Got new live rock yesterday!

[Anonymous]

Yesterday I received my 100 lbs. of live rock from Harbor Aquatics. I thought I'd share some pictures of things that tagged along, and if possible get some feedback about what I have. This is a relatively young tank, so I want to know if I need to feed any of these things that came along on the rock:

Exhibit A:

Some kind of seaweed. How much light do these need, and what fish might like to nibble on it?

Exhibit B:

I think this might be Halimeda.

Exhibit C:

Valonia?

Exhibit D:

I have at least half a dozen of these things. Are they tiny feather dusters?

Exhibit E:

I have about three or four of these on the rocks. They look like some kind of soft corals.

Exhibit F:

I have seen two of these. Look like a sea cucumber, but I'm not sure of the exact species.

Exhibit G:

A snail that i don't recognize.

Exhibit H:

I have no idea what this is. Some kind of Nudibranch perhaps?

When it comes out again, there is a starfish (about 1-1/2 inches in diameter) crawling around the tank as well, but when I was taking pictures I couldn't find him. He is beige with orange spots, and the tips of his legs (5) are slightly blue. I'll try to get a picture if I can find him again.

Any information that I need to know about any of these would be appreciated.

[ April 27, 2002: Message edited by: Super Cow ]</p>

 

[Anonymous]

After a day, I have some more pictures. One indentification is possibly urgent:

EXHIBIT I:

Some weird type of plant perhaps?

EXHIBIT J:

Most of the creatures in the other pictures (other than the plants) are about 1/4-1/2 of an inch in diameter. This anemone was a full 1-1/2 inches across. But the behavior is unusual. I was under the impression that anemones need plenty of light, but the reason I didn't see this one the first day is that it lives in one of the caves in the rock. It came out at night, and in the morning when I turned the lights on, it worked it's way back into the cave. I would really like a quick I.D. on this, because I want to know how to take care of it.

EXHIBIT K:

This snail moves really fast (for a snail), is about 1/2 inch across, and it's shell has a pointy spiral conical section above the snail's head. (Not readily apparent from the picture.)

[ April 28, 2002: Message edited by: Super Cow ]</p>

 

[Anonymous]

A.Sargassum
B.Halimeda
C.Valonia
D.Fan Worm
E.Zooanthid/button polyps
F.Cannot see too well,but looks like a cuke
G.Do not know the type. But by the shape of the mouth it looks like it eats diatoms.
H.Nudibranch
I.A type of calcareous algae
J.Too dark for me to say

 

[Anonymous]

Those snails look like a predatory snail that I had. It was quick and would be found over my astrea snails. One snail killed 4 astreas in 3 days. I removed it to my refuge,then it climbed out and died.

What a shame(sarcasm).

 

[JT]

Wow Cow! Glad you are happy with your live rock.

Exhibit I is Neomeris annulata. You can read briefly about it in Modern Coral Reef Aquarium, Vol. 1 on page 285. It grows like a weed in our systems and needs high amounts of light and high calcium and alkalinity levels.

I'm still working on that anemone for ya.

- JT

 

[Anonymous]

I got another interesting bug here. I guess we are up to 'L'. It's a snail of some kind, but I don't think I've seen one with a green shell before. It's maybe 1/3 of an inch in diameter. (The 3 pictures are the same snail)

EXHIBIT L:

He seems right at home in the Sargassum leaves. Doesn't appear to be eating it, but rather sucking something off it. Maybe cleaning brown algae off it, which has suddenly started growing everywhere. Time to start looking at cleaning crews. Have to wait a couple of weeks to make sure I don't have an ammonium (still almost 0) or nitrite (about 0.25ppm right now) spike, but it looks like I'll have plenty of food for the right crew.

I'm still working on finding that starfish. Haven't seen it since Saturday morning.

[ April 29, 2002: Message edited by: Super Cow ]</p>

 

[sMARTY]

Here are the things I can Identify, although I do not swear under oath.
A=Sargassum
C=Valonia (Bubble Algee)
D=Small Feather Duster type worm
E=Small Button Polyps or Zooanthids

HTH

 

[Chucker]

G and L are likely the same thing- a Stomatella snail. Perfectly harmless.

J is similar to a polyp I have on some LR in my sump- it actually prefers darkness.

