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

[twitchzoo]

These pics are great and are helping me to ID several things in my tank, but please label them as to good guys and bad guys!

[john miller]

Good guy: stomatella snail


Never positively identified

[Sk8r]

Take it that the list of bad guys is given in the first post. The rest are either good guys or just things you find in your tank that don't do any harm.

The short version of bad guys: the things to trust least are 1) any crab but a micro-hermit 2) any shrimp with large claws...yep, this includes the showy coral-banded, a notorious fish-eating predator many newbies are talked into buying. 3) any worm with tentacles on its head. 4) flatworms---little roundish critters, match-head size, with a fork in the tail: you will see them on your glass or rock. I will add 5) the green serpent star, again, sold to newbies---but it is a fish-eater if it gets the chance, like at night, with fish that sleep on the sand and in burrows, and 6) the elephant-ear mushroom, a huge showy hairy brownish shroom that will capture and suffocate fishes that chance to perch on it.

All the rest tend to be neutral or just nice free cleaners, and the more variety, the healthier your tank. If your sand swarms with creepy-crawlies at night---good job!

[dlp211]

I think this is a hydroid, but I wanted someone to confirm.


DSC_0124 by dlp211, on Flickr

[ssick92]

Hey guys, I just today put my live rock in my tank with my live sand. I have a few hitchhikers I am curious about and that I can't identify. I know these pictures aren't ideally clear since they were taken with my phone, but I think you can kinda still see.

The first is what I THINK might be a eunicid worm. It actually looks like 2 crossed over another.


This one is just poking out of the rock, not sure what it could be.


This has hairlike tentacles going out from a circular base.


Again, sorry for the less than good quality pictures.

[Sk8r]

@dlp11, could be. But could also be a very baby tubeworm. Hydroids are often golden brown and occur in clusters. If you can see distinct fronds on the plume, tubeworm. If fuzzy-looking, hydroid.

@ssick92, not so sure: it could be a spaghetti worm; the rock is quite barren of prey, so if that's a eunicid it's a) the smallest on record and b) it'll start coming out looking for food. WHat particularly makes me think not-a-eunicid is the bluntness of those arms. Eunicids are kind of wickedly pointy, and they're fairly quick and agile and crawl about. If those tubelike structures don't ever move, it's just a little spionid worm's hard casing. Spionids have two pale hairlike tentacles that come out to fish for dirt or food and they excrete by passing a tiny bit of poo out between the two tentacles: interesting little critters, decent cleaners.

[ssick92]

Originally Posted by Sk8r

@ssick92, not so sure: it could be a spaghetti worm; the rock is quite barren of prey, so if that's a eunicid it's a) the smallest on record and b) it'll start coming out looking for food. WHat particularly makes me think not-a-eunicid is the bluntness of those arms. Eunicids are kind of wickedly pointy, and they're fairly quick and agile and crawl about. If those tubelike structures don't ever move, it's just a little spionid worm's hard casing. Spionids have two pale hairlike tentacles that come out to fish for dirt or food and they excrete by passing a tiny bit of poo out between the two tentacles: interesting little critters, decent cleaners.

Ya I was skeptical on the size also, but it definitely has those characteristic antennae on its head. It seems to have more than 2, but it was hard to capture with my phone camera. I will be acquiring an HD digital camera today so I'll try and take some better pictures by tonight.

[Lynnmw1208]

Hey I have one for you guys! Found this guy today snacking on my zoanthids.... I made it in another thread but I will post the pics here. I think it may be a fire worm... and I only had 2 pieces of live rock in my whole tank!

[Sk8r]

It could be a variety of fireworm (hermodice carunculata is the one most often meant). The fact it's out of water has made it contract. Leslie H in Invertebrates could tell you accurately, but under the rule "things travel on what they eat", and the fact that this blunt head may have a mouth that does more than suck, as bristleworms must do, it remains suspicious. If your rock (or the speciman rock) came from the Atlantic/Caribbean, more suspect. I don't think I'd put it back in. I'd be very interested to hear what Leslie H has to say.

