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

[SushiGirl]

Top one is a feather duster. It will stay that size.
Can't tell from the pic on the 2nd one, but sounds like it might be a ball anemone.

[JYoung]

Thanks Sushigirl, This may be a dumb question but how can I tell if the mat is rotting. It still has that purpleish tint to it and I noticed some pink spots in it last night, so it may be wishful thinking but I think it may survive.

[SushiGirl]

Well, I've never seen one rot but I would assume it would look slimy & gross & probably no pretty shade of purple LOL. Give it a couple days, I'll bet it'll be fine.

[Hangman187]

My friend has these poping up in a few places in his tank, and i have no clue what they could be.

[SushiGirl]

Me either!
Maybe some type of colonial tunicates?

[Jaxraider]

Just wondering if I should remove, most of the other good worm pics I have seen are more reddish in color...this guy is grey....

video - http://www.jaxraider.name/wormvideo

pic - http://www.jaxraider.name/worm

[SushiGirl]

I have ones that start out pink then turn greenish-gray as they get larger, as well as some larger pink ones. As long as they don't have jaws, they're fine. If you see them only sucking up soft food, that's pretty much the easiest way to tell. If you don't want large ones, pull it out.

[whodeydan76]

Originally Posted by SushiGirl

Cerith snail with isopods on the glass
Attachment 167446

Cerith snail eggs
Attachment 167447

Collonista snail
Attachment 167448

Limpet
Attachment 167449

Eunicid worm (sold to me as a medusa worm)
Attachment 167450

I have picked 20+ Eunicid worms out of my tank...every time I do a water change and move any substrate or move a rock or coral I find one. How bad are they? I pick em out everytime I see em. Is there a type of fish that will eat them?

[reef_guy81]

Can someone please ID this? This is the best pic I could take. It has a pink/red body with several thin brown/red hair like stuff that has white ball at the ends. Is this a ball anemone? If so, is it safe or need to be removed?

Several days ago ( The bottom red box ) :

Current



Thanks

[SushiGirl]

Top one is a feather duster, 2nd pic is definitely a ball anemone. Whether to remove or not is up to you.

[kingevil]

tonight i noticed a ton of small, red things swimming in my tank. i don't believe they are out during the day. unfortunately, they are too small and it is too dark to photograph. they look like very tiny tadpoles. they swim very fast and will come up to the glass if i shine a small light into the tank.

[Sugar Magnolia]

Could be mysis.

[kingevil]

I was thinking larval mysis. I wonder if their blooms have anything to do with our lunar cycle. I have my moon lights set up to my rkl and i use the lunar setting. We just had a new moon a couple days ago and now the moons are starting to turn on, after being dark for a few days. I didn't see anyone snacking on them, however.

[chad316]

Last night as I was moving my live rock around I noticed a few things, and was hoping to get an ID on them. I think the first (top) picture is some type of clam?? The second one I can only describe (sorry for the blur)...its dark brownish grey spongy/web material. As you can kinda see the "stuff" on the right has ~3 larger holes. Anyways, any help would be awesome. Also, go or bad to these? Thanks

[kingevil]

[Joshporksandwic]

Gorgonian eating snail

The proof

[SushiGirl]

Kingevil, are you asking about something?

Josh, isn't it a shame it has to be so pretty but not beneficial?

[kingevil]

Originally Posted by SushiGirl

Kingevil, are you asking about something?

The little branchy hair things that are just right of center.

[Joshporksandwic]

Yes very pretty. It has a giraffe pattern. I put it in a small tank. Do you know what its called?

[Windirmere]

Originally Posted by SushiGirl

Polyclad flatworm. These are snail eaters. I just happened to notice this one right as I put the frag in the tank and snatched out the shell it was in really quickly. CoralRX dip did NOT kill this thing for days.



Another kind of flatworm, much smaller than the other. This one eats copepods.


Couple more mini-brittle starfish

I think i got the horrible big flat worm : ( (top pick) i just set up my 29gallon bio cube and some live rock and i put a small prawn by the live rock to coax anything out @,@. I found a bristle worm and what looked like that worm : (
i still need to get about 20 pounds of rock and im wondering if i should just go with dead rock or to a different Fish store?

[SushiGirl]

Josh, it looks like a flamingo tongue snail.

Windirmere, that would be totally up to you. I've never bought live rock from an LFS, even though we have a HUGE number of them here in the area. It's usually just full of pests. That said, my flatworm came from a frag and the dip didn't flush it out or kill it (I just happened to see it come out of the snail shell a little when I put the dipped frag in the tank), so you just have to really watch for stuff.

Kingevil, stuff like that is really hard to ID (not enough info out there on the WWW LOL), could be foraminiferans or bryozoans, or even some kind of algae.

[mtcoins123]

help me out id this slug please

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2163054

[SushiGirl]

Wow, that's something LOL!
Don't know offhand, but you can start looking here.

[mtcoins123]

been through about a hundred species pics so far getting lost in the list sure is wierd the star polyp look on its back

[SushiGirl]

Yeah, it's really hard IDing something like that.
Usually I end up going by the rule that whatever I found it on or whatever it looks like is what it eats, since that's pretty common with them. The majority have specialized diets and only eat one thing until its gone, so they don't live long in aquariums since food is limited, but they can quickly wipe out a specific thing/coral.