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

[Pandagobyguy]

Originally Posted by jaking

Can you buy the beneficial worms etc if you do not start out with live rock?

I'm sure you can but i wouldn't waste money on it. I started with dry rocks and got bristle worms from the first frag i put in.

[Pandagobyguy]

Originally Posted by w_r_ellis

Any ideas? About 1/4-1/3 inch long. Just noticed it today.


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Hard to tell from pic. Does it move?

Usually white blobs are pineapple snails. If it moves possibly and isopod species.

[w_r_ellis]

Yes, it moves. Now I can’t find it, lol.


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[Pandagobyguy]

Originally Posted by w_r_ellis

Yes, it moves. Now I can’t find it, lol.


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Then I'd guess isopod. Sometimes good, sometimes bad. I'd Google predatory isopods and see if they look similar.

[Sugar Magnolia]

Looks like a chiton.

[taricha]

Originally Posted by sugar magnolia

looks like a chiton.

+1

[mickeyfish]

How about this little brown and white worm?


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[Sugar Magnolia]

Looks like it might be a terrebellid.

[FancyCorals]

Hello All , I am new to the Forums all though I have been stalking them for quit some time.
I just bought a Frog Spawn that came with a little friend.
He is hard and opens about 1/8" and when spooked closes very quickly.
I have searched for hours trying to identify so any help would be greatly appreciated.

[taricha]

Thorny oyster would be my guess.

[101010]

Found this in my tank, looks like it was grazing on the algae and tend to hide when I switched on the lights and fast enough to hide in its hole before I use my phone camera flash .

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[huhhh]

How about these. Thought they were aiptasia but not so sure any more. Been growing quickly, live rock they came on has only been in for about 1.5 months. Tank has only been up 2.5 months.

tank 2 small.jpg

[jjwillia]

Originally Posted by huhhh

How about these. Thought they were aiptasia but not so sure any more. Been growing quickly, live rock they came on has only been in for about 1.5 months. Tank has only been up 2.5 months.

Attachment 384969

These look like some sort of filter feeder and are good. As your tank stabilizes more some of them will prob go away.

[AlSimmons]

Originally Posted by huhhh

How about these. Thought they were aiptasia but not so sure any more. Been growing quickly, live rock they came on has only been in for about 1.5 months. Tank has only been up 2.5 months.

Attachment 384969

If your referring to the white things on the left they're just harmless sponges.

[jlmawp]

Originally Posted by huhhh

How about these. Thought they were aiptasia but not so sure any more. Been growing quickly, live rock they came on has only been in for about 1.5 months. Tank has only been up 2.5 months.

Attachment 384969

+1 to sponge-ish thing

I had a quick outcrop of these in my tank. Appeared out of nowhere after a year and grew in several places. Then they just suddenly stopped growing and have been there ever since. I think they're pretty neat.

[huhhh]

I think the rock they came on had a bunch of it (skeletal now). I though that's what it might be; I just wanted to make sure it wasn't baby aiptasia.

[Papermonkeys]

Originally Posted by 101010

Found this in my tank, looks like it was grazing on the algae and tend to hide when I switched on the lights and fast enough to hide in its hole before I use my phone camera flash .

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Bump on this one please I have these as well curious what they are. Seem bot be deep in rocks and let this out, when you light it up they retract quick.

[alcimedes]

Originally Posted by Papermonkeys

Bump on this one please I have these as well curious what they are. Seem bot be deep in rocks and let this out, when you light it up they retract quick.

If I'm not mistaken (and for your sake I hope I am) that sounds like a Fulgida worm.

They're meat eating worms that secret a mucous around their prey which seems to paralyze/suffocate them, then eat them.

They look kind of like a bristle worm, but have a flatter/rounded shovel kind of head, and they retract crazy fast for changes in light or if they feel anything bumped/water movement near them.

They tend to only like to come out when it's dark unless they're starving.

