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

[cloak]

Originally Posted by ZiggyBuster

I acquired 4 rocks form friend who needed to clear some space in his tank. All of them seem to have some kind of corals. What do I all have here?

1. ?
2. palythoa or zoanthids
3. looks kind of like a sponge
4. hydnophora

[SushiGirl]

1st one may be snake polyps, middle 2 are too blurry to tell, last one is some kind of encrusting SPS.

[adityaw]

Help identify please. These algae seems to receding when lights are off, and shows up like crazy otherwise; which makes me wonder whether this is dino.




Apologize if image appear large. I couldn't figure it out how to resize from phone.

[SushiGirl]

Algae uses photosynthesis. Could be dinos if it's stringy & snotty looking.

[adityaw]

Originally Posted by SushiGirl

Algae uses photosynthesis. Could be dinos if it's stringy & snotty looking.

IMO it doesn't look snotty at all, thanks!

[Sugar Magnolia]

Looks more like cyanobacteria to me. Are you using RODI? Running any GFO?

[SushiGirl]

Could be cyano or diatoms.

[adityaw]

I use RODI and been running GFO from the beginning, phosphate register 0, but trate at around 5. I had purple cyano so I used chemiclean which wiped them. But as you can see my sands are still brown, that I hope it's not dinos. Is it possible that even when tds is zero silicate still there? I don't have a test kit for them. And it's impossible to get the kit around here.

[SushiGirl]

Silicate is usually in the sand, not so much the ro/di water.

[guardian_2000]

Hey All,
My gf just recently came into possession of a new snail. It was given to her cause it and another snail weren't getting along in her mother's pico tank. We believe it to be a Cowrie snail but are uncertain on the specific type. Can anyone offer some assistance. We're checking a bunch of sites for id help but can't find any close enough. Thanks in advance for your time and help

[ReeferKimberly]

Originally Posted by guardian_2000

Hey All,
My gf just recently came into possession of a new snail. It was given to her cause it and another snail weren't getting along in her mother's pico tank. We believe it to be a Cowrie snail but are uncertain on the specific type. Can anyone offer some assistance. We're checking a bunch of sites for id help but can't find any close enough. Thanks in advance for your time and help

I 'think' it's a Lynx Cowrie. Cypraea Lynx

http://www.oceanlight.com/lightbox.php?sp=cypraea_lynx

[Dawguy]

Does anyone know what this is?

[reefmandan]

I found this little guy hitching a ride on a snail, can someone identify.

[reefmandan]

[reefmandan]

One more time - please help identify hitchhiker on snail.

[LeslieH]

A serpulid polychaete AKA featherduster. A harmless filter feeder.

[reefmandan]

Originally Posted by LeslieH

A serpulid polychaete AKA featherduster. A harmless filter feeder.

Leslie,
Thanks! I did some research and found something similar but I'm new (1st tank - 8th week of cycle) and wanted to be sure.

Regards,
Dan

[LeslieH]

Originally Posted by Dawguy

Does anyone know what this is?

Nice photo with good detail. That appears to be an ostracod, a small crustacean.

[bobit99]

New to the hobby/forum here, and I've looked through about 40-50 of the pages in this thread, and haven't found anything that matches EXACTLY what I have. I know with my luck it's going to be Aiptasia, but I wanted another opinion before I got rid of them. They came in on the back of one of the oysters I picked up at whole foods. The oysters have been in the tank about 6-8weeks now, and I noticed these on one of them about a week or two after putting them in the tank. They just ate some cyclop-eeze before taking the picture, 3 on top of the oyster, and 2 close together under the little oyster's lid.....

[SushiGirl]

Certainly something along pest anemone lines.

[bobit99]

Well that figures. Thanks for the input!

[Zimmer]

Ok so I have a few questionables....

the starfish i believe is asterina? also since i've taken this picture i'm pretty sure he has split in half and now there are 2 random sets of half-body/legs wandering my live rock its kinda weird.... is that normal? are they bad or good?

the second picture i'm focusing on the orange thingy front and center - i don't even know if i'm looking at animal vegetable or mineral lol but it seems to wave a bit in the current and maybe the tip looks fuzzy like appendages of some sort? its probly about 1/2"-3/4" long, its out at all times light or dark, and no change in size or appearance since i first noticed it.

the third pic its hard to see but theres a little grey-green fuzzy ball in the middle in the rock crevice... it looks like a sponge? or some type of algae? kinda reminds me of a spider egg sac eeewwwww! also any idea about all those little tiny white spots all over the rock? they are only on that rock, and i don't think they are egg sacs - i don't have anything egg laying that i know about lol no snails yet...

[LeslieH]

1st is indeed a starfish in the family Asterinidae, one of the small ones that regularly reproduces by splitting in half. They grow rapidly and the population can easily go into the hundreds. Most of these small species are micro-grazers and are harmless although people dislike the look of them. A few small species are predatory, and it's also thought that when the population goes up & food becomes scarce they might go after corals & other things. If you only have two then it would probably be a good idea to get them out now.
2nd look like a sponge.
3rd - maybe a sponge, hard to tell with so little detail. The small white spirals look to be spirorbid polychaete worms, harmless filter feeders.

[worm5406]

3) Sporid worms... Good things they are basically feather dusters. Let them be.

[Zimmer]

thanks for the speedy responses!! i get so excited when i find new stuff lol i've been sneak-attacking my tank randomly in the night with a flashlight to see what i see and its like christmas sometimes when i find something really neat!! i'm excited to have sponges in here i figured that would come later after the tank was more established.... its only 2 weeks old!

ok so i'm kinda attached to my little lopsided starfish and even though i now know "he" may become "all of them" i still like watching him in there... i was really hoping to hear he was reef friendly. if there are some like him that are, then i think i might just take that chance and see how it goes... it will be awhile before i have corals or any squishies regardless so i might as well give him a chance. if 2 becomes 4 becomes a whole bunch then i might start picking them out! we will see. anyone else ever keep a potential naughty hitchhiker and have it turn out ok?