Two hitchhiker id's please

alexkharden · Feb 27, 2016

I just got 306 pounds of lr, and there's these two guys I can't identify.

This guy is on the side of my red gorgonian. For a while I didn't even recognize it as being a separate entity, then I saw it move.

I know this picture is awful, but it's kinda far from the glass and darn near clear. It's at the base of one of my tree sponges. My daughter thought it was a shrimp, but I'm not convinced. Here's another pic...

Anyway, thank you guys!

AcroNem · Feb 27, 2016

Is the one in the first pic hard or soft? It could be a nudibranch, is it harming the gorg at all? Second one kind of looms like a type of Tunicate but it's hard to tell. If it moves it's not a tunicate.

Lionfish Lair · Feb 27, 2016

That top one may be a chiton. Pluck it off and check it out.

Lionfish Lair · Feb 27, 2016

Is the other a shrimp molt?

AcroNem · Feb 27, 2016

A molt^ I didn't even think of that good call.

Lionfish Lair · Feb 27, 2016

I'm pretty sure it's a chiton as it has 8 plates. They don't move much at all.

alexkharden · Feb 28, 2016

I did my aquascaping tonight, so I pulled the first one off of my sea fan. The second one disappeared during the process. When I pulled off the first one it had a hard shell and was pretty tightly gripping the fan. I'll take a picture here in a minute and post it.

I'm pretty convinced the second one was moving, so I don't think it was a molt, but I'll keep an eye out to see if it turns up again.

alexkharden · Feb 28, 2016

Lionfish Lair said:
I'm pretty sure it's a chiton as it has 8 plates. They don't move much at all.

alexkharden · Feb 28, 2016

It seems like some kind of mollusk. The shell is hard and smooth, and there's a small looking thing inside. Very hard to tell though. I couldn't tell if it was harming the fan or not.

alexkharden · Feb 28, 2016

^^Small = snail

Lionfish Lair · Feb 28, 2016

That's an Ovulid!

alexkharden · Feb 28, 2016

Lionfish Lair said:
That's an Ovulid!

Good, bad? I put it into my sump, but honestly I don't think it survived the out of tank holding period.

Lionfish Lair · Feb 28, 2016

Gorg predator.

alexkharden · Feb 28, 2016

Lionfish Lair said:
Gorg predator.

Gotcha. Well if he lives in gorgs and survived the out of tank period, he'll die in the sump anyway. No gorgs in there.

Lionfish Lair · Feb 28, 2016

Totally cool though. How the heck did it have the appearance of 8 sections? That's crazy. Woof, I was off on that one!

alexkharden · Feb 28, 2016

Lionfish Lair said:
Totally cool though. How the heck did it have the appearance of 8 sections? That's crazy. Woof, I was off on that one!

Lol, light refraction, photo taken with a potato, who knows!? I'm glad I was able to get a better pic for you, and that you knew what it was

AcroNem · Feb 28, 2016

I was way off too, I had an Ovulid (the flamingo type) come in with a group of gorgs I got months ago. They eat very slowly mine stays on the same gorg.