If you've noticed some of your CUC shells empty and a snot blob nearby, that's likely your culprit.

I got a rock that had a ton of them and didn't realize. I've been trapping and removing them now for about a month. I think I've removed about 40 so far.

If you need help making a trap let me know, but the design floating around online using PVC pipe, pantyhose and scallops for bait has been the most effective for me.

They will kill your CUC snails and any clams you have in the tank. I have seen them eat a bristle worm or two as well.

edit: also forgot to mention they aren't nearly as sensitive to red light. I ended up buying some red LED flashlights in order to hunt them at night, it made it much easier.

[Bulldog39]

Any idea what this is it has been growing for a week now and tripled in size. Talking about the white hard string thing coming off the rock not the sponge lol. Doesn't hurt anything buy growing quick and doesn't move other than water flow

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[Poopapotamus]

Hi Guys,
I had an aquarium disaster soon after initial set-up so I rescued my partially cycled live rock into a brand new plastic garbage can. I have been waiting on my new tank, but in the meantime I have been running my garbage can aquarium with just the rock in it. I have noticed these little brown critters on the rocks... they seem to be grazing on the algae that is starting to grow on the rocks. It was very hard to capture because they are fast and hid in the rocks as soon as I go near it. I have attached a picture of one at 50x mag... yes I am bored and only have a tub of rocks to entertain myself.
Thanks

[AlSimmons]

Originally Posted by Poopapotamus

Hi Guys,
I had an aquarium disaster soon after initial set-up so I rescued my partially cycled live rock into a brand new plastic garbage can. I have been waiting on my new tank, but in the meantime I have been running my garbage can aquarium with just the rock in it. I have noticed these little brown critters on the rocks... they seem to be grazing on the algae that is starting to grow on the rocks. It was very hard to capture because they are fast and hid in the rocks as soon as I go near it. I have attached a picture of one at 50x mag... yes I am bored and only have a tub of rocks to entertain myself.
Thanks

Amphipod.

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

[Papermonkeys]

Originally Posted by alcimedes

If I'm not mistaken (and for your sake I hope I am) that sounds like a Fulgida worm.


If you need help making a trap let me know, but the design floating around online using PVC pipe, pantyhose and scallops for bait has been the most effective for me.

They will kill your CUC snails and any clams you have in the tank. I have seen them eat a bristle worm or two as well.

edit: also forgot to mention they aren't nearly as sensitive to red light. I ended up buying some red LED flashlights in order to hunt them at night, it made it much easier.

Thanks so much for the tips!
I would be interested in the trap. I do have a lot of dead snails hah!

[alcimedes]

Originally Posted by Papermonkeys

Thanks so much for the tips!
I would be interested in the trap. I do have a lot of dead snails hah!

This is the thread I copied for my trap. The only difference is I skipped the string part.

I found that typically the worms are either entirely in the tube, so easy enough to remove, or I'd find them halfway in and be able to grab and remove them with tweezers.

Even using red light and moving as carefully as possible until the last second, I probably only catch 40% of the worms I try to catch unless they're in the trap. If you're lucky, they'll come back out of the live rock after a few minutes and you can get one more shot at them before they go back to hiding in the rock for a day or two.

The worms will breed in reef tanks though, so it's important to get them out as soon as you can. More than one person mentioned that the traps work best when baited with scallops, if you try something else and get no results, try scallops. They seem to work very well. (sometimes I'll find the worms eating the fish guts the nems spit out too.)

So far the largest I've pulled out of my tank was around a foot long, I've seen them as small as 2".

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=1913372

[Poopapotamus]

Originally Posted by AlSimmons

Amphipod.

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

Thanks AlSommons... sounds like these are good to have. So far I have lots as there is nothing to eat them at this point.
Cheers
Ron

[Andi76]

Hi all.

A few days in of adding 45kg of Live Real Reef Rock in to my new tank I have had a few of these spring out.

Any ideas?


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