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

[hogfanreefer]

Feather duster

[jrozzi]

Originally Posted by jexrod

My previous post did not show the pic, hopefully this works.
Looks kinda hairy, always attached to hard corals.

Cymo andreossyi : Very common and is considered a coral symbiont, with the caveat that such symbiosis are a trade off between the coral and the crab, the coral gains protection and house cleaning services while giving up a few polyps, mucus and captured/settled food particles in exhange for those services. A healthy coral should have no problem repairing or replacing lost polyps, but again, in an aquarium environment, an eye should be kept on the coral for excessive damage being done due to the coral being unable to recover as fast or faster than the damage being done by the crab. In short, its a judgement call that you will have to make.

-http://www.chucksaddiction.com/hitchcrabs.html

[pagojoe]

Originally Posted by oh207

ID Please. What type of snails are these? They are living in my sump.

This may actually be a juvenile Stomatella, but I've never seen one with the white dots. That's usually an indicator it's something else...like, a Synaptocochlea. The shells are extremely variable, but often show white dots or dashes. They are in the same family as the Stomatella snails, but are smaller as adults and tend to be more cryptic.

http://www.gastropods.com/7/Shell_2007.shtml

Cheers,


Don

[Jnickles85]

Originally Posted by supertony

Brittlestar for sure, perhaps not so micro. I have a few of these in my tank. One has stuffed itself into a hole under my Kenya tree and persists in irritating it. I tried to lure it out to find that it was quite large. With legs spread, approx. 2 - 2 1/2" in diameter. Looked much smaller when just the tips of its legs stuck out, much like in your photo.

I agree on the not so micro. I pulled a rock out last night to tone down my aqua scape and dipped it in so RO to make sure I wasn't going to lose any little guys. Well one fell out of the rock and he was an easy 2 inches with his legs spread. I must have quite a few of these guys in my tank.

[Krispifsu]

Hi - could I get an ID on this growing on a few small area of my rock. It looks tube like with small feathery like hair that moves with the flow. They seem to be gorwing in small patches but have taken months to get to the size of this one.

Thanks!

Sorry in advance for poor IPhone pics....

[Krispifsu]

And a close-up...

[Krispifsu]

One more - thinking this is a ball anemone as it has tiny white balls on the tips of its tentacles.

[Sugar Magnolia]

The first two pics are colonial hydroids. They will sting anything growing nearby. The third is a psuedocorynactis, ball anemone.

[JR8999]

I don't know if I'm seeing things but... I spotted a tiny jellyfish(?) like creature that was floating along in my tank. I could not get a pic as it was very tiny and it was a slave to the current moving around the tank. I will try to describe as best I can. It was round, maybe 1/8" in diameter with a stem(?) in the middle sort of like a mushroom would have. It pulsated just like a jellyfish. Unlike a hydroid jelly it did not have any trailing tentacles. It was a translucent ivory color. My clowns kept approaching it then seemed to recognize it and move away very uninterested. I have not found any unrecognizable critters in the 6 months I have had the DT expcept for some copods early on, so I'm very curious. Hopefully someone out there can give it a shot to ID??
Thanks!

[cloak]

Originally Posted by JR8999

I don't know if I'm seeing things but... I spotted a tiny jellyfish(?) like creature that was floating along in my tank. I could not get a pic as it was very tiny and it was a slave to the current moving around the tank. I will try to describe as best I can. It was round, maybe 1/8" in diameter with a stem(?) in the middle sort of like a mushroom would have. It pulsated just like a jellyfish. Unlike a hydroid jelly it did not have any trailing tentacles. It was a translucent ivory color. My clowns kept approaching it then seemed to recognize it and move away very uninterested. I have not found any unrecognizable critters in the 6 months I have had the DT expcept for some copods early on, so I'm very curious. Hopefully someone out there can give it a shot to ID??
Thanks!

Check these out.

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/jellyidfaqs.htm

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/jellyfishfaqs.htm

HTH.

[LadyDave]

Hello!! Can anyone tell me if these are aptasia or some kind of polyp?? It's the two small brown, pencil head sized things in the centre of the picture - either side of a white blob and above an orange-ish blob. They're in my coral QT so just need to know if I should remove them and if so, the best way to do this?? Thanks in advance!

