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View Full Version : Want a surprise?

ATinPGH
04/03/2011, 08:53 PM
If you bought live rock to start your tank treat yourself and set your alarm for 3 am. Get up, take a flashlight and shine it into your tank. You will be amazed at what you find. I have a 3" worm that comes out of a rock. There is a snail without a shell that traverses the rock with impunity. Apparently, my peppermint shrimp have bred because I recently caught a miniscule shrimp that was munching on an acan.

Its a whole different world when the lights go out. I will never scuba dive at night now.
dan-in-gr
04/03/2011, 08:57 PM
Hi, I use to take a flashlight with a red lens and shine it in the tank, its amazing as to the little stuff swimming and crawling about. I also found a two foot worm with large bristles that was eating mushrooms in my 180 mixed reef. Got him out, scary guy.
SushiGirl
04/03/2011, 09:08 PM
The "miniscule shrimp" is not a peppermint baby, it's likely an amphipod and it probably wasn't actually eating the acan.
Snail without a shell is probably a stomatella snail, which has a very small shell on the top side.
Worm could be a bristleworm or a peanut worm.

The person that got me into this hobby did a night dive off Maui once and saw 6 foot worms, creeped him out.
ATinPGH
04/03/2011, 09:18 PM
You might be right. I am still a newbie and not afraid to admit it. But it swam like a shrimp by "kicking" its tail and had similar markings to my peppermint shrimp. And all of them have exhibited the same behavior.

I don't think it was a bristle worm as I've seen those and it definitely didn't look like one. Peanut worm is in the running though.

This is an ever-learning hobby which makes it so entertaining.
SushiGirl
04/03/2011, 09:35 PM
Peppermint shrimp fry don't live very long in regular tank setups. Google amphipod, they're like tiny shrimp.

Hitchhikers are awesome, aren't they? LOL
100%hydrophylic
04/03/2011, 10:26 PM
i hate to admit it, but i can stand picking up a rock and there being a 6 inch worm on the underside. it makes the hair on my arm stand up a little. bleh. couldnt imagine a 6 foot worm

and ive seen a red striped amphipod come in off a frag i got once. i thought about killing him cuz i didnt know if he was safe, but i figured the white ones are fine, might as well let this one live in my tank as well. they swim kinda awkwardly by kicking their legs and moving their tale as well.

have fun discovering all the new critters :D