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M_Phobos

Reefer
Hey all,

I'm nailing my hitchhiker ID's left and right..but I've got three that have stumped me. And since the guys in #reefs are getting annoyed with my queries...I'll try the board out. Here goes:

Mystery Guest #1: A snail. Smooth (not crusty like turbos, astreas, et al), spiraled (like a freshwater snail almost..think Ramshorn) shell. Nocturnal only...see them with the flashlight at night and only at night..but the morning they're in hiding. They have a tiger-striped shell patern that alternates between brown and cream-coloured. They graze on the LR and rarely venture down to the sand..from what I've seen at least. Anything?

Mystery Guest #2: Piles of sand. I'm currently having my first diatom bloom and it was getting bad. This morning however, I awoke to find several "ant hills" of sand in the sand bed with all of the diatoms around the sand hills eaten. Little circles of clear sand in the diatom field. Whoever these guys are..I'd like to thank them. Anything?

Mystery Guest #3: Anemones. A pair of these guys came on LR. They have a very thick whitish trunk and short-medium length tentacles that are brown/red. I thought they were polyps at first until they started to get up and move...one migrated all the way down the rock face to hide in a patch of hair algae...the other picked up and floated off and is now on the back face of the rock. They're about 1/2" in diameter. They don't look anything like aptaisia (aptaisia being skinny and more elongate, I've got them too..eradicating where and when I can) Anything?

Thanks in advance guys...
 

munchieiam

Active Reefer
hmmm ... don't knw about 1 and 3 but i've got some "ant hills" caused by some worms in my dsb. I've watched them on some nights put up 5 or six different hills and it's more of a case where "clean" sand is being pushed up and out, covering up the diatoms and such. But alas that is my experience, someone else will most likely have a different one :)

Joe
 

dudah

Reefer
I am not sure about #3 but I think I can help with #1

It is a small relative of the Stomatella snail, otherwise known as Abalone, Limpet or Horse-ear. At least that is what it sounds like. I have recently seen these in my tank also from hitch hiker on lr. They are nocturnal herbivores that are safe for reef aquariums (according to Julian Sprung).

Hopefully this is an accurate id!

Dudah
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
who says we're annoyed? :wink:

the sand piles are prolly from worms...

the snail and anemones really do require pics for good id.

'specially the anemones-shape is a highly variable thing-for any individual anemone :wink:
 

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