Good or bad?

Are not doing the same thing when we get live rock cultured in the ocean? What about the people who have the luck of living on the ocean that use the water for water changes? Ive seen beautiful tanks that have only had sea water added directly from the ocean. But thats just water not sand. By adding the sand i would be adding alot of biodiversity to the tank. The hermit was massive so im gonna give him to a buddy with a larger tank. He looked like a baseball on the rock work. Even if it is parasitic i have no coral or fish for it to feed on, and dont plan on adding any for a month or 2 probably late august. Just tiny traces of algae.

 

Ok got some good pics of the culprit. Literally looks like an under water flea but you can see it swim across the 5 gallon bucket when it apears from sand bed. It moves backwards.

 

Here it is flipped over

 

yeah that doesnt look very friendly sump it if you can

 

also with live rick straight from the sea you face the same risk as with a "bucket of sand" the best way to obtain live rock would be to buy some that has matured in an established reed tank. that way you are sure of getting only good bacteria on the rock and nothing more.

your other alternative is to buy dead rock and seed it yourself or let the bacteria grow on their own. hence why the cycling process can take some time

 

Oh trust me i know about the long wait lol. I was planning in adding it to my fuge area of the sump it would give me a good 3 inch bed in the fuge. Benefiting from adding the bacteria thats in the sand as well as any pods that would be in it.

 

that could work, the purist reef keeper would nuke the sand to have complete control over what he is adding to his system. but chances are that if its parasitic in nature it wont last long in an artificial environment, but im no marine biologist (though I always wanted to be one)

 

Honestly if you wanted an ID, you would have to contact someone that specializes in Arthropods, preferably in the area that it was caught. Most of us on the reef communities aren't going to be able to 100% identify it beyond being an arthropod.

Also, I'm not sure about the legality of what she did. I wouldn't encourage it, especially if it's from a "reefy" area.

 

I dont think it was a reefy area. Ive been there before and im almost positive you can collect sand and shells from the area they were in. The hermit she brought back was caught in a net drug behind a boat and they gave it to her and told her how to keep it alive. I did a best effort i could to get them all out of the sand she only had a ziplock bag full of sand from the ocean rest was just beach sand unfortunately. Just rinsed the beach sand real good and put it in the fuge the rest of the larger bugs and pods i got out and put that sand in fuge as well. No signs of life on either bed in the tank or the fuge. May have just added sand and fish poo bit oh well we shall see how it goes.