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

[BillyBigReef]

[SushiGirl]

To the new latest post that doesn't show up, it's a bristleworm, there's a pic of one just a few posts up that was ID'd a few days ago.

[OrQidz]

Reefer Kimberly, I think it is a eunicid worm but I'm no expert. The pic is from the Smithsonian Natural history website. I will try and link it here to the article and not just the picture. http://invertebrates.si.edu/palola/science.html

I found it by googling eunicid worms pics and clicked on the pic of this guy. I haven't found any more burrows or eaten corals since getting him out, so fingers crossed!

[LeslieH]

ReeferKimberly -- From your original photo with just the body your worm does look like an Oenone. If you saw the head & it does have 5 tentacles then it's really an eunicid.
Adre -- you have a sipunculan worm, AKA peanut worm. Harmless detritivore.

[ReeferKimberly]

lol thanks! Worms are confusing :/ Half look the same. He looked just like that, it is possible he may not have had 5 tentacles but he looked the same with the little nubbin arms and threw off a bit of a rainbow sheen. Ah well. I just hope he did not come over when I switched tanks....but he probably did. I have not lost anything yet though so maybe he perished. He was fast, there was no chance of getting him in 70 pounds of LR. Thanks again guys!

Oh and this entire thread dissapeared last night for a while for me, I got worried!

[bighead]

the picture is the best I could get this guy has been hanging out behind all the rock day and night he is alive i watch him move do you know what it is and if it is safe

[RicanReefLover]

Originally Posted by Joe0813

ive seen the mysis shrimp at my LFS... but ive never seen pods... yet, the owner said he would give me a tour of the big fuge he has down in the basement. so im sure i will see some fun things in there

I don't know but I would never go to the scary dark basement with the owner. The big fuge is probably not we has on his mind. lol


Posted from ReefCentral.com App for Android

[cloak]

Originally Posted by bighead

the picture is the best I could get this guy has been hanging out behind all the rock day and night he is alive i watch him move do you know what it is and if it is safe

Peanut worm perhaps?

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-04/rs/

[Zimmer]

not sure what this is, algae or ? there are multiple sites on my rocks where this is growing, just wondering if i should be worried ?

[LeslieH]

Looks like a branching foraminiferans. Do those very fine threads coming off them move & retract? If so, they're the pseudopodia used to catch food.

[BillyBigReef]

I have the same thing on my live rock. curious myself as to what it is. mine aren't big enough to see if they move. have noticed two so far.

[Zimmer]

They do move gently in the current but I've never seen any of them retract or move individually in a "feeding" manner.... I'm assuming they aren't a problem creature? I thought it was some crazy algae lol I was about to panic, but if it's just neat little filter feeders then I guess that's a good thing right?

[GroktheCube]

I found a real odd duck last night, I'll see if I can sneak some pictures tonight, but someone might have an idea just from my description and its behavior.

It's an anemone that appears to be nocturnal. During the day, it is curled up completely within a hole through a piece of LR, entirely shielded from light.

Last night I saw it sticking pretty far out of the hole. Its body was only slightly slimmer than its mouth disk, which was just about 1.5" across. A perfectly pie-shaped slice of its mouth and mouth disk was white, roughly 1/5th of the surface. The rest of the anemone was brown. It had fairly stubby tentacles with rounded tips, each about 1.5". After about 10 seconds in the flashlight, it started to withdraw.

I'm stumped. It's shaped and colored like a photosynthetic anemone, though it doesn't look quite like a mojano or aiptasia. The fact that it hides completely from the light, and that I haven't noticed it despite having this piece of LR in the tank for nearly a month (and I've done lots of flashlight hunting) suggests that it isn't photosynthetic. The short tentacles look like they wouldn't be all that good for prey capture.

Anyone have any ideas?

[LeslieH]

Zimmer - forams are harmless.

Grok - Do a google search for Isaurus. Common names are night anemone & snake anemone. They typically only open at night.

[GroktheCube]

Thanks, I think I figured it out. It looks exactly like pictures I found of Neozoanthus uchina, only with a light stripe and dark face vs dark stripe and light face. My guess is either a subspecies, or something in the same genus.

Pics of N. uchina for reference

Reverse the dark and light shades, and that's pretty much exactly what I have.

[Wsantos]

Hello all, this is my 4th post in different Forums about this critter that came in my live rocks..

I need some help identifying this critter.......

[SushiGirl]

Much better pic. Looks like aiptasia.

[Wsantos]

Originally Posted by SushiGirl

Much better pic. Looks like aiptasia.

This has a suction bottom like a leech...

[GroktheCube]

Originally Posted by Wsantos

This has a suction bottom like a leech...

All anemones do. They can move.

[BretCreager]

So im about a week and a half into my cycle, I already have had to get rid of 2 of my live rocks do to a bad outbreak of caulerpa algae. here are some things that i have seen pop up or grow (in the case of the two things that look like a coral to me) any help on what they are and whether they are desirable or a problem would be great. also anything else that catches your eye. the ID posts are so vast and many that searching them is just about a full time job.

thanks everyone!

(one more pic to follow)

[BretCreager]

and one more...

[SushiGirl]

Pic 1, some kind of algae. Really hard to ID young algae.
Pic 2, I think some kind of coral, closer pic would help though I'm not great with coral ID.
Pic 3, looks like a sun coral. The red on the left looks like pipe organ coral skeleton.
Pic 4, hard to tell, definitely algae, maybe halimeda. And some more pipe organ skeleton.
Pic 5, the sun coral again, and the other is too far/small to tell. Could be feather duster, hydroid, or aiptasia. Closer pic would help.
Pic 6, both look like algae.

[BillyBigReef]

I try and Google or search forum before I ask. Make sure your logging with a diary or something.... It's an every day task for me to find something new.

[BretCreager]

yea i have tried. but like sushi girl said, very hard to ID when things are small. and if someone that has been IDing things for the last almost 2 years in this one thread alone, me going out againt google and the infinite IDs, both good and bad information, I just have to give in and make a post.

my biggest fear is letting something bad go too long while I try to find it on my own and have more of a problem then I would have a few days ago.

Thanks for the ID's

[SushiGirl]

Google is a huge pain with young algae ID. I usually watch them until they seem to be looking like something other than a sprout, then I take a pic & pull them out LOL.

In young tanks I've had lots and lots of little sprouts show up then disappear. I had some cool tiny ones in the 20 that kept showing up with a little round thing on top, then they'd die. A couple months later I never see them anymore. IMO there are tons of algae on live rock & when it gets in the tank it tries to grow but finds conditions lacking and just disappears.

To me, too long is when it turns into a "patch," then it's hard to pull and get rid of because it has a foothold. I do pull sprouts sometimes, but usually not just one, it has to be like 3 or more. That's just me, though. If you want to pull single sprouts go for it. I just like to see what they may look like before I do it, but I'm weird.

Oh, and if that red is wiry, pull it. I always pull red or green wiry algae as soon as I see it because any kind of "turf" algae is impossible for me to get rid of.