When Should I start to see hitchhikers

[c_ray00]

I am wondering if I purchased a bad set of Lr for hitchhikers. When should I start to notive anuy creatures ?

 

[steven the fish]

Cheak in you're tank late at night when the lights go out.

 

[buzz]

How long have you had the LR?
Unfortunately, not all LR has hitchhikers. But if it does, sometimes it can take a while (weeks, perhaps longer) for that life to come out of the rock.

 

[dpdiver]

I didn't notice any until after my tank finished cycling and I started to feed my inhabitants. Then I found feather dusters, bristle worms, a small crab, pods,
HTH
Milt

 

[lesa]

What kind of lr did you purchase and how long has your tank been set up?
A red lens flashlight comes in handy around 1:00 am
Ps: welcome aboard

 

[michaeltx]

depends on the life thats currently in the rock.
if there are only a handful of pods then you probably wont see them until there population forces them to leave the rocks in search for food in great enough numbers for you to notice. thats the same for all the other little critters.
Mike

 

[c_ray00]

I purchased 90 #'s of fiji lr and it has been curing for about a month now. I thought for sure I would have had something in all that. I do hear clicking noises when i pick up one rock,though. I have been told that is probably a mantis shrimp. Are those bad ?

 

[michaeltx]

yeah they are bad they can and will kill most anything in the tank includeing larger fish. they call them thumb spliters for nothing.
but it could also be a pistol shrimp but more than likely a mantis it would be a good idea to get him out as soon as possible and dont try to pick it up with your hands use a cup or something like that. they are real quick so becareful
Mike

 

[jerseysaltwater]

took me 3 weeks to see a fan worm on one of my pieces of live rock. i thought i was a victim of a bad batch as well, but after seeing the fiji rock at my LFS today, i think i did well. from what i have heard on here, new critters will keep showing up as months go by.

 

[michaeltx]

I have had my rocks for just over a year now and a few months ago found 3 very large snails that I have never seen they ended up being predatory but they were 3-4 inches in size. so just cause you cant see things doesnt mean they are not in there. I also see new things in the tank all the time. I recently broke down the tank because of haor algae and move the rocks to smaller tanks but when I was doing this I found so many things that I had no clue had been in there just never seen them before even with a red flashlight.
Mike

 

[legion]

got a mantis in some live rock once,he was eating my hermits i swear. Kinda cool though, looks like an armored caterpillar

 

[tangman99]

I've had my live rock for 10 months now and I still find things that I never noticed before. The latest was a filter cucumber.