countless things on my new live rock

[patback]

so far ive counted 6 differnt types of coral on my liverock that i recently had shipped to me. that doesnt count doubles, even triples of the same kind. couldnt be happier about it, and i hope they survive through the cycle. i dont have a camera, so i am going to try to borrow my girlfriends and bring some pictures into a really good lfs to ask them what they could be.

 

my one question i have now is that i just found a small creature (slug?) its about 1/2" long, and moves very slowly. its yellowish/tan, and has small, nodule type "buds" all over its body, when sprayed with a baster, it brings all those "knobs" in tight to its body. it looks like it has a long orange thing that im guessing its eating with... looks kind of like some sort or tube. anyone have an idea? it was hanging around some unknown hard, white coral skeleton. any ideas and maybe a picture of what you think it could be would be greatly appreciated, along with your opinion on whether or not its reef safe. ill try to post a picture tomorrow night.

[tyborbogdan]

deffinitly post pics of the coral hitchikers, wish I was that lucky with my stuff aha

[patback]

deffinitly post pics of the coral hitchikers, wish I was that lucky with my stuff aha

 

 

yeah, i love it. great colors, all the corals, a few featherdusters, macro, clams, everything. the only thing is i wish there was more of a variety of shapes.

[metrokat]

EDIT: oops here;s the right thread for the live rock: It's alive!

 

Yup! Check my build for some hitchhiker ID's Kat's Nerdy BC14 Build

 

You might have a nudi, the knobby thing that moves slowly.

 

The hard white coral skeleton could be a rose coral, do upload pics.

 

Was the rock from the gulf?

[patback]

yes, it is kat. i got it from the same place as you.

[metrokat]

Yay! I updated my live rock thread. Post up some pics, I'll help ID if I can.

[patback]

im going to search through your links, thanks. my girlfriends camera better have its battery charged.i want to know what everything is now but i have to wait haha. i also just found this weird orange thing on a part of the rock that must have been sitting on the sand. it has no coraline or anything near it. it is slimy, soft, yet firm. it reminds me of what the inside of a clam looks like if you shuck it. weird

[metrokat]

Pat, do you have anything in your tank other than this rock (and hopefully sand or substrate of some sort?) any fish? The cycle can be harsh on livestock. I did not have anything in mine (and no cycle either) in spite of massive amounts of die off and all.

 

You will find worms, I seem to have found a medusa in mine but I think I nuked it. There will also be anemones which could take upto a week to show. It's all good (they are not the invasive kind but a gentler aiptasia variety).

 

The clams might be wing oysters.

 

Any other critters?

 

Look at me all excited about YOUR rock.

[patback]

your "its alive" link just assured me that i have an open brain coral also. really small tho, slightly larger than a quarter.

[metrokat]

i also just found this weird orange thing on a part of the rock that must have been sitting on the sand. it has no coraline or anything near it. it is slimy, soft, yet firm. it reminds me of what the inside of a clam looks like if you shuck it. weird

 

-Most probably a tunicate but ahem a pic would help

 

your "its alive" link just assured me that i have an open brain coral also. really small tho, slightly larger than a quarter.

 

-that one is a beauty and I hope yours survives: here is a new link for the rose coral in my tank so you can see what the skeleton grew to (and the problems/solutions) Rose Coral

[patback]

-Most probably a tunicate but ahem a pic would help

 

 

 

-that one is a beauty and I hope yours survives: here is a new link for the rose coral in my tank so you can see what the skeleton grew to (and the problems/solutions) Rose Coral

quick google search looks like it is probably a tunicate. the only difference is that mine is a little smoother, no bumps or holes. maybe just a differnt type than the pictures i saw tho. i promise, pics tomorrow. haha.

 

the thing that i think is a cup/brain; i have two of them. one is all white, the other is white with green/teal on the inside. both are very small though.

[metrokat]

The coral today:

[patback]

i can only hope mine ends up like that. lol. mine isnt looking to well, dont even know if its alive at this point. lol. im going to read up on it a little, what kind of flow do you keep it in and whats the lighting like?

[metrokat]

i can only hope mine ends up like that. lol. mine isnt looking to well, dont even know if its alive at this point. lol. im going to read up on it a little, what kind of flow do you keep it in and whats the lighting like?

 

How long have you had the rocks? This coral doesn't like too much flow but prefers good light (though not searing brights). On mine, I saw a noticeable "plumping" of the tissue by day 2 or 3, which told me the coral might be alive. I touched it with a pipette and it shrank and it was confirmed.

 

I also feed it betta sized food pellets once a week and it likes those. I also feed marine snow once a week.

