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

[JJ84]

Sorry it's kind of hard to see, this photo was taken at 2:30am, see if these help

[JJ84]

Here's another one

[Vilas]

Hi! Three days into the new tank, and this lovely thing has opened. It seems to be some kind of light pink polyp, about 3mm in dimension, and seems to be a hard coral of some kind, based on the bit of skeleton. Any ideas? Will it survive my cycle? And does it need more than t5 lights?

[ReeferKimberly]

Originally Posted by Vilas

Hi! Three days into the new tank, and this lovely thing has opened. It seems to be some kind of light pink polyp, about 3mm in dimension, and seems to be a hard coral of some kind, based on the bit of skeleton. Any ideas? Will it survive my cycle? And does it need more than t5 lights?

Looks like a goniopora or alveopora that is almost dead. They do not do very well in captivity and it likely will not survive. It is very hard to bring them back from the state it is in. They need nutrient rich water that is also clean, something difficult to achieve in an aquarium, much less a new aquarium. You can try to spot feed it with very tiny foods you can buy, but it probably won't make a difference at this point. Sorry :/

[Vilas]

Ahh. Drat. I was hoping that as it came on the live rock, so had withstood the curing, it would be fairly hardy. I'll try giving it a chance by spot feeding it. It is so beautiful! This will probably lengthen my cycle, I presume, to have that die off. Thanks for your advice!

[Xavibear]

It shouldn't lengthen your cycle.

[Vilas]

Still, I'll just go ahead and cycle for two months to be sure. I had a tank many moons ago, and saw how nasty dying coral can be. :-)

[Vilas]

BUT, I get to say to my newbie reefer husband in a solemn tone of voice that the bad news is that we have goniopora, and watch his face. This, I am thrilled for.

[cloak]

Originally Posted by JJ84

Sorry it's kind of hard to see, this photo was taken at 2:30am, see if these help

From this picture, those little tubes sticking up from the rock just look like sponges of some sort. (harmless) I'm not sure if that's what I'm supposed to be looking at though.

[JJ84]

Ok look at the las polyp, there's a bump right next to it, almost red then turns white, that's the tube. It looks kind of like silk and sand all over it, also see the space between the polyps? That thing (whatever it is) ate all of that. I've been up almost all night to see if I can see the SOB but nothing, all I can see is the hole of an empty tube, but the next day another polyp is missing.

[Sugar Magnolia]

All I see are harmless scypha sponges.

[cloak]

Some worms will use the sand grains to construct their tubes out of, but without a description of what's actually inside of it, it's going to be difficult to id. Maybe these links will help though. Keep your eyes peeled.

http://www.lionfishlair.com/hitchhiker/hitchhiker.shtml

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-05/rs/

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=632970

[2000se]

[Xavibear]

Looks like a bleached out riccordia.

[cloak]

It looks kind of like a ball-tipped anemone to me. (Pseudocorynactis)

[2000se]

it's super tiny..like the diameter of a pencil eraser

and it kinda stays closed but then at night sometimes it opens...or just randomly it opens during the day...like now it is open, but this morning it was closed

[ReeferKimberly]

Ball nem, yes. They open at night usually.

[2000se]

^ Ok, so I'm good with leaving it alone then? And does it get big?

[JJ84]

Originally Posted by cloak

Some worms will use the sand grains to construct their tubes out of, but without a description of what's actually inside of it, it's going to be difficult to id. Maybe these links will help though. Keep your eyes peeled.

http://www.lionfishlair.com/hitchhiker/hitchhiker.shtml

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-05/rs/

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=632970

Will do, thanks for the help

[ReeferKimberly]

They are fine, and nope they do not really get any bigger than that.

[G_Sanab922]

Can anyone ID this for me?

[cloak]

Originally Posted by G_Sanab922

Can anyone ID this for me?

From this picture, it looks kind of like a harmless feather duster.

[G_Sanab922]

Originally Posted by cloak

From this picture, it looks kind of like a harmless feather duster.

Thanks cloak! It is.

[mlott132]

Any idea what this could be? It has hair like streamers that come out of it. Good or bad?

[ReeferKimberly]

Vermatid snail, they cast mucous nets to feed. They can be a nuisance as they tend to reproduce and can irritate coral.