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


Helfrichs Chick

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"Limpets: HARMLESS

Harmless little guys, and pretty cute too. Algae grazers that usually come in on the rock. There are lots of species but most have a pointed shell, and pretty easy id."

 

 

These little guys are not harmless and have been giving me fits recently. I can say, without a shadow of a doubt, that they eat montis and zoas.

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I am so full of appreciation for this thread. Was wondering for ages what these little jellyfish like things were. I didn't post a "help ID wierd creature" thread due to them being impossible to photograph. Thank you so much and God Bless You.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm the type of person who loves to see all the critters. Tonight I was looking at my 20 polyp frag of purple hornet and found a zoa eating nudi. If not for reading this article last week I would have definately enjoyed watching him in the tank because he is cool looking. I ran upstairs got some gloves and a bag and caught him....phew that is scary. I guess thats why they have been closed?

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 4 weeks later...
Katy Reefer

Thanks for this! It has helped me ID plenty of things in my tank over the last few months.

 

Tonight I had a mild panic attack after seeing my shrimp investigating a slug looking thing. It turned out to be a stomatella. I'm going to include my two pictures on here since the ones on the ID thread are a bit small and kinda hard to see. It had a real hard shell under its skin.

 

Thanks everyone.

 

snail11.JPG

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  • 2 months later...

Can't get a pic, as it was gone shortly after I noticed it. USO was about 1cm in length, white, cylindrical; however it was twisting around while moving like a ribbon/corkscrew in order to swim. Anyone seen anything like this before?

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  • 1 month later...

I've been looking around here for a while and still can't figure out what these little tubes are. I put in at least an hour a day searching online, but no luck. They started growing on the darker sides of my rock, I was moving rocks around and noticed a bunch of these finger like things growing. They have no feathers or tentacles, sorry about the pic, the water got a bit cloudy...Thanks!

post-57224-1290643607_thumb.jpg

post-57224-1290643626_thumb.jpg

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  • 4 months later...
Zoanthid Spiders: HARMFUL

Nasty buggers. If you have a sick colony, that’s not opening look for these guys. Manually remove any you can find and QT. They typically are very small.

zoapredator_spider.jpg

 

Red Bugs: HARMFUL

Found on SPS, and VERY tiny. Hard to see but will have a orange-ish color and will look like little dots. I put these in harmful, but I think most hobbyists have these in their tank. Seems impossible even with proper dipping methods to kill them all.

redbug_800.jpg

 

Sundial Snail: HARMFUL

Harmful to zoanthids. Usually easy to spot and remove, however babies can be pretty tiny.

sundial.jpgsundial_snail.jpg

 

Flatworms: (Not all are bad, clear ones are harmless) HARMFUL

Usually a rusty red color (clear flatworms are harmless and algae grazers) and can over take a tank easily. Removal is tricky, as they can release toxins when killed, using a air line tube, suctioning these out is the best method.

flatworms.jpg

 

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.

mantis.jpgpistol.jpg

 

Rock Crabs: HARMFUL

These are hard to spot and usually come out at night, They will eat anything they can catch including small fish and CUC members if they get hungry enough. They can also grow pretty large at times. A tell tale sign you have one or more is that you will see the shed, especially the large claw shed.

rockcrab.jpg

 

Fire Worms: HARMFUL

Nasty critters. These will feed on your corals and inflict a painful sting if touched. Sometimes fire worms can be hard to distinguish from common bristle worms.

worm_fireworm_orange.jpgfireworm.jpg

handouchbristle.jpg

some people keep mantis and pistol shrimp
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doppelganger
some people keep mantis and pistol shrimp

 

yeah but they're still harmful to fish and cuc... I would hope that if you kept them, you have some understanding of what they are. Doesn't say anything about not keeping them or making for bad inhabitants if given the proper living environment. To the average reef, they can be harmful to fish/inverts.

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  • 3 weeks later...
lakshwadeep
some people keep mantis and pistol shrimp

 

Some of the information is misleading or overgeneralized because they represent entire families of organisms. That's like comparing a house cat to a tiger. For example, "smasher" (vs. "spearer") mantis shrimp can sometimes be kept with fish but usually not crabs/snails, and many people keep certain pistol shrimp species with a shrimp goby.

 

Fire worms are another good example of bad generalizations.

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  • 2 weeks later...
violet21chewy
Identified by Diane as "A specific kind of sphaeromatid commonly called a "sand skater." Reef safe."

Thank you so much for this ID. I have a ton on a rock and was trying to manually remove them because I thought they were bad isopods!

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lakshwadeep
Thank you so much for this ID. I have a ton on a rock and was trying to manually remove them because I thought they were bad isopods!

 

This link has good reference pics on the common isopod shapes. Large eyes are a hallmark of the main predator/parasites (cirolanids and aegids):

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-05/rs/

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 4 weeks later...
Deleted User 4
Are they on your glass or rock? They shouldn't be a big problem.

 

On my glass for sure, not sure about rock because they're small... but there's alot compared to before. It's preading quick, been like this for a month already. Front, sides and back on the tank I can see it, not on the rocks. Do these sting corals like other hydroids?

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