New rock, large critter

[FloatinBy]

I recently bought dry rock and some rock that was in my LFS tanks, all rock is bleach white. I tossed into two trash cans to cure to just be on the safe side. I tested water after 48hrs of being in heated saltwater with water flow and everything is 0 (zero) so safe to assume I can drop into my established tank. But that's on a different thread on another issue I am having on my tank so moving on. Alright so i just saw this big thing in one of the new rocks curing. What was sticking out was at least 2in and tappered (wide coming out of rock amd tappered down to the tip farther hanging out) i didnt see bristles but it was 2in long at least and 1in or so wide (at least what was sticking out. I attempted to grab with tweezers but it went back into hiding I could see a darken shadow within the rock work and it looked rather large....should i worry? I did not get a pic of it unfortunately. I am hoping it shows its self again when I get home after 24hrs of leaving lid on the can. It was light brown around the edges and darker brown in center. Google searched and it looks to either be a possible bristle worm or a Polynoidae (if that is possible)?

 

[aKlevans]

Judging by your description could it be a fireworm?

 

[Shadowbass]

If you catch it dont kill it please!

 

[FloatinBy]

It didnt have the white bristles and it wasnt exceptionally fast sucking itself back into rock. It must of moved out of that rock or at least out of that tunnel bc i cant find it. If its not a bad critter i want to keep him. Ive been doing some research and it seems most worms are actually beneficial with only a few being harmful. How can u intice it to come out? Theres nothing in the can but rock and salt water thats heated with a pump to circulate water. All reading are zero noe after almost 5 days and the water is still crystal clear. I do t want to add to tank if should wait longer. Also what to use to catch him or at least get him out of hiding? Should i drop some food in there?

 

[Shadowbass]

Ive seen people suspend the rock above the bucket to get it out

 

[FloatinBy]

Soo figure out away to suspend a rather large rock (12+lbs) over a bucket with a gallon or so of saltwater under it...soo the critter will like "sense" the water amd leave the rock thats open to air and plup into the water to stay alive?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Food or a feesh water dip. You can also use hyper salinity.

And fwiw , use caution putting barely cured aragonite in an established tank. 48 hrs is not enough time for organics to show and aragonite is a buffer. So you can swing alk with it.
If the rock is mined you won't have organics.

 

[MichelleRay]

Any antennae or jaws on the front? I had a bobbit worm in a tank not too long ago. Could be something like that.

 

[FloatinBy]

Food or a feesh water dip. You can also use hyper salinity.

And fwiw , use caution putting barely cured aragonite in an established tank. 48 hrs is not enough time for organics to show and aragonite is a buffer. So you can swing alk with it.
If the rock is mined you won't have organics.

Ok I will have to get and alk reader as I currently don't have one as i am pretty new to this. I can link my first thread if needed? So rock has now been in bin for going on 4th day (I think i miss-spoke in an earlier post) I will try the fresh water dip. How long should I leave rock in it for? And should I dip all the rocks to ensure no other critters are around? Like one at a time or so? Or will the critters come out rather quickly if there? Like I said, I don't want to kill them if I don't have to.

 

[FloatinBy]

And Saltyfilm, can I use my tap water to do it or should I use RODI water? RODI takes some time to pr0duce a lot of water as I currently do not have a storage tank. Like 6-7hrs for 30gal of water....just shy of 5gal/hr

 

[FloatinBy]

Any antennae or jaws on the front? I had a bobbit worm in a tank not too long ago. Could be something like that.

Honestly IDK. I was an idiot and just went to grab it without rly looking at it. But that is my 3rd suspect after further research. It is rather large and fat whatever it was and I only saw a little of it. When I took out the mushroom covered rock in my established tank, I found a few little red worms that I removed (they were under the rock and what not). but this guy didn't look like those at all.

 

[FloatinBy]

Judging by your description could it be a fireworm?

no fuzzies that I remember. Like I don't remember seeing a bunch of tiny little white hairs on its body. I know hard without a pic and the dang thing wont show again.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Tap is fine.
Let that rock cure a while.

 

[FloatinBy]

Tap is fine.
Let that rock cure a while.

So drop in tap like now? How long? 1 rock at a time or all of it? Is it gonna kill all the critters hiding or just flush em out then i can look at them/save them if good guys?

Then once done with tap put back into salt water cans and sit for a month and a half or so

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

So drop in tap like now? How long? 1 rock at a time or all of it? Is it gonna kill all the critters hiding or just flush em out then i can look at them/save them if good guys?

Then once done with tap put back into salt water cans and sit for a month and a half or so

If you use the hyper salinity method and slowly increase it , they'll hop off. Just do the one live rock. And yes have some regular salinity water to drop the good ones back into.

If you do the fresh dip just drop it in for a while and watch. A lot more stuff will die however in tap.

A couple of weeks should be fine to cure the new stuff.

 

[FloatinBy]

4 or 5 gal of salt water isnt much to waste i guess...how slow of an increase? Mins, hours, days lol

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

4 or 5 gal of salt water isnt much to waste i guess...how slow of an increase? Mins, hours, days lol

Min actualy.
Prettt easy too. Start with just enongh water to cover the rock and a power head. Mix some (gal?) water with too much salt and add slowly.