farkwar Posted February 21, 2015 Share Posted February 21, 2015 I have a tank with Reefcleaners dead rock, and the nano pack from Gulf Live Rock. So the hitchhikers are going to be indigenous to the gulf area. Its been in a 40b since Dec, cycling and getting coralline growing on the dead florida rock. About 2 weeks ago, right when the lights turned on, I saw a glimpse of an animal, back behind between some rocks. It had several armor looking appendages and was black or very dark brown. In a fraction of a second it was gone. If it were a mantis shrimp, what can it be eating to stay alive. Might have been a heavy armored crab. Also, I've discovered that i have a rock tunneling animal in the tank, its going through some of Johns dry rock like an ant digs through dirt. Tunnels are between 1/4" and 3/8" of an inch in diameter. I baste all the entry points and chunks of rock blow out all of the entry points. Third, I now have about 1000 baby stomatellas climbing the glass, and a few tiny flat worms. Ill make sure those are dead before moving the rock. I wonder what those can be eating. No corals in there. Some ugly polyps and 4 or 5 mojano nems made it through shipping, whatever the bubble tip kind are called.. Link to comment
Dr.Brain Coral Posted February 21, 2015 Share Posted February 21, 2015 I am quessing it is a mantis shrimp. Link to comment
FlowerMama Posted February 21, 2015 Share Posted February 21, 2015 Agree, sounds like small mantis shrimp getting all cozy. I had 3 when I got my rock 10/31 from KPAquatics, same ocean. You can see them in my first post, they were tiny .5", .75" - the largest at 1" I gave away. Get yourself a 15 gallon, not fancy lighting, some macro & have a nice pet. See Gertie's latest videos from my thread. Link to comment
farkwar Posted February 21, 2015 Author Share Posted February 21, 2015 Rock tunneling animal: I baste those tunnels like twice a day. That much stuff comes out each time. I should feed it/them something. Do they eat raw dead shrimp? Link to comment
ajmckay Posted February 21, 2015 Share Posted February 21, 2015 I think it's probably a worm... One type of worm that I've seen that somewhat fits the description is a peanut worm - note not the kind that are eaten, a smaller variety. Can't really tell much from the video as to ID, though that is a lot of stuff. Link to comment
amphipod Posted February 21, 2015 Share Posted February 21, 2015 I'm going with peanut worm, he's perfectly fine. There is plenty of small ani Animals on your rock for a small mantis shrimp, and don't underestimate their fasting ability. Don't assume all flatworms are bad, there are so many harmless species chances are they are one of them Stomatella snails are beneficial anyways Link to comment
farkwar Posted February 21, 2015 Author Share Posted February 21, 2015 http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-04/rs/ Doesn't sound like these can remove a gram or two of aragonite rock per day. This animal is producing small chunks of rock a few millimeters across, not just the cloudy dust. I'm not terribly worried about the flatworms, their diet doesn't consist of coral or fish at this time. None are in the tank. Link to comment
Slowtwitch Posted February 21, 2015 Share Posted February 21, 2015 Listen closely for the tunneling activity. I had a small mantis in my last shipment from Gulf Live Rock. He made a lot of noise banging away inside the rock to make his new home. He's about 1.75-2 inches long now and lightning fast. Fun to watch play in the tank though. Link to comment
amphipod Posted February 21, 2015 Share Posted February 21, 2015 If you watch the active holes for a while or at night you may get a glimpse of the borer going for a new tunnel. Link to comment
FlowerMama Posted February 21, 2015 Share Posted February 21, 2015 In my shipment of live rock I also got a rock boring urchin. It would sit in hole and then later you'd see if was deeper in that hole from that slow grinding. Eventually I had a hole on the other side. Link to comment
Dr.Brain Coral Posted February 21, 2015 Share Posted February 21, 2015 Its not a worm. Worms arent armored. Link to comment
amphipod Posted February 22, 2015 Share Posted February 22, 2015 Its not a worm. Worms arent armored. but farkwar hasn't seen the shrimp in digging action yet, there could be other things boring the rock. Also worms aren't really to my knowledge armored today, but in the past there is a different story (I just put this link to tease your comment a little and also did this since you like paleobiology, and paleontology) . http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machaeridian Link to comment
Dr.Brain Coral Posted February 22, 2015 Share Posted February 22, 2015 Thanks for the link Amph. And just because farkwar hasnt seen it boring, doesnt mean its not the one doing it. All the evidence points to a mantis shrimp in my opinion. Link to comment