[Sugar Magnolia]

Originally Posted by LadyDave

Hello!! Can anyone tell me if these are aptasia or some kind of polyp?? It's the two small brown, pencil head sized things in the centre of the picture - either side of a white blob and above an orange-ish blob. They're in my coral QT so just need to know if I should remove them and if so, the best way to do this?? Thanks in advance!

[LadyDave]

Thanks for quoting, Sugar! Don't know if it will help with the ID but when I prod them with a stick they close up into a bulb shape.

[cloak]

Are they hard or soft to the touch? If they're hard, they might be Hidden Cup corals. If they're soft, maybe a Palythoa? It's kind of hard to tell from those pictures.

[Jmclauchlan]

Looking to get an ID on this little guy. Got a new edition for the take and he came along for the ride. Any ideas.....

[Deitta]

Pic 2 is on the rock by the Tardis door after contracting in it's tentacles. There is another group less than 2" under the water that are larger. When extended the arms are very thin, see thru and with small white dot at end. At first mistook it for a fungus, now think may be a anemone?

Pic 3 are the white - shell pink ... things? They have holes near the middle of each "plop" and occasionally ones near the substrate and in shade will grow a flexible strand that can grow up to 2". They are not rock hard but also don't give easily to prodding and don't migrate. Chimney sponge of some sort maybe?

Pic 4 is what we think is a oenone fulgida... but not sure and have been unsuccessful at getting a decent pic or capturing the darn thing. We believe it to be up to 1' long! In Pic 5 you will see the homemade trap with bloodworm bait.

Pic 5 is just for fun to show off the hardscaping. 55 gal, both HOB and Canister filter, 6 LED strips, 1 med & 1 small power head. Tons of feather dusters, at least (!) 20 brittle stars which the largest is 2" across, one Royal Gamma, 1 Bangai and ! Yellow Tank, snails, hermit crabs, mystery stars which the largest is maybe 1/4" wide and pineapple sponges.

Thank you!

[LadyDave]

Thanks Cloak - yeah I know my pictures aren't great, sorry! Was the best I could get with my phone cos they're so small! I'm not keen on touching unknown stuff with my fingers but after proding these with a turkey baster is say they're definitely hard - the baster scraped on the closed up things like they were stones. So I take it they're ok to keep then??

[LadyDave]

Originally Posted by Jmclauchlan

Looking to get an ID on this little guy. Got a new edition for the take and he came along for the ride. Any ideas.....

Looks like a little brittle star to me. I found two in my coral QT that hitchhiked in on one coral. Have never seen them since tho cool little guys - wish I knew if they were still around.

[cloak]

Originally Posted by Deitta

Pic 2 is on the rock by the Tardis door after contracting in it's tentacles. There is another group less than 2" under the water that are larger. When extended the arms are very thin, see thru and with small white dot at end. At first mistook it for a fungus, now think may be a anemone?

Pic 3 are the white - shell pink ... things? They have holes near the middle of each "plop" and occasionally ones near the substrate and in shade will grow a flexible strand that can grow up to 2". They are not rock hard but also don't give easily to prodding and don't migrate. Chimney sponge of some sort maybe?

Pic 4 is what we think is a oenone fulgida... but not sure and have been unsuccessful at getting a decent pic or capturing the darn thing. We believe it to be up to 1' long! In Pic 5 you will see the homemade trap with bloodworm bait.

Pic 5 is just for fun to show off the hardscaping. 55 gal, both HOB and Canister filter, 6 LED strips, 1 med & 1 small power head. Tons of feather dusters, at least (!) 20 brittle stars which the largest is 2" across, one Royal Gamma, 1 Bangai and ! Yellow Tank, snails, hermit crabs, mystery stars which the largest is maybe 1/4" wide and pineapple sponges.

Thank you!

The second picture looks like a ball-tipped anemone. (Psuedocorynactis) The third picture is a sponge of some sort. I'm not too sure about the fourth one though.

[Kraftyberg]

image.jpg

[cloak]

Yes.

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

[Jmclauchlan]

Thanks

[Borntovin]

You can notice 3 mushroom like stuff Is this a good or bad? And what about tiny dust like all over the rock?

[cloak]

Those little mushroom things look like Palythoas. The dust is probably just an accumulation of detritus. You might want to get a small power head and use this to blow the detritus off the rocks right before a water change.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2003/2/inverts

[JMorris271]

DSC_1211.jpg
This is on some new seed rock I just got in yesterday. I have no idea if it is friend or foe. Can you help out? Thanks