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

[anthonys51]

Are they harmless. He seemed to hide in the sand during day and eat algae off glass at night

[ReefKeep66]

anyone have a positive Id on this?

[atraperegrinus]

Hey guys I made a post below about these 4 things i dont know, but ill repost it in here hopefully i get more replies.

thanks!

I did a big water change today, and scrubbed away alot of that white crap, and a bunch of my normal algae so hopefully it doesnt come back in force.

Originally Posted by atraperegrinus

hey guys, i have 4 things I'm curious about.

one is a white slimey algae i have on 2 rocks, and the other 2 are things i just dont know.

heres the white algae - fullsize high res picture.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...2011.54.55.jpg
resized picture





the other thing is this? feather duster or something? not sure, i just noticed it today.
high res first
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...2011.55.29.jpg




and the last thing, if anything.. this wierd abomination not far from the colorful things above
high res pic here
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...2011.55.20.jpg



i have some algae issues at the moment, it was bad before i got the skimmer, things are settling down now, but i have no cuc to help clean it up, so its been slow going.

this clear white crap is scaring me though it also took over the backside of another rock. what the heck is it and how do i get rid of it?

it feels mushy, and i can scratch it off, but it doesn't come off as a solid piece.

another high res pic
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...2011.55.42.jpg


u can see in that last pics on its on the backside of the tall pointy rock too, but while im at it, Im also curious what the little pointy things are on the rock to the right side in that picture aswell, is that stuff i should be plucking off? they are all over just that 1 rock.

thanks in advance guys!

[murdock84]

Originally Posted by anthonys51

Are they harmless. He seemed to hide in the sand during day and eat algae off glass at night

Yes, I only every saw one in y tank so far. Everyone once in a while he shows up on the top of rock and spit out eggs or sperm into the water column.

[srud]

Anyone have any thoughts on what this is and if it's a problem or not? It looks like what I'd envision a snail to be without a shell.

[cloak]

Originally Posted by srud

Anyone have any thoughts on what this is and if it's a problem or not? It looks like what I'd envision a snail to be without a shell.

Stomatella snail.

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rs/index.php

[taricha]

Can anyone tell me anything about this urchin that came with some Caribbean Live rock? He's about the size of a pea.

[killinit123]

looks like a long spined urchin algae grazers good find in my opinion have one in my reef that came in on a piece of live rock also started about that size is now about the size of a softball

[hogfanreefer]

I had 7 that came in my LR. They were about the size of a dime when I got them. Within a few months they were somewhere between a baseball and a softball. I was told they were rock boring urchins. They ate algae great but didn't discriminate between pest algae and coraline algae.

[taricha]

Originally Posted by hogfanreefer

I had 7 that came in my LR. They were about the size of a dime when I got them. Within a few months they were somewhere between a baseball and a softball. I was told they were rock boring urchins. They ate algae great but didn't discriminate between pest algae and coraline algae.

Do they have mostly spines on the sides and less on the top? Here's another pic of mine. I think he dug a hole in the rock that wasn't there before.

[shelbz]

Hey folks,

What's the deal with these little guys? Found meandering around the tank, in and out of crevices. Sorry the picture is so crummy.

They don't seem to cause any harm to my corals, but I am still curious. Have had them in my tank for a few months.

IMG_2589.jpg

Thanks!

[cloak]

Amphipods. (harmless)

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

[Overt]

[IMG][/IMG]

She's sort of shaped like a hamburger bun.
Approx. 1.5" wide and .33" thick.

[taricha]

The white looks kinda like live rock die-off.

[taricha]

Some photos of hitchhikers that came in on my carribbean live rock.


Jewel box clam


Turkey wing clam

Didn't realize when I bought this live rock that half of it was clam. Interesting guys, makes me feel slightly better about the amount of debris in my tank. :-)
Also dosing phytoplankton now. We'll see if they live.





Couple of shots of some kinda little stony coral things.


And here's a red chiton that came with a ricordea frag.

[thenerd88]

Hey all,

I'm somewhat new and still learning. I did some research before posting and came up empty handed. I am not sure what this guy is. uploadfromtaptalk1436256924199.jpg

The best I can describe it is as a type of seaslug or nudibranch. It has a round purple solid color on its back but other than that fairly plain. 2 slug/snail style antanne on the front.

This is my first hitchhiker and am unsure of the next step. Any and all help would be appreciated.

Thank you

[Sugar Magnolia]

Stomatella snail, harmless.

[raven312]

I've looked through most of this thread and didn't find an answer to my two curiosities... I know I have pineapple sponges, but these other two - one looks like it may be a dead coral frag and the other, I can't tell. The one in the top two photos appears to be attached to the rock by a tuber; it's shaped somewhat like a trumpet. The strawberry looking one is getting more colorful - I don't know if that's good or bad.
If someone could help ID?

