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@Suzierd

 

that is an invasive worm, I don’t know the name but have seen them before. They often come on new corals that weren’t dipped. They won’t take over your take but they will multiply. I would get them out if you see any.

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Does anyone know what this is? Almost looks like some type of barnacle, with a weird face shape. But it’s red and small and I haven’t found anything online. It’s about the size of a pea.

558F865C-6FEF-4B05-AF23-A9CD2499AF29.jpeg

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On 2/11/2020 at 5:19 PM, cabezatuck said:

@Suzierd

 

that is an invasive worm, I don’t know the name but have seen them before. They often come on new corals that weren’t dipped. They won’t take over your take but they will multiply. I would get them out if you see any.

Oh darn, thank you.

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I ended up removing it, for fear something would crawl out and spawn more. It was definitely some type of barnacle, There were little creatures inside each hole. I think they were dead, dip may have killed them. I didn’t get a good look at them though because when I was scraping it off I smashed it by mistake. 

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DISQUALIFIED-QQ

I have some photos to share all coming from a Favia colony I got this past weekend.

 

Gall crab. You may find these in your stony corals if they're sourced from the outside world. My colony was maricultured from Tonga so it made sense some gamey-ness came along with it. Unfortunately this happened because I forgot to bring the Reef Dip from home.

IMG_20200216_223609.thumb.jpg.8d32c540437ca47a24099fa6fafb42f6.jpgIMG_20200216_224151.thumb.jpg.3bd631080bf81d1d4c62e5c53f4db411.jpg

 

"I stuck a fork" in the worm

IMG_20200216_223827.thumb.jpg.98ffd80bd9e5aabee873c1f42fdb84f1.jpg

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4 hours ago, Diamonds x Pearls said:

Gall crab. You may find these in your stony corals if they're sourced from the outside world. My colony was maricultured from Tonga so it made sense some gamey-ness came along with it. Unfortunately this happened because I forgot to bring the Reef Dip from home.

It happened because nature is cool and you got the frag from nature instead of from some sterile tank.  👍 

 

At it's core this is a curious-minded, nature-loving hobby....I wish folks would forget the kneejerk response to "dip everything to death".  

 

If you see something problematic, that's one thing...but even then it's usually just an oddball like this, in some cases it's something not reef-safe.  Removal to a safe tank is often all that's required.  But hardly ever is there something worthy of an MDK.

 

Gall crabs are a good example -- they are harmless.  They just live in the hole they make (the "gall") and they ultimately get stuck inside (but are well-protected) as the coral grows and live there catching planktonic food that drifts by.  

 

What a great (if tiny) feature for a reef tank!!!

 

Check out Melev's Gall crab page.

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DISQUALIFIED-QQ
7 hours ago, mcarroll said:

 

It happened because nature is cool and you got the frag from nature instead of from some sterile tank.  👍 

 

At it's core this is a curious-minded, nature-loving hobby....I wish folks would forget the kneejerk response to "dip everything to death".  

 

If you see something problematic, that's one thing...but even then it's usually just an oddball like this, in some cases it's something not reef-safe.  Removal to a safe tank is often all that's required.  But hardly ever is there something worthy of an MDK.

 

Gall crabs are a good example -- they are harmless.  They just live in the hole they make (the "gall") and they ultimately get stuck inside (but are well-protected) as the coral grows and live there catching planktonic food that drifts by.  

 

What a great (if tiny) feature for a reef tank!!!

 

Check out Melev's Gall crab page.

I hear you but does that make dipping corals specifically a bad practice? I don't think so. It's more or less a risk management (or risk limiting) procedure. I dip all the other corals I received except for a select few just because I didn't have it. Not trying to argue my way out, but just showing how I practice. I'd rather be safe than sorry if it turns out for a turn for the worse. I don't see this as a kneejerk response, so I'll have to unfortunately disagree with you there.

