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

[CanuckReefer]

Just so you guys know, i found shooting boiling hot water through a syringe at the aiptasia seemed to kill them almost instantly.

This works only for the ones you can see obviously.

[Susan Lohrer]

Hmm. After much further googling, omitting algae as a search term and replacing it with roots, I think maybe my white stuff could be a sponge and harmless. But I would dearly love confirmation in case it's a a nuisance organism.

[SushiGirl]

ChicagoJoe, interesting how that nem started out. The pics you posted back then looked just like a baby bubble coral that I had start on a bubble coral skeleton.

Susan, the white stuff is likely foraminiferans, harmless.

[Nemo8808]

Hi,
I have some nerite snail eggs that were just layed all over my live rock and a couple on the glass, will these actually hatch?

[SushiGirl]

Not usually.

[chicagojoe]

Originally Posted by SushiGirl

ChicagoJoe, interesting how that nem started out. The pics you posted back then looked just like a baby bubble coral that I had start on a bubble coral skeleton.

Oh no, I didn't clarify myself completely when I posted, it wasn't mine it was Mr.Demeanor that posted originally. It's my interpretation of his image and mine that lead me to believe we had the same thing. We just have similar things and that's why I asked what I had. (cause I've been known to be wrong once, think i was 3 at the time... )

ok, I thought this was dead at the store so I wasn't worried about it getting harmed during cycle, but last night it came to life.



What is this, I've looked at Coral ID sites 1 and 2 and Sponge ID, but can't find it so I assume it's not a coral. will cycling the tank kill this off?

thanks again everyone. So glad I found this site!

[Sugar Magnolia]

Yes, it's a stomatella.

Edit: This is intended for the user whose post was removed.

[SushiGirl]

Chicagojoe, I went back & read who it was, then by the time I got back to this page & started to reply, I forgot LOL. My short term memory is absolutely shot at times still. It's frustrating to forget something after a few seconds, especially since I've gone back to work. I thought it was the pain killers, but it must be the Lyrica I'm still on. I'll take a look at your last pic when I'm not on my tiny phone screen.

[AxiomOfthruth]

What would you all recommend as the best way to get the best variety of good critters in my tank, I'm just setting it up and starting to cycle it. I intend to start home culturing copepods and rotifers but I would love to know how to get the variety of life some of you have in your tanks?

[SushiGirl]

Mine came from frags & chaeto or other macro algae.

[SushiGirl]

Chicagojoe, the pics are really too far away, but they look like maybe ball anemones (pseudocorynactis).

[Shorty Harris]

Originally Posted by AxiomOfthruth

What would you all recommend as the best way to get the best variety of good critters in my tank, I'm just setting it up and starting to cycle it. I intend to start home culturing copepods and rotifers but I would love to know how to get the variety of life some of you have in your tanks?

As a fellow newbie I have recent experience with this. It was at least a week after adding my live rock that I saw my first life form, a single copepod. It was another week or two before I saw my first amphipod and first spaghetti worm. Now about eight weeks later amphipods and copepods are swarming. At week 4 at I added a CUC but there were no hitchhikers with them. A few pineapple sponges started growing and a few small anonymous worms showed up. For several more weeks I only had them to watch. About 2 weeks ago I added my first 3 large frags of coral and WOW! They were all packed with life! Now I have bristle worms, several types of tube/feather duster worms, tunicates, isopods, several different bivalves, and what I think is a small brittle star which only shows two or three legs. So be patient, it is all coming. Every night after lights out I am peeking into the tank with a flashlight to find something new. It's very exciting! Sorry for the long response.

[AxiomOfthruth]

Originally Posted by Shorty Harris

As a fellow newbie I have recent experience with this. It was at least a week after adding my live rock that I saw my first life form, a single copepod. It was another week or two before I saw my first amphipod and first spaghetti worm. Now about eight weeks later amphipods and copepods are swarming. At week 4 at I added a CUC but there were no hitchhikers with them. A few pineapple sponges started growing and a few small anonymous worms showed up. For several more weeks I only had them to watch. About 2 weeks ago I added my first 3 large frags of coral and WOW! They were all packed with life! Now I have bristle worms, several types of tube/feather duster worms, tunicates, isopods, several different bivalves, and what I think is a small brittle star which only shows two or three legs. So be patient, it is all coming. Every night after lights out I am peeking into the tank with a flashlight to find something new. It's very exciting! Sorry for the long response.

