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

[Ron Reefman]

It's a chiton. All chitons have 8 segment shells with a 'girdle' that holds them together.

[deputydawg88]

Originally Posted by Ron Reefman

It's a chiton. All chitons have 8 segment shells with a 'girdle' that holds them together.

Awesome, that's what I hoped for, I thought I had counted 10 segments but it was moving quite fast so I couldn't really tell. Is it worth sticking it in the display tank as part of the CUC?

[Ron Reefman]

I would. I wish I had a couple. I've brought a couple home from collecting in the Florida Keys and they are a 'tidal' species and they like to stay at the water line and then even climb all the way out of the aquarium. Maybe now with the new tank being eurobraced they won't... I may have to try again.

[deputydawg88]

Some better-ish pictures. Sorry, I thought the other picture might be a little misleading because in my attempts to google chitons I haven't found any that look like this guy. It seems to behave like a chiton though.

I don't want to add it to the DT without being sure, I'd hate for it to turn nasty! Se

[Sugar Magnolia]

Great pictures! What you have there is a scale worm which is a member of the polychaete family. They eat small crustaceans, pods and may go after the occasional small snail.

[deputydawg88]

In that case I think I'll leave it in the 'fuge. I can't imagine it will do much damage to the copepod population and the hermits I have in the DT are a fair bit smaller than this currently so I'd rather not take the risk.

Thank you very much Sugar Magnolia and Ron Reefman.

[themagicman]

Originally Posted by Joecam

[IMG][/IMG]

Hello all, as a newbie I'm struggling to find out what these funnels are. In the pic to the left of my receding favia are 2 funnels. I have recently noticed a single tentacle reaching out every so often.

Question is: what is it & is it harmful?

Apologies for the poor picture quality could notice get my phone to focus.

Thanks in advance

It looks kind of like the Chaetopterid worm outlined in the link below. (Figure 10.) These are harmless and a great part of your CUC.

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

[mmonkey]

I upgraded to a larger tank this past weekend and ran into a few surprises.

1. Blob (See photo) Is this a egg sack of some sort? It's location was on the under side of a rock.
2. Ten baby Nassarius Snails.
3. Gorilla Crab. I had no idea he or she was in my tank. Maybe 3/4"
4. A couple of large 2" x 2" white sponges.

Thanks in advance!

[AlSimmons]

Originally Posted by mmonkey

I upgraded to a larger tank this past weekend and ran into a few surprises.

1. Blob (See photo) Is this a egg sack of some sort? It's location was on the under side of a rock.
2. Ten baby Nassarius Snails.
3. Gorilla Crab. I had no idea he or she was in my tank. Maybe 3/4"
4. A couple of large 2" x 2" white sponges.

Thanks in advance!

It's just a harmless sponge.

[FNGsaltwater]

Are these anything to worry about?

[Ron Reefman]

Hard to say from the quality of those pics, but I think they are sponges and shouldn't be a problem. We'll see what others think.

[PeterBel]

Originally Posted by FNGsaltwater

Are these anything to worry about?

I would agree, probably sponges unless it moves?

[Sugar Magnolia]

If they move then they are sphaeromatid isopods, harmless.

[FNGsaltwater]

Originally Posted by Sugar Magnolia

If they move then they are sphaeromatid isopods, harmless.

They definitely move. There's 100's that come out after the lights go out. My searches led me to the sphaeromatid as well. I just couldn't find any white with brown spots. They're primarily on my zoas. Just wanted to make sure. Thanks!

[Flipperfin]

Three weeks ago when i went to the LFS to pick up live rocks, i had a clerk sort through them in one of the big tubs they were in, when suddenly a small moray eel came out from one -needless to say he got very startled :P
Hows that for a hitchhiker!

[Fbrondum]

Can anyone ID this crab?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Deadeye07]

Anyone have ideas for what kind of crab this is? I found it living in a small acro colony.

[Deadeye07]

Apparently the pictures didn't actually attach, so here's the imgur album of the crab.
http://imgur.com/a/4YNvp

Took it to my LFS only for them to find one that was destroying another colony, so I'm guessing it was some kind of gorilla crab.

[taricha]

Yet another data point - If it's a hitchhiker crab, it's probably bad. (Except trapezia and tetralia)
This adorable little guy is a cymo crab, I believe. Gonna figure out how to get him out now.

[taricha]

What the heck is this?
Orange blob swimming in my aquarium, changes shape, about 3mm? long.
Moves by pushing water around its body like with cilia as opposed to wiggling - see video below.

On drying dish.


You can see water movement near its body by the moving particles
https://youtu.be/ihmCuE-ntxQ

Edit: I have sun coral- but no signs of it releasing larva - ever.
I also have sponges which apparently have a free swimming larva, but none near that color.

[roostertech]

Found this guy in my sump (the red color is from my fuge light). About 1/4" across

[Meganewbie]

These guys were small for a long time but seem to have taken off as of recently. After battling aiptasia I am now learning the valuable lesson of identification. Can you help me identify these pink guys?

[AlSimmons]

Originally Posted by Meganewbie

These guys were small for a long time but seem to have taken off as of recently. After battling aiptasia I am now learning the valuable lesson of identification. Can you help me identify these pink guys?

Protopalythoas I believe.

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

[Ron Reefman]

They look like Palys to me. I've had some that grow slowly, but most seem to grow pretty quickly. I'll allow them in my display refugium and in my 65g shallow reef local tanks, but not in the 125g main display tank. I consider them too invasive to try and keep under control in an sps dominate tank.

[GXPKY]

Just figured y'all would enjoy this pic of these colonial tunicates my clowns love to host...



-Dennis