The Suprise Thread!

[smoothounds]

I wanted to have a thread dedicated to the crazy things that pop up mysteriously our tanks. Today I was looking at my 4 month old reef and I am having purple polyps popping up all over the place. What have you found?

 

[nicky1.8t]

pyramid snails

some button polyps and spounges

 

[skirrby]

a mini brittle star was my fav supprise

 

[clarkiiboi]

Baby turbo snail---at least it looks like one. Has grown for the last 2 years. And also some orange sponges---I never got any cool stuff, but never got unwanted critters either.

 

[gregvabch]

a cowrie about the size of a grape, random hermits, tiny long tentacle anemone, (lost it after hurricane isabel), lots and lots of tiny serpent stars in my sandbed, mantis or pistol shrimp that i'm in the process of evicting

 

[the claw]

Speaking of fav, I have a baby favia growing at the base of one of my acropora colonies. Whooooohooooo! Gotta love that.

 

[jeepboy]

I have a pistol shrimp living in my tank that I've yet to see, here him clicking all the time. I also have two slugs or worms that only come out in the dark and hide when a light hits them. I still have yet to identify what they are exactly....anymore I don't worry about them, I think they just eat corraline which I seem to have plenty.

 

[cayman isl]

I was watching my tank last night and noticed a small puff of white "smoke" coming out of a tiny cone in the sand. Looked like a tiny volcano! I grabbed my poker stick and tried to see what was in the sand but found nothing.
One of the stangest things I've ever seen in this tank!

 

[attml]

Here you go (Clockwise: Chiton, Chiton, Unknown, SeaSlug, Sabellid Worm, Limpet)

 

[stapler]

Those are cool hitchikers attml....are they all safe for you too hold on to? I have found a little bit of everything...and was fortunate to get the mantis before putting the rock in my DT.

 

[rbmount]

I got a peacock mantis, Showed up 4 months after rock was put in and none added since.

 

[jeepboy]

Another surprise for me. I found what I thought was a hitchhiker anenome last night. Then I realised it was more slug like. Looks very similar to the pic on this page. http://www.medslugs.de/E/Pac-NW/Eubranchus_sp_C_01.htm

 

[fishman830]

aiptasia

 

[nacl-h2o]

No surprises lately in the reef tank, but I got a real nice surprise in one of the FW plntd tanks a couple days ago. Baby dwarf cichlids(Apistogramma panduro). A dozen or more and from their size they've been in there awhile. I would have had many more if I had known sooner and removed the other fish earlier.

 

[freeride7]

a crab that has since died....purple polyps, and I have seen a few chiton's. Do these chitons do any harm?

 

[attml]

Those are cool hitchikers attml....are they all safe for you too hold on to? I have found a little bit of everything...and was fortunate to get the mantis before putting the rock in my DT.

Thank you! They are all safe except the Limpet (and he would probably do fine in a soft coral tank. He was in my tank for over a year then one night with a flashlight I saw him snacking on one of my favorite acros. He got the boot after that as he did some pretty good damage! The Sea Slug is a big Macro Algae eater so you miay or may not want him in your sump/fuge?