tank and have a couple of these that are currently helping to clean up the glass.



They're about 7mm or 8mm in length and wondering what they are and if they should be removed.

Thanks in advance.

[SushiGirl]

Can you get a pic of the top?