More hitchhikers !!!

[markkazdad]

I found some more hitchhikers. For those of you who may not have seen my original thread about wanting to start a saltwater tank, I said that I was just looking forward to hitchhikers and CUC to start. To my surprise, my wife and kids have shown interest now too. Sorry for the lousy photography -- it might be time for an upgrade from the 5 year old point-and-shoot.

I think this one is a stomatella (looks like a translucent slug with a very small shell, about 2 cm long when on the move):

These I am not sure about. They're a bit of a purplish color with green tips. Around 1cm in diameter.

 

[Tomoko Schum]

The second hitchhiker is a majano anemone. You need to kill that one before they have a population explosion.

The first one appears to be a snail of some sort. Probably a stomatella, but the shell looks more rounded in that picture. A stomatella is a snail in a half shell (pretty flat.)

 

[sprinklerdudes]

nuke the second one for sure....aptasia and majona 's are bad...... third looks like a mushroom coral hard to tell in the photo proably ok

 

[markkazdad]

The third photo actually has two things, I think.

If you follow the two main crevices, one running nearly vertical, the other running at -45 degrees from the middle of the right side to the top, the intersect near a white circular tube. At the 4 o'clock position immediately adjacent to the circular feature is the purple with green tips critter I was asking about originally. It looks substantially like the one in the 2nd photo. It was on a stalk (foot?), though now the whole thing seems to be missing. (it is possible when I wasn't looking that it was dislodged by a curious teenager).

However upon further inspection of the photo and the rock, there is a clearer more gelatinous thing near the top right of the photo. It also appears to have some greenish spots, but they are not on well-defined "tentacles" like the other things. Is that what you were thinking may be a mushroom coral?

If you were to superimpose a Battleship grid on that third photo, you'd hit the first (the majano I think) at C5, and the second at A8 and B8. I was going to circle what I was asking about when I posted the picture but the tool I usually use for that was acting up.

 

[Tomoko Schum]

The clear gelatinous thing in the third picture could well be a Pseudocorynactis caribbeorum or other corynactis anemone (some people call it strawberry anemone.) It seems to do well in a shady area. It is harmless. You also have a bunch of harmless small tube worms.

The purplish things with green tips are majano anemone (tulip anemone), which sting corals and multiply very fast. They might have retracted into the rock or relocated themselves. You need to get rid of these fast.

It's fun to look at live rocks. You find all sorts of things come out from nowhere. It's a weird and wonderful world.

 

[markkazdad]

I had Googled about killing majano and saw injecting them with distilled white vinegar, or making a kalkwasser paste and covering them with that. I have vinegar and a 3ml syringe with hypodermic needle. Had luck with that method? There weren't enough hours in the day today, but I will try tomorrow.

If the white tube-shaped things are the tube worms, I had been wondering about those. I was guessing they may have been leftover tubes from something just making up part of the rock, because I haven't seen any movement from them. Are there things living inside that will come out in the dark or something?

 

[Tomoko Schum]

You will see a lot of small tubeworms under live rocks. They are also called fan worms (if they have small fans which can be clear or even red.) They are filter feeders. Here is a link to a good article written by Julian Sprung.

I bet you'll be asking about small white sponge that forms in your overflow or some yellowish one on rocks evetually. Take a look at Dr. Ron Shimek's article.

A good article for copepods: Bitty Bugs: Copepods in the Reef Aquarium by Ronald L. Shimek, Ph.D. - Reefkeeping.com
A good one for amphipods: Amphipods by Ronald L. Shimek, Ph.D. - Reefkeeping.com

 

[markkazdad]

Maybe I'll start a topic called "Inevitable "discoveries" of n00b reefkeepers", but, hey, as long as I am helping you avoiding work, I consider it community service.

 

[markkazdad]

Is there a way to edit my own posts when I hit submit, and then see the spelling or grammar error? Maybe I have to reach a certain post count, in which case, I am one step closer by asking.

 

[Tomoko Schum]

There is a button for editing usually at the bottom right hand of your posting. It may disappear after a period of time.

 

[markkazdad]

At the bottom right of my posting, I only have Reply, Reply With Quote or Multi-Quote. On the left, I have Blog this Post, Add Reputation, and Report post. Guess I'll go read the board FAQ.

 

[H@rry]

Mark - to kill the tulips mix kalkwasser paste to the consistancy of toothpaste. Take the rock out of the water and plaster over it (or where it was before you took it out as they will probably retract when you take it out) and let it sit about 5 minutes. All the rest of the things you have found are beneficial.

 

[jason.tammy]

If you can't remove the rock, you can put a dab in the center. Approach slowly so it doesn't close up - the object is to try and get the pest to close up on the kalk paste. Harry's method is better, if you can get the rock out of the tank.

Tammy

 

[markkazdad]

Not that I was ignoring you guys, but I didn't have any kalk and I already had a syringe and vinegar so I tried that method. I snuck up on the pest, stabbed it in the center and injected the vinegar. It closed up on the needle and popped right off the rock.

 

[Tomoko Schum]

I am glad that it popped off the rock. Did you only have one of them?

 

[markkazdad]

No, there were two. The other one I stabbed and injected, but it shrunk back into the rock. I'm watching for it to reappear.

I moved the tank and added sand. In that process, I found another hitchhiker on the glass, a small 5 pointed starfish about the diameter of a pencil. I'm going to guess Asterina of some kind. It quickly made a break for the sand bed.

 

[markkazdad]

All the interesting stuff comes out at night

Star-shaped critter I mentioned earlier:

Bristleworm (I think), at least 3" long. There may be two in there, but if so, the other escaped down the back side while I ran for the camera.

Full tank shot (bad camera and angle, dirty glass). Does it look like enough sand? (This is a standard 10 gallon tank.) I wasn't really sure where to aim the powerhead. The Eclipse filter output is that ripple on the top right, and it's intake is nestled behind the rock on the bottom left, so I aimed the powerhead across the top of the rocks, thinking that this would help create a circular flow while not stirring up sand. These rocks are probably really too big for this size tank, but maybe it won't be too long before I get a bigger tank.

 

[markkazdad]

Close-ups (ok, I'm just trying to increase my post count so I can maybe one day edit my own posts):

 

[Tomoko Schum]

The anemone that retracted into the rock is most probably Aiptasia. Keep up your attach. I thought that I got rid of aiptasia but they come back every time despite all the stuff I have used including an aiptasia eating filefish. The aiptasia in my tank retract deeply into rocks and make erradication almost impossible. I have to keep trying...

Your bristleworms look like ordinary ones that are harmless and not Eunicid worm. The star fish is one of asterina star fish for sure. H@rry said that he had preditary kind that ate his SPS's, but my Asterina have been good citizens so far.

Your tank looks good. The sand depth looks okay to me, although a lot of people lately prefer a very thin layer or no sand at all. I'd keep the filter clean or remove the filter pad/floss all together and use the filter mainly as a circulation device if you don't want to keep cleaning the pad frequently.

As for editing, the edit button disappears within 30 minutes of posting. I did not know it has anything to do with the number of postings. Have you looked for the button right after posting your message?

 

[H@rry]

Mark;

You may want to remove the Asterina starfish when you see them. Most people consider them harmless but I've noticed acros that did not seem to be doing as well as I thought they should and found one in it. I think those six legged ones are probably OK but the five legged ones get a little bigger (I found one as big as a dime) and I think they are the problem ones. The bristle worms are harmless, just don't try to touch one.