 

In the greater system that's the Central Pacific Ocean? I'm fine with it because things like this are supposed to happen. I wouldn't bat an eye for it. However in a perspective of closed systems it may be one thing I'm not looking to work with at this time. Maybe later down the road I'll loosen up. Don't get me wrong. I love nature too, bugs and all. I'm trying to get into the public aquarium and museum field so it's a must to feel this way. Unfortunately I'm not the nation state of Tonga nor my dining room is the Central Pacific Ocean, so some control will need to be exerted in a 30 by 12 by 12 inch box of water, especially making this my first go at things and being at the youngest stage of home aquarium. If anything lesser variables could make an easier entry into the hobby, at the minimum a cooler head.

 

Finally, the purposes of me just posting this was because there wasn't a gall crab entry. So sure I admit out of fear of unknowns I ground up the female and fed it to the my frostbites, but that's my gall crab and ultimately my decision what to do with it and I have chosen probably what is an extreme method.

 

TLDR: I'll let others figure it out what to do with their gall crabs. I'm nobody's lord and master. Sorry if I come off a little weird, just making a complete and honest response.

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What I said was...

15 hours ago, mcarroll said:

If you see something problematic, that's one thing...but even then it's usually just an oddball like this, in some cases it's something not reef-safe.  Removal to a safe tank is often all that's required.  But usually not something worthy of an MDK.

 

If you ID something and it turns out to be MDK, then so be it....sometimes that will be the case.  Why make it the default though?

 

 

 

9 hours ago, Diamonds x Pearls said:

I'd rather be safe than sorry

That's overstating things....it's not an either or situation.  Everyone can be safe.....even most of the hitchhikers.

 

What's actually at risk from us all taking more time to observe and to be more selective about what we kill off and what we don't? 

 

Our time? 

 

This is a long term hobby, so hopefully that's not a reason for taking shortcuts. 

 

Literally nothing but our time is at risk....and we gain from every second we spend. 

 

In fact, we gain more from the surprises than the stuff we expected.

 

At least in the past (I suspect now too) folks got into this hobby becuase of how dynamic and exciting it can be.

 

Seems today like a lot of folks are literally afraid of those very things that make our hobby what it is.

 

There are lots of hobbys that ARE cut, dried and safe, so to speak:  chess, stamp collecting, model building, etc.  Reefing just isn't one of them.

 

12 hours ago, Diamonds x Pearls said:

I'm nobody's lord and master. Sorry if I come off a little weird, just making a complete and honest response.

We're just on the internet talking about ideas.....everyone's here voluntarily as far as I know.


But we kinda ARE lord and master over the critters we take from the ocean!  With great power comes great responsibility, eh?  😉 

 

I'm pretty sure we all come off as a little weird....look at how much we talk about "live rock" and other nonsense.  🤣

 

I mean how much nonsense is it that I went to bat for an anonymous gall crab?? 

 

But that's our hobby in a nutshell.  "Beautifully crazy", if you will.

 

For example, if you read enough, you learn that both Bryposis and Bubble Algae have both been treasured for their beauty at various stages of this hobby's history. 

 

Were we crazy back in the 1850's and the 1990's? 

 

Or are we crazy now where we spend time worrying about them instead of enjoying them?  😉 

 

Earlier views seem to come from being open minded to what comes.  Our "modern" view seems to come from being fearful and close-minded about same.  Seems like it must be a personal choice when you get down to it.  We choose to see a tank of (e.g.) Bryopsis growth as some kind of freakish failure that needs to be "cured".  We could just as easily choose differently....and in fact folks have done so in the past.

 

(Check out A Handbook to the Marine Aquarium: Practical Instructions For Contrsucting, Stocking, And Maintaining A Tank, And For Collecting Plants And Animals for the Bryopsis suggestion...and the 1990's Baensch Atlas for the bubble algae suggestion....tho I forget which volume.)

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  • 2 weeks later...