[taricha]

You have great hitchhikers. The top one is a mushroom coral.
The bottom looks like some kind of encrusting sps.
They both look pretty happy.

[killinit123]

Originally Posted by raven312

I've looked through most of this thread and didn't find an answer to my two curiosities... I know I have pineapple sponges, but these other two - one looks like it may be a dead coral frag and the other, I can't tell. The one in the top two photos appears to be attached to the rock by a tuber; it's shaped somewhat like a trumpet. The strawberry looking one is getting more colorful - I don't know if that's good or bad.
If someone could help ID?

the first two pics look like some sort of mushroom.. the second looks to me like either some sort of encrusting monti or a red planet, both are sps corals and is a good pick up if thats the case. also means your water quality is quite well if it is surviving. if its a monti I would say its a sunset monti. try looking that up and comparing.

[raven312]

That's interesting! I see that they both have different light and flow requirements (almost polar opposites... LOL) The monti (it does appear to be a sunset) is high up and to the back of my rock and the mushroom is in a crevice of sorts and protected from the flow somewhat (though still on the same side of my tank as my wavemaker). Should I start trying to spot feed them or just let them be? I just turned my lighting on for the first time yesterday, very low and only for 2 hours. Today it will be on for 10 hours. Is this too soon or will they be alright? I have a Kessil A160WE (the controller is on the way). I don't know the intensity but I have it at its lowest setting past "on".
(I guess that means I won't be buying any corals for at least another month. I'll learn how to make these two (possibly three) happy.)

[killinit123]

Originally Posted by raven312

That's interesting! I see that they both have different light and flow requirements (almost polar opposites... LOL) The monti (it does appear to be a sunset) is high up and to the back of my rock and the mushroom is in a crevice of sorts and protected from the flow somewhat (though still on the same side of my tank as my wavemaker). Should I start trying to spot feed them or just let them be? I just turned my lighting on for the first time yesterday, very low and only for 2 hours. Today it will be on for 10 hours. Is this too soon or will they be alright? I have a Kessil A160WE (the controller is on the way). I don't know the intensity but I have it at its lowest setting past "on".
(I guess that means I won't be buying any corals for at least another month. I'll learn how to make these two (possibly three) happy.)

yes they are two very different types of corals. I do not spot feed any of my corals and there really is no need to IMO. how old is your tank? and where did you get your LR from? also if your light cycle has been that low (only 2 hours a day) you shouldnt blast your tank with a sudden 10 hour lights on. you may start to bleach the corals.

[raven312]

Originally Posted by killinit123

yes they are two very different types of corals. I do not spot feed any of my corals and there really is no need to IMO. how old is your tank? and where did you get your LR from? also if your light cycle has been that low (only 2 hours a day) you shouldnt blast your tank with a sudden 10 hour lights on. you may start to bleach the corals.

My tank has only been up for 6 days. I wasn't planning on getting any corals for another month or so. I was going to add my CUC in a week or two. I only turned the light on for the two hours when I noticed that they were coloring up, then worried that maybe they weren't getting enough. I'll keep it with the two hours a day until I get my Kessil controller and try acclimation mode. I've been worried about my tank being fully cycled; my experienced tells me it probably isn't. I've been using Seachem Stability since I started it and I have live sand as well as the rock.
I got the rock from a well established tank. I asked them to take all the corals off because I didn't want to kill them. I also have some snails in there that hitchhiked. Neither of us noticed the corals that I ended up with, as I think the mushroom closed up and it's really small (it did this last night when I dropped some food in the tank near it, and reopened in a few minutes). So now that I have them, I want to keep them alive. This will give me the opportunity to learn more about them and help keep the tank stable.
My parameters that I've been testing for are:

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 5 ppm
pH: 8.1
Temp: 79
Salinity: 1.026

There's something else growing out of the rock that looks like a plant (like the leaves on the top of a pineapple.) It looks like it may be an SPS of some sort and I hope not.

[Bakerman]

Got some new pop ups from a ~6mo old favia (which is doing fantastically btw). At first I thought it might have just been a bit of detritus from Jerry the blenny who likes to hang out above it (he's quite the celebrated pooper).

Anyway, here's one that I got a decent shot of. I've noticed several more under the brain, and they all have the same appearance. They have something of a mound for their base with this tube extension w/ a white tip. I haven't seen anything come out of the tube(s) yet, doesn't mean it won't happen.

Ideas?

[Sugar Magnolia]

Vermatid snail.