K- looks like a whelk to me, so you may want to make sure it doesn't munch your more desirable snails.

FWIW, almost every critter here is in the HHFAQ.

 

[danmhippo]

I think too that K is whelk (is that the right spelling? I am not sure). I would isolate these ones from your tank. Or give them to LFS for someone else to worry about,......I don't like surprises.

Depending on the light, too bright, some sargassum may not make it.

 

[Anonymous]

My light is 4x110W VHO's 48" bulbs. 2x50/50 and 2x10,000K daylight.

Would a different angle help to confirm the whelk identification? (I didn't see that snail yesterday.)

 

[Anonymous]

Super Cow - Wow, that's incredibly fresh liverock you received. I am amazed that you found that much life the day you received your rock. I'd be thrilled to get that many leaving creatures, good or bad, with my liverock. I wonder what else you have.....

When I upgrade my tank to a larger size, I will remember this post and order some rock from harbor aquatics. Your rock rocks!

Louey

 

[Anonymous]

Louey

There are two factors I think. The guy at Harbor says they cure their rock in water for 3 weeks along with 20,000 gallons of other rock. (I have no reason at this point to think they are lieing) I think the shipping form also helped. It was a bit of a pain to go to the airport to pick up the rock, but since Harbor puts their rock on the 6am flights out of Chicago, (They use airport to airport shipping which is about $100 cheaper than Fed-ex) and then I drive straight home and put it in my tank which only had cycled live sand up to that point. The rock was only in the box for about 7 hours by my estimate instead of the 20-48 hours by other shipping methods.

In Minnesota, I bought some rock from Flying Fish Express. It had a good supply of the microfauna and minature snails and a bit of Caleurpa and good corraline coverage, but it was nothing like this. So for the extra $40 or so I got a lot more things that lived.

(A small shrimp (or maybe a large amphipod or isopod - 1/3 inch size) appeared to not make the trip...my powerhead eventually blew them out of the rock when they died, but overnight, it was half eaten, and the next day completely gone)

My algae's going crazy right now, which is to be expected I guess.

 

[JT]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Super Cow:
<strong>Louey

The guy at Harbor says they cure their rock in water for 3 weeks along with 20,000 gallons of other rock.</strong><hr></blockquote>

Super Cow:

I wish we had 20,000G just for rock. However, the live rock system is only 6,000G. 20,000G is the total gallonage of all of our combined systems. We are still expanding and hope to hit 30,000G by the end of the year.

- JT

[ May 01, 2002: Message edited by: JT ]</p>

 

[Algae Kid]

Hey, I wish I could get live rock like that! I, unfortunately don't have a tank yet.

I hope to get one in the near future, though.... I would like some tips on how to get a tank ready for fish, and how long it would take before I could get some live rock, a clean up crew, and some fish.

BTW, its been said before, but:

A.Sargassum
B.Halimeda
C.Valonia
D.Fan Worm
E.Not sure... Looks like a couple of Zooanthids. Maybe Button Polyps....
F.Not sure on the type, but definitely a cucumber by looks, could get a new picture to help though (needs to be a little brighter

) You can tell it's a cucumber by the mouth.
G.A Stomatella snail. Diatom-eating snail, probably good for the amount you'll get with that rock!

H.Nudibranch, looks awesome, though... not sure on the type.
I.Looks like Neomeris annulata, the white part will stay, but the green part should start to grow...
J.An anemone that definitely prefers darkness, my friend had one, I'm not sure what it eats, but he never really fed it specific things, he just ate the copepods in his tank... (I think: Don't hate me if i'm wrong...)
K.Watch out for him, a whelk for sure, by your description of him. My friend got about 5 of them from the store, they worked together, but they'd eat any other kinds of snails he put in... If you want to keep it, get a sort of bunch, but dont try to put any others types of snail in.
L.A Stomatella snail, same thing as G.

Thanks for helping me out, guys. BTW Super Cow, nice live rock, hope to see a picture of the "Mysterious Star-Fish" I love star-fish, and hope to get a few when I get my tank...

-Algae Boy-

 

[Wormy]

Supercow,

I have a lot of live rock from HA too. I'm fortunate enough to live close enough to them to go up and pick the rock myself. I've got a lot of the same stuff on my rock that you have. I've had my tank up for over a year now, so I'll try to give you some of my experiences with these critters.

