THE ULTIMATE ID THREAD! Before you post WHATS THIS? LOOK HERE!

[privatelykept]

WHEW, ok thats all I have for now. I think I covered most of the comon hitchikers. Sorry I had to do it in multiple posts, and I have an email out to CM about making this easier to use with a sticky. If there is something you would like to add please shoot me a pm and let me know. THANKS and hope you found this useful.

I am new on this site and after reading this....I can't believe so many questions that I had just magically disappeared! I don't have a camera good enough to post pics to ask some of the questions I wanted to ask and I don't have all of the terminology down so I can't explain my questions well enough. Your pics were perfect and identified EVERY hitchhiker concern I had with our new tank. Thanks for the time and effort.

 

Is this a Gorilla crab?

 

What kind of crab is this?

[ervin7]

I havent had the chance 2 take a pic yet, but i have a worm in my tank that iz half purple and half pink. Doez anyone know what this iz??

[lakshwadeep]

I havent had the chance 2 take a pic yet, but i have a worm in my tank that iz half purple and half pink. Doez anyone know what this iz??

 

I am 90% sure it is a bristle worm:

http://www.chucksaddiction.com/hitchworms.html

Edited January 20, 2009 by lakshwadeep

[Lumptal]

has to be a bristle. does it have a lot of legs?

[reef4girl]

I thought I would add one of my hitchhikers,thought it might be helpful to someone. I kept watching these microscopic things grown on my rock to find out later there were tiny jellyfish swimming in my tank.Too small to get a photo of them swimming but I do have photos of the colony and then one resting on the glass.

I am told they will not survive in the aquarium and are not harmful.

 

Here is a little info I looked up on these from http://www.discoverlife.org/mp/20q?search=Hydrozoa

Colonial hydrozoans have a base, a stalk, and at least one polyp, which during reproduction buds, producing a medusae. These medusae then mature and release gametes, which fuse to form zygotes, which grow into free-swimming planula larvae upon settling on a suitable substrate develop into a hydroid colony by asexual reproduction. There are about 3,000 known Hydrozoan species.

 

The colony

This is what they look like right before releasing from the stem

Jellyfish on the glass

size comparison to Nassarius snail

[Withers]

Pistol and Mantis Shrimp: HARMFUL

Pretty harmless to corals and such, but can spit your finger right open. Can also harm and kill fish, as well as CUC members. These both come in a huge variety of colors and sizes, but you will always know they are there by the loud snapping noise.

 

I'm just curious as to why pistol shrimp are classified as harmful? Otherwise everything looks good

[Max_Power]

Hello all,

 

Long time reader, first time poster. I recently started a 5 gallon pico and I have some hitchhikers in there that are starting to concern me.

 

They're little brown translucent anemone that look a lot like aiptasia except that they come out at night when my tank light is off and they seem to be able to move around the tank rather quickly.

 

When i first got the rock there just seemed to be a couple of small volcano-like lumps here and there, probably only a half centimeter or so wide, and I didn't really think much about them. then one night i noticed a couple of them open p a little bit, with some spikey tentacles; still they weren't doing much and they didn't seem to be moving or multiplying or anything.

 

then shortly after i put in a Kenya Tree, one morning i noticed one of them had moved from the rock it was sitting on, to half-way across the tank to the base of the Kenya tree. Then I left for work. when i came home that night it had moved off the tree, then the next morning it was back and has been there ever since.

 

I've also noticed a few more around the tank, biggest ones are only a centimeter or so tall. (I'm not sure if they're multiplying or if I'm just noticing them now because i'm concerned).

 

I was always under the impression that aiptasia needed the light, hense my confusion with them only coming out in the dark. Am i wrong? are these guys just aiptasia? if not, does anyone have any ideas?

 

Sorry for the crappy photo, i have a crappy camera.

 

Cheers,

Max

Edited March 6, 2009 by Max_Power

[bzphotog]

I havent had the chance 2 take a pic yet, but i have a worm in my tank that iz half purple and half pink. Doez anyone know what this iz??

 

 

Probobly a bristle worm... their cool but dont touch them

[Migs7]

Thanks! Great Job on this thread! I have a Stomatella and i was wondering what the heck it was! I would only see it at night and would have been on Nano all night looking it up.

[ChouDawg]

I have Stomatella hitch hikers too, quite a few, glad to see they are algae grazers.

 

I have noticed something in one of the caves in my rock work. It looked like a "tentacle" with bars/stripes running perpendicular to the tentacle, all i saw was the tentacle waving back and forth in the water from out of the cave. Then I saw it holding a piece of what just looked like detritus and waving that around. It dropped it and then picked it up and waved a bit more, no idea what it is. It sounds like one of those worms that locks itself in then sends out arms.

 

Looks like a spaghetti / hair worm but the tentacles aren't white and smooth, more rough and banded. Anyone? Impossible to snap a photo.

 

Also on my sand bed there are a few "worm tunnels" I can see sometimes black worms, maybe 1mm in diameter in the burrows. They never come out of the sand but sometime I see little white/clear "tentacles" coming out of those burrows, they then disappear deeper into the sand. Another worm?