Don't apologies a well thought out and informed post never requires an apology. I guess ill just have to impatiently wait :P, I'm just honestly as exited about the smallest of things that will grow and live in my tank as I am in the larger life forms I will be introducing in a more purposeful manor. I have even been thinking of buying a macro lens for my Olympus so that I can document it all. When you really think about it the coral, fish, crabs, and shrimp we add to our tanks represent the smallest fraction of the different species that eventually come to live within them... I'm going to go find my uncles old jewelers glasses to that I can keep them by the tank ^_^.

[SushiGirl]

I thought it was a great answer.

[Susan Lohrer]

Originally Posted by SushiGirl

Susan, the white stuff is likely foraminiferans, harmless.

SushiGirl, I looked up foraminiferans on Wikipedia, and I may have missed something, but I don't see a resemblance to my soft, branching root-looking things. Man, the need to ID critters can spur excessive googling . . . I came across another mention of rootlike structures that suggested what I've got might be bryozoans.

[cloak]

Originally Posted by Susan Lohrer

I just noticed this whitish stuff on one of my rocks. I tried so hard not to take a blurry picture, too. It's fine-textured, branching (kind of like the tiny hair roots on a house plant), and it looks like it spreads via runners across the rock. I googled it, but because of the color, I'm not sure whether it might be anything that's listed on the pages I found.

Opinions?

If it's soft, it might just be some type of sponge. They come in all different kinds of colors and forms.

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-07/rs/index.php

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2011/6/inverts2

HTH.

[SushiGirl]

Usually I google foraminiferans & select Images & look through various pics. Wiki rarely has all the pics of all the kinds. You can also go to wetwebmedia & use their search function then go through pages of pics people have asked for IDs on. It's tedious, but there's a lot there.

[SushiGirl]

Here ya go, scroll down. http://www.lionfishlair.com/hitchhiker/hitchhiker.shtml

[Ptyochromis]

What is this thing? http://imgur.com/a/Tgwhd
It is about 1cm and moves very very slowly in a shuffling way.
All my searches have landed me where i don't want to be lol.

[worm5406]

The starfish or the bristle worm?

[Ptyochromis]

Originally Posted by worm5406

The starfish or the bristle worm?

:P the star. The other thing is the arm of my coral banded shrimp :P.

[ReeferKimberly]

Originally Posted by ReeferKimberly

That's an asterina star. They eat coralline algae and can reproduce rapidly by splitting. You will see a leg here and there. One person I saw said he saw his bothering corals. I personally don't mind them unless I see epic proportions. You will probably find more. They come in white, grey, salt/pepper, blackish grey, ect. I have a few pinkish ones too. Harlequin shrimps will often eat them but not always and if you get one and he eats them all or refuses to eat them you have to get him other stars to eat.

That's your star, same as a few posts up.

(I want a bristle worm with those colors! )

[jasonhobbs86]

just setup my tank...
so i bought some cheap live rock from a LFS @ 6.99lb. it had a few aiptasias growing on i bought a pep shrimp to take care of it which he did. all three of them are now gone and even the one on the overflow pipe that was itsy bitsy. but i have 3 other things growing and cant seem to figure it out... one of them looks like some sort of anemone but i'm not sure... it closes up into a ball at night but it doesnt seem to be growing longer tentacles like the aiptasia and the my pep shrimp hasnt killed it yet...

so what is it????

[Susan Lohrer]

Originally Posted by SushiGirl

Usually I google foraminiferans & select Images & look through various pics. Wiki rarely has all the pics of all the kinds. You can also go to wetwebmedia & use their search function then go through pages of pics people have asked for IDs on. It's tedious, but there's a lot there.

I love wetwebmedia.

I looked at their pictures of foraminiferans and their pictures of bryozoans (especially the FAQ page with the WWM IDs), and now I'm most certain my white stuff is bryozoans.

[ReeferKimberly]

Jason I think that might be a Green Button Polyp (soft coral) Can you post up another angle? GPB or some other kind of coral polyp....