My LR hitchhikers

Discussion in 'Live Rock' started by Zero_Dude, Oct 1, 2013.

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  1. Zero_Dude

    Zero_Dude Fire Shrimp

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    Ontario, Canada
    I decided to make this post to list the hitchhikers I have in my tank, because
    I keep finding new ones :confused:

    Hopefully I can snap a few pics, but I can't make promises ;) For the record, my tank was established in April or May.


    1. Ball anemones
    2. Bristleworms
    3. Brittle star (brown/black, 15+ of them)
    4. Pods
    5. Stomatella (white and black ones)


    Ball anemones:

    I (foolishly) thought I only had one, so I had squirted it with lemon juice, and thought that that was the end of it. However, doing my regular night watch on my tank, I did some closer looking, and found out I have 5+ spread out over 2 rocks :(. I'm going to remove them and scrub the rock with a toothbrush when I get home this afternoon


    Bristle worms:

    First noticed these and was pretty grossed out! However, I've gotten used to how ugly they are. I found one that was about 4" long, but still pretty skinny. Since then I've seen a few more.


    Brittle star:

    Found one of these guys and at first thought it was a spider in my tank (I could see the whole body at the time)! That was months ago, and before I had moved my tank. Now I've noticed their little arms creep out at quite a few places.


    Pods:

    Well, not much to say about these. I've had an abundance of them lately, and some of them are pretty big! Makes me wonder what my goby does all day....


    Stomatella:

    I was surprised when I first saw this white half-shelled snail. They're pretty odd-looking, but they're pretty fast movers (though not as fast as my bigger snails). And then last week I had found a black one! After a quick search, I saw that the black ones were harder to come by, and felt pretty lucky that I had one. :thumbs_up Hopefully they breed with the white ones?!
     
    Last edited: Dec 30, 2013
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  3. sailorguy

    sailorguy Torch Coral

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    Good luck with the nems,I'm not sure that scrubbing the rock is a good way to go,if any tissue remains they could regrow or even multiply.
     
  4. Zero_Dude

    Zero_Dude Fire Shrimp

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    I'm going to inject either boiling water or lemon juice before I do that
     
  5. Corailline

    Corailline Super Moderator

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    It is a dry heat, yeah right !
    Just curious why do you want to get rid of the Corynactis? If you do not feed them they should not be invasive.
     
  6. Zero_Dude

    Zero_Dude Fire Shrimp

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    Aren't they known for taking over tanks like aiptasia and majano? If I can prevent something like that from happening, I'd like to!
     
  7. Vinnyboombatz

    Vinnyboombatz Giant Squid

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    unless you plan on bleaching that rock doing the removal in this manner will make matters far worse.I agree with the others just use your juice and irradicate them one by one.Let them die and fall off on there own.Repeat as necessary.It takes some time but whats the rush right??lol Scrubbing them is spreading them.Leave the toothbrush for your teeth.;D
     
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  9. Zero_Dude

    Zero_Dude Fire Shrimp

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    Fair enough! I'll just inject the ones I see with lemon juice... It's too bad they spread so much... they're pretty cool looking.
     
  10. Corailline

    Corailline Super Moderator

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    It is a dry heat, yeah right !
    It may be just me but I have never ever seen a tank over grown with ball tips anemone. I have never even see large patches or ever seen it become so invasive it distributed other corals.

    Yes I have read about it, but never seen it. Would sure like to see a tank that shows invasive growth.
     
  11. Va Reef

    Va Reef Giant Squid

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    I agree with Corailline. I've never even heard of tanks being overrun with pseudocorynactis. I found one in my tank and I actually fed it to watch it grow. I never tried to get rid of it, so it never split. They can be very pretty and I personally don't see anything wrong with them. Wish I still had mine :(

    If you must get rid of it, just break off the parts of the rock they're on and get rid of them.
     
  12. Zero_Dude

    Zero_Dude Fire Shrimp

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    Well.. Maybe I'll try feeding (one of the bigger ones), and see how it turns out! It would be cool to have a big anemone in my tank again, even if some people don't like it much