On the hunt! We want your hitchiker pictures!

[wade1]

If you wish to post pictures for us all to gawk at, use the photography forum. If you want help in identifying critters or will allow us to use them (with credits given) then feel free to post here!

1- Size is ~640 pixels max for the forums, that helps alot.

2- You can post them as links from another site (many free hosting services won't allow it) or you can upload it with your message.

3- The property remains yours, we're not here for profiteering or commandeering anyones intellectual property.

 

[OddFish]

Already posted apologies, but can't see them yet. Didn't mean to offend, sorry

Colonial turnicates, could be Botryllus or similar species. Link:
http://www.edge-of-reef.com/tunicati/htmen/TUNbotryllusen.htm.

Another colonial turnicates, same, different views:

Will continue.

 

[OddFish]

Orange sea squirt, could be Ascidia sp., solitary turnicate.

Small red sea squirt, could be Ascidia sp., solitary turnicate.

Different kind of Valonia, bubble algae, less invasive, than a small round kind.

 

[OddFish]

Welk, predatory snail, face and side view.
Sea squirt, between two colonies of sun coral.

 

[OddFish]

White sea slug, or nudibranch, Tritoniopsis elegans, feeds on soft corals. Link: http://www.seaslugforum.net/factsheet.cfm?base=triteleg

Smallest snail, attached to a coral, possibly Coralliophila Parva, feeds on variety of corals. Links: shell ID http://www.gastropods.com/Taxon_pages/TN_Family_MURICIDAE_CORALLIOPHILINAE.html, description http://striweb.si.edu/bocas_database/details.php?id=2746
Close-up in the next post.

 

[OddFish]

Closeup of described snail.
Peanut worm, or Sipunculid. Detrivore. Link: http://www.mesa.edu.au/friends/seashores/worms.html.
Spirorbid tubeworms (tiniest feather dusters).

 

[OddFish]

Yellow sponge, starts to grow as tank ages, prefers shaded surfaces.
White fuzzy sponge. Helps with water filtration.
Lilac fuzzy sponge. Sensitive to the water quality, as Haliclona blue sponge, but regenerates well with time.

 

[OddFish]

Same white sponge in progress. The last shot - as conditions worsened, the the thank has a lot of detritus.

 

[OddFish]

The same small snail, as in the posts before, this time feeding on purple lemnalia.
Q-tip sponge, Scypha sp. Harmless.
Another small sea squirt.

 

[wade1]

Awesome! Thanks for posting.

Do you mind if I drop them into our hitchiker gallery on the main page? (If not, msg me how you want the credits shown.)

Wade

 

[OddFish]

Flatworm, could be the red planaria.
Foraminiferans, the red could be Homotrema rubrum. Links: http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-07/rs/index.php, http://www.recif-france.com/Database/119.htm
Majano anemone. Multiplies too fast.

 

[OddFish]

Chaetomorpha, in short - Chaeto. One of the best algae for refugium. Non-invasive.
Iridescent blue-green staghorn algae - Dictiota, possibly Dictyota friabilis. Links: http://biodiv.upf.pf/base/taxon.php?id=1066, different dictiotas http://www.marinelifephotography.com/marine/seaweeds/brown-seaweeds.htm

 

[OddFish]

Small vermetids, with and without strands of mucus.
Spirobranchus, or Christmas tree worm, under hairy mushroom.

 

[wade1]

Great shots on some of those critters! I'll try to get to adding them to our hhfaq in the very near future.

Thanks for posting everything!

 

[~reefchik~]

Cool thread. Hello all, this is my first post back here in about 4 years (took a long hiatus from the hobby).

This little monster came hiding in my brown star polyps. As you can see it's easy to miss (see second photo).

There were 3 of them and they EAT the polyps. I sucked them out with a turkey baster and flushed them.

 

[herpencounter]

Dang how did you see that.

And :welcome:

 

[OddFish]

Great shots on some of those critters! I'll try to get to adding them to our hhfaq in the very near future.

May I add more images, only not all are identified?
Another group of pictures for the FAQ is waiting for identification in the Multiple ID for HitchFAQ thread.

 

[Paintbug]

These white threads appear when my substrate gets stirred up. Are they coming out of the strange tubes coming off my live rock in the second pic? What are the threads? What are the crusty tubes?

those are vermetid snails.

 

[~reefchik~]

Thanks for the welcome, herpencounter.

I only saw them when they came out of the polyps onto the rock. I watched them for a few days thinking "how cool, some neat slugs". Til I noticed my polyps were disappearing 8O

 

[herpencounter]

Oh that’s to bad... They would be a cool thing to have in there.