amphipod Posted February 22, 2015 Share Posted February 22, 2015 Most likely it is him, still its good to double check Link to comment
farkwar Posted February 23, 2015 Author Share Posted February 23, 2015 Its not a worm. Worms arent armored.What I glimpsed is not digging these tunnels. It was the size of an easily adult mantis shrimp. I saw curved appendages, shaped like long plantains, about inch and a half long. I will see it again alive or dead, when the rock gets moved to the display. Whatever it is or was, it had to come over in the Gulf Live rock, that rock was real porous and bulbous, like live rock is supposed to be. I have not heard any typical mantis shrimp sounds either. The entrance holes, as you can see in the vid, are small. Like 3/8" of an inch. My working premise, until seen, is that this is an immature mantis. It would be cool if they all live to make it over to the display. Planned fish are predators, lionfish, porcupine puffer, fu manchu lion, scorpion fish, etc. Let the games begin. Link to comment
farkwar Posted February 23, 2015 Author Share Posted February 23, 2015 I bought a pair if these to anodize aluminum. Which didn't happen. http://www.amazon.com/Atlas-26-inch-Nitrile-Chemical-Resistant/dp/B004A9KI7W I'm now using these to handle this rock. Link to comment
FlowerMama Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 My mantis Gertie, though small she is, has the hole entrance to her tunnel as 1/4-5/16" yet she's 1.5" long currently. She'll only grow to be 2.5 I think I read. However, she made noise even at .5" when I found her. So it is a mystery, unless it's not one w/ wrecking balls but spears. Link to comment
amphipod Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 I bought a pair if these to anodize aluminum. Which didn't happen. http://www.amazon.com/Atlas-26-inch-Nitrile-Chemical-Resistant/dp/B004A9KI7W I'm now using these to handle this rock. lol a little overkill? Since rock is quite porous its much easier for borer to get in allowing many more possibilities of his identity Link to comment
Benny314 Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 Listen for clicking. That's always a give a way for a mantis. Also if you have that sort of snail population in there, then there will be more than enough food for the shrimp. Link to comment
farkwar Posted February 23, 2015 Author Share Posted February 23, 2015 Benny, I have about 30 Florida dwarf cerith snails, from John. Pretty stable on the number. Had some accidental hermits, they are gone. I had some other RC snails, the striped kind, but they were eating the coralline, so I took those out. I was just about to reorder some more cleaners from John, but the stomatellas spawned. So I'm not going to need reinforcements. Amphipod, I don't know if they are overkill or not. Bristleworm bristles can puncture normal nitrile gloves which I normally use. And like I said, the fish are all going to be predator to poisonous. I'm going to err on the overkill side. Im going to be drilling the rock for nylon threaded rod work, so a more than usual amount of manual manipulation. Flowermama, Thanks for info, I didn't know that. Link to comment
jamescstein Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 but the stomatellas spawned. So I'm not going to need reinforcements. If you ever say.. hey! I have too many stomatellas... I'd love to buy some from you. Link to comment
farkwar Posted February 24, 2015 Author Share Posted February 24, 2015 If you ever say.. hey! I have too many stomatellas... I'd love to buy some from you. Hopefully, that happens. Its cool, I have a few albinos, couple black ones, and thousand cream babies. In my other tank where I had a population boom, the fish found out that the babies were tasty. And a lot of the babies found the skimmer pump needlewheel. As in Stomatella paste. Link to comment
amphipod Posted February 24, 2015 Share Posted February 24, 2015 Benny, I have about 30 Florida dwarf cerith snails, from John. Pretty stable on the number. Had some accidental hermits, they are gone. I had some other RC snails, the striped kind, but they were eating the coralline, so I took those out. I was just about to reorder some more cleaners from John, but the stomatellas spawned. So I'm not going to need reinforcements. Amphipod, I don't know if they are overkill or not. Bristleworm bristles can puncture normal nitrile gloves which I normally use. And like I said, the fish are all going to be predator to poisonous. I'm going to err on the overkill side. Im going to be drilling the rock for nylon threaded rod work, so a more than usual amount of manual manipulation. Flowermama, Thanks for info, I didn't know that. I guess that's not over kill in that instance, I always watch for worms and things like that to make sure I don't hurt them and myself touching them.Don't usually use gloves though Link to comment
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