Mobile Bay Reef Keepers

I'm so excited! I found new hitch hickers on my live rock. About a month ago I discovered tiny feather dusters all over the rocks in my tank. At first I thought they were hair algae until I started really staring at them. When a fish would come too close, they would retract then open back up when the fish left....so I knew they were feather dusters.

Then I realized what looked like it may be tiny red corals growing on my rocks....but I'm not 100% sure they are actually corals. They are very small.

I have several things that I don't know how do describe. They look kinda like feather duster tubes maybe but they don't have the feathers and they secrete a spider web sorta thing into the water sometimes. I have several of them and I have absolutely no idea as to what they could be. They've grown a little over the past month. Any thoughts as to what these could be?

But what I'm really excited about is tonight I think I discovered some tiny anenomes on 2 of my rocks. I see about 8 of them.....6 are clustered very close together. I only discovered them after the lights went out and I looked very closely at the rocks with a flash light. They are smaller than the fingernail on my pinkie. And they are transluscent so they are very hard to see unless you have the flash light at just the right angle. They are actually right in the path of my power head water flow.

I am still a newbie when it comes to saltwater....had my tank since January. So I'm still learning. Other than my hitch hickers, I have FOWLR. The only thing I add to my tank is Tech CB & Iodine. I have 2 PowerGlo lights (75 gallon tank with 55 pounds of LR so far). Is there anything else I should be adding to my water or that I should add to help my little hitch hickers flourish? I feed my fish and inverts a variety of frozen foods....mostly brine. I also have a brine hatchery that sits in my tank...so when the shrimp hatch they go right into the tank...it's really cool (ordered it from Drs. Foster & Smith web site). Though I'm sure many of the baby brine get sucked right into the filters. Should I have a different type of food to help my hitch hickers? Any help on what lighting I should have. I can't afford to get a better lighting hood at the moment (gotta save up for that). The hood I currently have only holds 2 flourescent bulbs. What lights can I get for my exsisting hood that will be strong enough to support my new creatures I discovered?

I would appreciate any help and advice! Thanks.

Cool! Except for the anemones. They are probably that weed of the aquarium species aptasia. You will want to get rid of them when they are big enough.

I would probably not try adding more stuff to the tank. Just let them feed off the excess stuff in the water column for right now

Phil.

Could they be harmful? How would I go about getting rid of them?

if they are aiptasia here are a few ways...

get a needle from cvs/walgreens

boil some ro/di or tank water and inject into them, you must be fast or they will retract and sometimes be hard to spot..

another method has used lemon juice, or hydrogen peroxide (which i wouldnt touch because it can harm corals it comes into contact with can can oxygenate your water too much.)

You can also get 'joes juice' or 'stop aiptasia'

Just keep an eye on them for now.

GermanShepherdGirl wrote:I have several things that I don't know how do describe. They look kinda like feather duster tubes maybe but they don't have the feathers and they secrete a spider web sorta thing into the water sometimes. I have several of them and I have absolutely no idea as to what they could be. They've grown a little over the past month. Any thoughts as to what these could be?

But what I'm really excited about is tonight I think I discovered some tiny anenomes on 2 of my rocks. I see about 8 of them.....6 are clustered very close together. I only discovered them after the lights went out and I looked very closely at the rocks with a flash light. They are smaller than the fingernail on my pinkie. And they are transluscent so they are very hard to see unless you have the flash light at just the right angle. They are actually right in the path of my power head water flow.

First one sounds like it could be vermatid snails and the second may be a type of small rock anenome (cannot recall the name right now. I am just forming a guess, without a pic it could be just about anything.

GermanShepherdGirl wrote: Then I realized what looked like it may be tiny red corals growing on my rocks....but I'm not 100% sure they are actually corals. They are very small.

I found out these are foraminiferans

http://www.reefs.org/hhfaq/pages/main_p ... _rock3.htm

GermanShepherdGirl wrote: I have several things that I don't know how do describe. They look kinda like feather duster tubes maybe but they don't have the feathers and they secrete a spider web sorta thing into the water sometimes. I have several of them and I have absolutely no idea as to what they could be. They've grown a little over the past month. Any thoughts as to what these could be?

I confirmed these are Vermetid gastropod

http://www.reefs.org/hhfaq/pages/main_p ... _rock3.htm

Yep. Both good. Just watch the aiptasia. Gid rid of them as soon as you can stick a needle in them.

Phil