 

This thread is great by the way, now I cant sleep

[lakshwadeep]

choudawg: you probably have a micro brittle star. Some types stay hidden except to put a few arms in the water (basically like a filter feeder).

[ChouDawg]

Hm, that is actually what the tentacle looks like, sort of bumpy and banded. Cool, it was behaving similar to the worms, will it ever come out of the hole? Filter feeder and safe?

[ihatesears18]

I thought I would add one of my hitchhikers,thought it might be helpful to someone. I kept watching these microscopic things grown on my rock to find out later there were tiny jellyfish swimming in my tank.Too small to get a photo of them swimming but I do have photos of the colony and then one resting on the glass.

I am told they will not survive in the aquarium and are not harmful.

 

Here is a little info I looked up on these from http://www.discoverlife.org/mp/20q?search=Hydrozoa

Colonial hydrozoans have a base, a stalk, and at least one polyp, which during reproduction buds, producing a medusae. These medusae then mature and release gametes, which fuse to form zygotes, which grow into free-swimming planula larvae upon settling on a suitable substrate develop into a hydroid colony by asexual reproduction. There are about 3,000 known Hydrozoan species.

 

The colony

This is what they look like right before releasing from the stem

Jellyfish on the glass

size comparison to Nassarius snail

 

 

 

Thanks for the info! I've seen these cute little guys on my glass occasionally and wondered what they were. Can snails eat them? Like I said i've seen them on my glass but they aren't there for very long.

[Adipaw]

This thread is fantastic! I have a healthy population of both Collonista Snails and Asteriniid stars.

 

The snails are not too bad, there is just a ton of them. My sixline wrasse keeps them in hiding during the day, but when the lights turn off they are everywhere! I may start pulling them out at night just to control the population.

 

The Asteriniid stars are a little different. They have bothered my zoas once, but I did not see too much damage. Where they have done damage is on my coralline algae. It use to be beautiful with a few different shades of purple, and now it has white marks all over in the shape of these little stars. I have since added a lone harlequin shrimp to thin them out!

[Polly]

What the heck are these? They sprouted up about a year ago and I've off-and-on been trying to figure out what they are. They are very bright green - like neon - with a vibrant white "flakey" shell that sometimes breaks off when I scrape the glass with the magfloat (from the flow/vibration). They started out very tiny, and are now about 2 1/2 inches tall. I've touched them now and then when I need to get my hands in there and they are kinda slimy feeling and flexible, not hard at all. They havent't bothered anything so I kept them. Oh, and I know I have flatworms, I'm infested and slowly syphoning them out. Thanks for any suggestions!

 

 

Thanks,

Polly

[lakshwadeep]

Neomeris algae.

[Polly]

Neomeris algae.

 

Wow, thanks - can't believe I never came across this. Looks like it's 50/50 on whether to keep these or not...

 

Thanks again!

Polly

[lakshwadeep]

Just keep an eye on them. They are completely harmless, but some people have had "outbreaks" of them. It just depends on personal preference if you are annoyed by them. Also, they sometimes just die off after a couple of months only to grow slowly back again.

[cardboy008]

eunice worm....

rock tunneling worm.....some get quite large (measured in feet) and can prey on fish and other critters

 

This is a peanut worm.

[bluefrog]

I have noticed something in one of the caves in my rock work. It looked like a "tentacle" with bars/stripes running perpendicular to the tentacle, all i saw was the tentacle waving back and forth in the water from out of the cave. Then I saw it holding a piece of what just looked like detritus and waving that around. It dropped it and then picked it up and waved a bit more, no idea what it is. It sounds like one of those worms that locks itself in then sends out arms.

 

Chances are this is also a peanut worm, check out http://www.chucksaddiction.com/hitchworms.html

this one looks very similar to mine. the tell tale sign for me was the mouth fan "thingy" that comes out of the mouth.

[lakshwadeep]

NEW PEOPLE (and others):

 

Please avoid killing or trying to fish out things that you are trying to identify before you get at least a rough identification. It is hard for other members to identify something that's not underwater. A picture is very important for a conclusive ID, but sometimes a very detailed description is sufficient. Finally, it's kind of arrogant to ask "How do I get rid of it?" after "What is this?". Most hitchhikers are harmless. Those that are called "bad" are only considered so in our captive tanks, and even many of those (such as most bristle worms) have been previously written off as scapegoats for problems with introduced corals/fish.

 

Also, when you have an ID, it is not hard to do a simple search either here or on google.

Edited February 18, 2010 by lakshwadeep

[domeski]

Noticed this little guy tonight in my tank... What kind of crab is it?

 

Edited April 19, 2009 by domeski

[lakshwadeep]

It could be a mithrax or xanthid crab. If you can get a pic of the shell from above, that will help with identification.

[CoralCreeper]

First time post, as I am a new member surfing the forums. But i would like to thank you for this thread. its been a real help. Ive had my 30G Nano for about two months now and luckily nothing in the harmful area has shown up yet

[domeski]

It could be a mithrax or xanthid crab. If you can get a pic of the shell from above, that will help with identification.

 

Thanks! I took a pic and compared to other xanthids... still haven't been able to take it out though.