[Lynnmw1208]

Originally Posted by Sk8r

It could be a variety of fireworm (hermodice carunculata is the one most often meant). The fact it's out of water has made it contract. Leslie H in Invertebrates could tell you accurately, but under the rule "things travel on what they eat", and the fact that this blunt head may have a mouth that does more than suck, as bristleworms must do, it remains suspicious. If your rock (or the speciman rock) came from the Atlantic/Caribbean, more suspect. I don't think I'd put it back in. I'd be very interested to hear what Leslie H has to say.

Thanks. I did not put it back in as it died after the coral dip but it looked really fat as well inside the tank before I took it out. I will ask Leslie.

[jmbrewster2010]

Tiny brown/orange things. Center has a yellow/green tint. Suddenly everywhere. Some have the shape of the Christian fish symbol but not all are shape that way about the size of half a grain of rice. Seem to be flat. What is this? Should I be worried they are suddenly everywhere.

[Sk8r]

Could be flatworms. Get a photo. If they have forked tails under magnification, definitely flatworm.

[twitchzoo]

I'd like some guidance as to how to get rid of the bad guys. Like do I get in there with a tweezers for some pests? set up a trap for some? It would be helpful if whoever posts a bad guy would then say the best way to get rid of them.

I'm finding that there are so many kinds of flatworms, I know I have some so I ordered flatworm exit. But then I read some aren't bad, so do I use the exit or not? I don't know if mine are bad but they have the forked tail like in the pics I've seen.

[Sk8r]

I wish I could give you guidance about Flatworm Exit. The danger in flatworms is not that they specifically harm anything that I know of---but they build up in huge numbers and then the population crashes and rots faster than the bacteria can deal with it. This causes an ammonia spike that crashes the tank. The danger in Flatworm Exit, or Chemiclean (for cyano), or any of these chemical solutions to a 'bloom' of something unwanted is the same...the dieoff is sudden, it can be massive, and the sandbed can't keep up. Your defense against the dieoff---is your skimmer. Novices and new tanks tend to have blooms---a lot of various ones---and novices tend to have underpowered skimmers. If your skimmer is really good, you may be safe. If not--using a turkey baster or siphon tube and water changes to suck the problem out to a bucket is one of the best preparations you can use. I do not recommend ChemiClean because a simple lights-out procedure can stop the problem without resort to a chemical that may take out more than you want; but flatworms are a problem that has to be solved, and this product is about all there is. Manual removal through several water changes, and then the Exit. And a skimmer.

A good basic trap: a baited wine carafe, tipped up slightly against the rockwork, or a liter coke bottle with the top third cut off, stuck screw-side down inside the bottle, and glued in. Bait, weight with rock, and wait overnight. Things that can't swim can't necessarily get out. If you accidentally trap good guys like bristleworms, etc, just return them safely to the tank, get photos of what you can't id, and the sump is a good place for a lot of them while you wait for id.

[jmbrewster2010]

What do you bait the trap with?

[SushiGirl]

Usually some kind of meaty food.

[ssick92]

Is this bubble algae something to be concerned with? It's only on one rock.

[SushiGirl]

Doesn't look like bubble algae to me, looks more like some kind of polyp.

[ssick92]

Originally Posted by SushiGirl

Doesn't look like bubble algae to me, looks more like some kind of polyp.

Looking closer at the neighboring rock, it seems to have the same little polyps covering a decent amount of rock. They are all spread out though. I'll try to snag a picture right now and upload it while I can still edit.

EDIT: Here is a picture of the neighboring rock. You can see the darker little purplish areas on the rock. I forgot the circle them in the photo editor but I can if you want me to.

[SushiGirl]

Honestly they're just too far away and a bit blurry to tell anything from that last pic.

[ssick92]

Let's see if this one is better:

[IMG][/IMG]

[SushiGirl]

Much better. Those look like zoas to me.

[ssick92]

Well as long as they are nothing to worry about, I guess we will just wait and see what they become. I'll post pictures if they open up or change or something. Thanks for your input SushiGirl

[Techne]

So I was observing my tank and I noticed that the water seems to be quite dirty with lots of little specks floating around in the water. After a closer look I'm 90% sure that the majority of these specks are actually alive and fluttering around in the water. What are these specks? Plankton? Will they get out of control? I have no fish yet, only snails, hermits and live rock. The specks seemed to show up soon after I added my second batch of LR. Thanks!

[bassguy]

Are pineapple sponges bad? I have a ton of them in my sump and a couple of sponges that look like roots of a tree?