Your whelk will decimate the stomatella snail population. Get rid of the whelk(s) ASAP if you don't want this to happen. I actually left mine because watching them was so facinating, and they don't go after snails that are larger than they are, so my nassarius, astrea and trocus snails have been safe from predation (except the young).

Those little feather duster worms multiplied in my tank like crazy. I have a much larger population of them than when I started, and they really add a nice touch to the tank.

I had three button polyps on my rock when I started. Mine have flourescent green centers with brown bodies. I thought I'd lost them in the cycle, as they closed up and slowly faded away within a week of getting the rock in my tank. That was sad. In reality, they must have some method of staying alive for a long time in harsh conditions, because 3 months after I added the rock, they suddenly reappeared in the same spot. They'd withdrawn for months, down into the rock, and resurfaced when the conditions improved. Now, the original 3 have grown to about 3 times their initial size, and have reproduced so I now have a total of 7 of these polyps. They're really pretty, and apparently very, very tough.

I've got one of those little anemones too. He only opens at night, and I can't determine what he feeds on.

I also had some type of encrusting montipora or porites on my rock. Look for this on yours. It may not initially be obvious, or may initially appear dead. Mine behaved in a fashion similar to the polyps. It seemed to die off during the first few months, but then it suddenly started to appear again around month four. It's a brown platelike skeleton with small brown polyps with green centers. In high light areas, the plates turn bright green as well. This stuff is amazing. Once conditions are good, it grows like mad, and seems to be able to reproduce in the tank. I've got new colonies popping up where there definitely were no signs of this coral before. One area has grown a plate about the size of my open hand from a starting cluster of about 10 polyps (smaller than a dime).

Beware of that valonia, it will expand. Manually remove any you find now while you can.

Also beware of a brown tuft-like algae if you find any. It grows in little tufts (they look like pom-poms), and at about month 5 mine took over the tank. To get rid of it I had to reduce my photo-cycle by quite a bit, and change from a 6.5KK bulb to a 10KK bulb.

I hope these experiences help you with your rock. If you need any information, feel free to write to me, and I'll pass along any related experience I may have had in my tank. Good luck, and congratulations on getting some of the best rock there is.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the advice. I don't know where the alleged whelk is right now. I have been on the web looking at families of snail shells. The group of shells that most closely resemble the snail are of the family "Fasciolariidae". This group doesn't seem to be called Whelks anywhere, but it may have similar habits. (It appears that there are hundreds of different types of snails)

I am still looking up information confirming this group of snails habits.

 

[Wormy]

If you want an exact ID on the snail, grab him next time you can, and take a picture of snail's aperture with the snail withdrawn. Post that picture in Dr. Ron's forum at Reefcentral.com, and Dr. will be able to identify it. Apparently trying to ID a snail by shell alone is not a great way to do it.

 

[Anonymous]

New pictures. I got pictures of the starfish, and a few other weird and not so weird things.

EXHIBIT M:

There is some debate in our house as to whether this is the same starfish as the one we saw the first day. But if it is the same, the starfish needs to be able to change color, since this is obviously a blue starfish. (But not Linckia)

EXHIBIT N:

Looks like an obvious Bristleworm to me.

EXHIBIT O:

The most bizarre thing I have seen so far. A rock with a mouth. (Two actually, but the one isn't visible on this picture) It is closed much of the time as this jaw shuts and the two sides of the rock move together. (It's the white thing by the way)

*** A repeat of EXHIBIT K: ***

Caught the alleged Whelk on the glass again. This time I took more angles, since the back shot was perhaps not conclusive.

 

[Wormy]

M: Hmmm...looks a little like the harmless microstars that I've got with the different sized legs, but not quite the same. I'd keep an eye on this guy (when you see him). He may be one of the coral eating varieties. If so, you'll probably be able to catch him in action, because they are slow eaters.

N: Nice bristleworm

O: You'll probably notice a lot of these as time goes on. They're a variety of clam. I've got bunches of these on (and in) my rocks. A little DT's goes a long way towards keeping these healthy IMHO.

 

[oneblackhorse]

What happened to all the pictures?