What type of worm is that which you stuck the tac in? I believe I have one of those. Just looks like a purple-brownish blob about the size of a dime. Doesn’t seem to move or grow. It’s only slightly raised, kind of dome shaped. It was on a small piece of live rock that I procured.

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  • 2 weeks later...
OldOdinOneEye

Alright, I got one. What’s this? Doesn’t respond to touch, has a somewhat rigid outside and seems to have something growing inside but I can’t confirm

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
15 hours ago, SeaFurn said:

This thing is eating at the base of my frogspawn. Looks kinda like a spider. What the H is it and how do I get rid of it? 

 

49705494843_eb3fc2719a_b.jpg

 

Disregard the picture above. I think it’s just debris hanging down along with some tiny little worms. 

Below is what was eating away the frogspawn. I pulled it off the bottom of the coral when I broke it off the rock. Then I dipped the coral. 

Anyone know what kind of worm this is. It’s got tons of little tentacles it fans out or pulls in next to its body. 

49708244571_9ef9667785_b.jpg49707712583_7bc0b4752a_b.jpg

 

 

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16 minutes ago, SeaFurn said:

Disregard the picture above. I think it’s just debris hanging down along with some tiny little worms. 

Below is what was eating away the frogspawn. I pulled it off the bottom of the coral when I broke it off the rock. Then I dipped the coral. 

Anyone know what kind of worm this is. It’s got tons of little tentacles it fans out or pulls in next to its body. 

49708244571_9ef9667785_b.jpg49707712583_7bc0b4752a_b.jpg

 

 

Spaghetti worm. 

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43 minutes ago, SeaFurn said:

I didn't think they were BAD though?

  

There are a few types that supposedly annoy coral more than others but I’ve never had that experience. 

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28 minutes ago, WV Reefer said:

There are a few types that supposedly annoy coral more than others but I’ve never had that experience. 

Yeah it’s crazy. You can see how the rock had been eaten away from the base and part of the inside of the skeleton had been eaten away. Weird that it doesn’t attack the fleshy part. 

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  • 2 months later...
  • 3 weeks later...
Christopher Marks
On 6/25/2020 at 9:42 PM, Mac850 said:

I have a flat black slug/leach looking thing with a white line on its back. I cant seem to upload the photo

It's possible it's a chiton or a nudibranch.

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On 6/26/2020 at 12:42 AM, Mac850 said:

I have a flat black slug/leach looking thing with a white line on its back. I cant seem to upload the photo

Almost legendary in the Dead Rock Era...good find!!!

 

Probably a an "elephant slug" from the description.  That's what they were known as in the 90's and 2000's to me and the folks local to me anyway.  But we knew next to nothing about them back then.  

 

This link is by far the most "authoritative" info I've ever seen on them..... (I used quotes because that's a sea slug forum that seem to operate something like Wet Web Media, and they aren't even sea slugs...but good info lives wherever it lives.  LOL):

http://www.seaslugforum.net/showall/scutus

 

There are some additional references on Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scutus_breviculus

 

Seems like most of the info known about them is by way of anecdotes from folks like you who find and keep them.  😃  Keep us posted on how he does!  Treat him as if he were a Turbo snail on your CUC and don't give him much competition....no other herbivores (snail or fish) unless it becomes necessary.  (I.e. too much algae growth and he's not keeping up.)  IME they are excellent herbivores....just like a large Turbo, but WAY cooler looking.

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@Pred24
Looks a bit like clove polyps- coral. Can't be sure without better pictures.

 

 

This, I almost wonder if it's a bizarre algae of some sort, something akin to a scroll algae. But I don't think it would be transparent. Tunicates and sponges come to mind as the standard "weird-shaped saltwater thing that doesn't crawl around" suspects. Any other images? 

On 3/18/2020 at 3:48 PM, OldOdinOneEye said:

Alright, I got one. What’s this? Doesn’t respond to touch, has a somewhat rigid outside and seems to have something growing inside but I can’t confirm

 

 

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