Neptune Aquatics

Identification Help?

Crosis

Crosis

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So I'm learning a lot as I go... Trying to do everything myself so it just furthers my learning and experience in this craft we call a hobby...

I plan on finishing my Entertainment room, stand, acquiring equipment, and finally having my tank start cycling Saturday next week...

In anticipation for this I have begun collecting live rock and live sand...

I have roughly 250lbs of live sand, and roughly 250-300lbs of live rock...

Sand is sitting in a 55gal Trashcan with 4x rio 90 pumps and two little stealth heaters

Rock is sitting in a separate trashcan with a maq 12 and a 400w heater



The rock can started showing life a few days ago...

This red thing I can't identify... This clear-ish thing, and a couple baby bristle star fish...

I went and picked up 80+lbs of Fiji live rock from a buddy who went to LA for a few things... Added the rock in with the rest of my rock when I got it home yesterday, today I found a new kind of starfish (only 1 with 5 points all the others have split it seems), and these red things almost like worms but I couldn't get a clear picture...

The Clear-ish thing I have noticed at least a dozen of them they seem to be growing and spreading quickly (at least they seem to be)...

Oh and I saw my first Copepod (at least I think that's what it was, clear, looks like a shrimp but really tiny)

Couple picks my wife took (Edited to show what I was talking about)

Red thing, and the clear-ish thing...
Unknown1_2.jpg


Bristle Star with Split unknown Star
Unknown3_4.jpg


5point unknown Star, split unknown star,
Unknown4_5.jpg




If you guys could tell me what these are I'd really appreciate it... It's so exciting to actually start seeing life before I even have the tank setup...
 
I figure the clear-ish thing is a type of mushroom, but I'm not completely sure...

and the unknown starfish might be a type of asterina star?
 
http://www.google.com/images?q=aiptasia&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:eek:fficial&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi&biw=1440&bih=706

http://www.google.com/images?um=1&hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&biw=1440&bih=706&tbs=isch%3A1&sa=1&q=asterina+starfish&aq=0&aqi=g6&aql=&oq=asterina
 
yeah I figured it was the Asterina star... Yay...

The Aiptasia... joy... not even setup and I already have an outbreak of the bad stuff...
 
If you want to get a fresh start just let the rocks that have the aiptasias dry;
The red things seem to be feather dusters; Asterina stars I (myself) keep an eye on them and try to make a necklace by letting them dry on the frag tank rim. I just don't like to see those stars on top of corals, makes me get ideas and blame those little things if a coral doesn't look well.
Mini brittle stars I just like them but not for jewelry.

If you only spot one or two aiptasias and don't want to kill whatever is in the rock, use some Kalk paste/milky mix and let them suck it up.
 
1. Large circle, looks like aiptasia to me ... or some sort of other pest anemone; small circle, feather duster
2. top, Asterina star; bottom, brittle star
3. Asterina stars
 
Mario,

I think I've seen close to a dozen of the Aiptasias, but they keep moving around, so every day they are in a different place...

I've seen about a dozen different Asterina Stars so far... keeping an eye out...

Sat there for about 15 minutes tonight and I watched at least a 15 different copepods move around on the rocks...


I did see something that was really weird, it looked like a clear millipede, about 2 inches long, with a couple red spots on it, it swam in the current and then ducked under one of the rocks most of the star's are on... shocked me when I saw it since I was reaching into the tank to touch one of the Asterina's...

I figure I planned on having peppermint shrimp in the tank, if they don't take care of the Aiptasias, I can get a nudibranch or something of the like and do what I can to keep it alive...

I also read about injecting them with lemon juice from concentrate... seems like a viable option since we always have it in the house to clean my wife's snake tanks water area...
 
What you think are copapods are probably amphipods, copapods are really small and you normally don't see them on rocks, easier to see them on glass. For the aiptasia it would be better to deal with them before the rocks are in the display tank. Look up all the various ways to kill them, I think kalk pasting them works best.
 
ok so I found what looked like a Red Bristleworm YaY Me!!! (Going to assume its a Fireworm considering I'm already 2/4 bad things I've seen thus far...)

I'll try to get a better look at it soon... maybe catch a picture of it...

I'll go through the rock carefully before I put it into my tank, try to get off as many of the Asterina's as I can, maybe do a Kalk mix on a few...
 
For aiptasia the best solution I have found is a mini torch or torch style butane lighter. This only works if you can pull the rock out, but it looks like this is the case right now. Pull out the rock, find them and torch them, then drop the rock back in the tank. You will kill them completely, but not kill the entire population of the rock.
 
I like to pry a little piece of the rock that the aiptadia is attached to with a screw driver. Get that whole thing off! Also I use aiptasia x, works good if you get it fully into
The mouth
 
Crosis said:
ok so I found what looked like a Red Bristleworm YaY Me!!! (Going to assume its a Fireworm considering I'm already 2/4 bad things I've seen thus far...)

I'll try to get a better look at it soon... maybe catch a picture of it...

I'll go through the rock carefully before I put it into my tank, try to get off as many of the Asterina's as I can, maybe do a Kalk mix on a few...
Click to expand...

It would be bad luck to be a Fireworm. Much more likely to be a standard bristleworm, which IMO, are beneficial.
Aptasia - well - almost everyone has them. I think people get a bit too paranoid there. Kill the annoying ones, live with the rest.
What is the other bad thing? You mentioned "2/4"
 
I started w/ all dry dead sand and rocks...

I had aptasia after the first month..
I killed the aptasia.

I added a nem.. nem was on a rock.. Rock had aptasia.. If you have a reef, you WILL have aptasia.
It isnt a big deal if you dont let it beone.
I keep aptasiax in the shed just for when I spot one I can cut off the rock completely.

Most of the bristle worms you will see will be harmless.
Its the ones that come out of the rock that loook like a babies arm you should be concerned about..
I have had multiple worms over 10 inches long in a 34 gal tank. They kept things nice and clean!
 
Yeah the Asterina Stars, the Aptasia are both negatives...

I plan on keeping softies and zoa's, it seems the stars are prone to eating them...

We will see...

I figure I'll play the game a bit, let everything show up in the tank and go from there, remove the ones that become a pain (asterina, aptasia, bristleworm, etc), and keep the ones that are doing well...
 
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