 

Adding calcium will help, especially for the halimeda plants.

[patback]

sorry, i was not ignoring you. for some reason, when i come back to the thread, i all of a sudden see posts that i did not have earlier, even tho it says you sent it way before. to answer your one question, i only have these rocks, and a 1- 1.5" sand bed. its a little nerve racking, there is so much on these rocks that i cant even take pictures of it all, and my dads camera that i tried SUCKS. i just found a worm, which im guessing is a featherduster without its crown. it has a long, twirling, hard purple tube that has some sort of "door" that shuts when it gets scared. it barely peeks out. ive had the rocks since yesterday at about 4 oclock. so not long at all haha.

[patback]

soo...little guy is too small for myself to photograph, but after searching adn searching i finally found a picture. anyone know the name of this and whether or not he will mess up my tank if he were to croak?

 

http://tbsaltwater.com/thepackage/organisms.html

 

it is number 57 in the scroll window

[mndfreeze]

I'm not familar wit that species but chances are if it's small it won't do much damage. Not any more then any animal of its size dying.

[metrokat]

i like sea cucumbers and a small one should not be a problem. they do release a toxin when they die but so do clams. i dare say, your tank could handle it. it .ight limit the coral u can keep so research before u buy. do nothing for a couple of weeks . watch the rock . u will have die off which will clear out a lot of stuff.

[patback]

i like sea cucumbers and a small one should not be a problem. they do release a toxin when they die but so do clams. i dare say, your tank could handle it. it .ight limit the coral u can keep so research before u buy. do nothing for a couple of weeks . watch the rock . u will have die off which will clear out a lot of stuff.

 

maybe its a real dumb question to ask, but while my tank is cycling, should the corals that were on the rocks be opening up? ammonia is at around 5-6ppm give or take and theyre looking pretty lively, the tank is only 4 days old at this point. oh, and i chucked the cucumber, i got anxious and worried what would happen if the tank water killed it. oh well.

[lakshwadeep]

If you have corals or other "delicate" hitchhikers and want to make sure they survive, you should soft-cycle the tank (use large water changes from the start) to limit the ammonia spike's severity. Check the relevant thread in the biological filtration forum for more info.

[patback]

sorry it took so long, my girlfriend cant find the charger to her camera, so i guess ill just upload the crappy photos.. anyone tell me what these are?

 

 

 

 

 

[patback]

sorry it took so long for pics. these were on the first day that i got the rocks in, there are 2 brains total, now starting to get their flesh around the skeleton back. the big thick blob is the cuccumber i got rid of, and everything else is kind of a mystery. help me out ? for every species of somthing thats dieing, i find 3 more that are coming to life. this morning i found some sort or anenome, too small to really tell. it was clear like aiptasia, but has little bubbles on its tips; about the size of my pinky nail. ive also found 2 seperate , lonely featherdusters, and a patch of feather dusters with about 5 or 6 total. snails are also starting to pop up, along with differnt sponges regenerating.

[metrokat]

i cant see anything since im on my kindle, but the first 2 dont look like my rose coral but they ar ea brain of some sort . the tubes are tube coral, like sun corals almost. those like low light but if they were on the same batch as the brain they are likely from shallow waters. i would email the pics to dan who can help with an ID

 

 

 

sorry it took so long for pics. these were on the first day that i got the rocks in, there are 2 brains total, now starting to get their flesh around the skeleton back. the big thick blob is the cuccumber i got rid of, and everything else is kind of a mystery. help me out ? for every species of somthing thats dieing, i find 3 more that are coming to life. this morning i found some sort or anenome, too small to really tell. it was clear like aiptasia, but has little bubbles on its tips; about the size of my pinky nail. ive also found 2 seperate , lonely featherdusters, and a patch of feather dusters with about 5 or 6 total. snails are also starting to pop up, along with differnt sponges regenerating.

[wolfador]

Nice rock, I didn't really get any corals with mine, a bunch of sponges though.

[patback]

thanks kat, you are great. i emailed dan just before and he hasnt gotten back to me yet, but i'm guessing that i will be moving the tube coral down lower, since everything is opening up except for them. they do have movement so it is alive, but its not much. theres one really nice, smaller one, and one huge "bush" that looks like it was damaged in shipping, atleast 50% of it is kinda iffy and some tubes are falling off now.

 

the first picture i tihnk is probably my favorite out of all of them, so i really want info on that. you think its a brain? it was a pristine white when i first put it in, but has a brown tint on the indents(mouths? polyps? idk lol) now. i tried basting it to get some sand that blew ontop of it off and it changed back to more of a white color.