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

[Windirmere]

Hey sushiGirl, how would i go about getting rid of this guy(s) if there is one im sure there are more : (. All the info i have read is about the smaller flat worms, and they talk about a fresh water dip for 10-15 secs of the live rock. the tank is just cycling so should i just dip all the rock i get from the pet store? I don't have a credit card so ordering online isnt possible for me. :S ill keep lurking the other stickies for stuff about live rock any advice is help full!

[SushiGirl]

I really don't know. I've been lucky over the years and that's the only one I've ever had. I dipped my frags in CoralRX and it did nothing to it. I left it in the bowl for 10 days before it died.

[Alexis58]

In general, if you're in doubt of a hitchhiker, put it in your sump after posting a picture of it.

[Feriation]

I hope this is the right spot. I noticed I have something actually living in my tank. Shipping of live rock to where I live is outrageously expensive. Especially since I would only be able to use about half the minimum amount anyone would ship to me... Anyways, I bought a few pieces of cured live rock from my LFS's sump. Didn't think I'd get any hitch hikers...
Saw these guys the other day. To me they look like little feather dusters. The top part pulls in when I moved my mag-float near it. Sorry for the blurry pictures. I had a very hard time getting my digital camera to focus, and I'm not really bothered to pull out my actual SLR until I have something worthwhile to photograph to justify the cost of film and getting the pics transfered to a disc. I'm kinda old school that way! haha




They are very very tiny.

[SushiGirl]

Aiptasia.

[Feriation]

Originally Posted by SushiGirl

Aiptasia.

Aiptasia?!?! Grrrr. Why do I get the stinky hitch hikers?!?! There is about 5 of them on that rock... And they're all very tiny. Too tiny for me to inject them with anything. Can I take some tweazers to them and pull em off? Or put glue over them? I'd have to go buy glue....

[SushiGirl]

I would do glue or putty. Tweezers will just make more.

[Rbmead]

X2 Aiptasia

[Canadian125]

Was moving some rocks around and found two of these guys, wondering what
I should do with them.

[SushiGirl]

Hard to tell from the pic, but could be stomatellas. Google them & see if that's it. If so, leave 'em.

[Canadian125]

yup stomatella. thanks ill throw em back in.

[mtcoins123]

i have seen many aptaisha photos in these id requests and ev eryone has trouble getting rid of them i at one time had a horendous aptasia problem tried everything i saw posted here and a few things i made up finally i bought an "aptasia eating file fish" and i have come to think it is a pretty fish at first thought it was a little ugly lol but i can tell you i have zero aptasia now going on a year and he picks worms too so bristle worms are out of the display and pretty sure he ate up most of my other small nuisance worms.... hes been a great companion fish to my tank

[Persius]

First, I'm now certain that this is an aiptasia. It has gone from nothing to this size in less than 3 weeks. At first I was fooled thinking it was a small piece of the xenia. I'm about to try Joe's Juice on it.


Next up is this little snail. I suddenly have three of them, the larger one having more markings on the shell. Strombus? Nassarius? I'm assuming they are harmless or am I mistaken?


Finally, some Spindle Weed - Neomeris. There are conflicting messages in this forum on its usefulness. I kinda like it and don't mind managing it if it starts to
invade. Anyone agree with that approach?

[SushiGirl]

Yes to aiptasia.
Yes to strombus. Good guy & readily breeds in tanks.
I would do the same with the neomeris as you're thinking. Diversity is not boring LOL

[Tampa_Bandit]

My wife took this a few years ago in our 12 gallon nano and i always wondered if it was a bristle worm? i think it is now doing a little researching here. anyone confirm this?

thanks,
jason

[SushiGirl]

Yep.

[soul4surfin]

These are little white spots on my live rock. Can anyone ID?

[SushiGirl]

It's either missing spots of coralline or nerite snail eggs, pic is hard to tell.

[NMC]

I got this on my live rock. Thought it was dead and it was all white on one side. But now it's obviously not dead and the white has receded. I know it's some sort of coral, but don't know what kind. It's about 1 and 1/2 inch in diameter.
This is my first attempt at taking pics of things in my tank, so I apologize for the quality.


This one came out blurry no matter what. It's much smaller, maybe 1/4 inch diameter. Red. Some sort of sponge?

[NMC]

I've had my tank cycling with mostly reef saver rock and some "live" rock from my LFS that I determined to be mostly dead. I added some live rock I got from gulf reef supply about 4 days ago. This thing scared me tonight!

See the black snail? Under it is what I thought was part of the rock




Then it did this!





How should I keep this guy alive? My tank is new, about a month old. 28 gallon nano, no fish, no coral except that hitchiker, just added snails today. I've seen some of what I think are copepods and I've have some brownish algae come and go. I've been ghost feeding the tank to help in cycling in, now to make sure the snails don't starve. Is this a clam? It's big, about 4 inches and really moves. It opens, twists and turns, snaps shut.

[SushiGirl]

Definitely some kind of clam. They're filter feeders so need a lot of suspended particles. Hard to do in a small tank without polluting it.

[terrypercula]

I figured this is appropriate based on the discussion. but this is my coral banded shrimp taking down what i believe is a bristleworm. this just happened he's acually eating it as we speak

2012-05-03_23-18-32_678.jpg

[Envieddesigns]

I found this last night on my live fiji rock. It's hiding this morning not visible. Its white & has two claw like teeth? What is this & is it good or bad?

[Envieddesigns]

I have a few of these on my live fiji rock. Is this a feather duster? When i put my flash light on them they close up fast. After a few they open up again? Good or bad guy?

[SushiGirl]

2nd is a feather duster.
1st I can't be sure, but looks like it might be the back end of a clam/bivalve. If you see it again, try to get another shot.