What Surprises have you found in your Reef Tank?

[MontanaRocknReefer]

I have noticed alot of clams in my rocks that appear all the time. They are various sizes and I'm sure some will not live but I do have 2 that are about 2" long and 1" wide. I have had them for quite awhile.
I have several worms in my sand bed which are really slim and are dark color or have red ends to them. I am sure some are bristle worms which is great. I have some baby star fish and amphipods running around and some baby snails which may be parasites so am watching my established snails real close for any hitchhikers. I understand these small parasites can suck the live out of a snail.
I have 1 snail that came in on a rock and it has a white shell with neat markings and a long extension and it only comes out at night.
I also witnessed tonite two red scarlet hermits really close to each other and one was completely out of the shell and alot of jarations going on for a few minutes and then the one went back into its shell and they went their separate ways. Quite interesting!!
I also noticed one of my clams when a snail gets on it, it rears up on its foot and tries to dislodge the snail. It will do this several times until the snail is gone. Obviously it does not care for any hitchhikers.

Well just a few surprises and observations I have made what about someone else sharing. Johnny

 

[wla20]

I think the hermits leave their shells and kind of gyrate when they are supposed to be spawning.

Wayne

 

[humu]

my tank always has a surprise for me.
on my LR I found alot of unexpected creatures like these unidentified hawkfish(about 5 of them, 1-1/2in), seahares,ribbon worms,and lastyear I got an octipus!

I like how things always seem to not go the way you planned in a reef tank.
like how I spent weeks trying to catch a 3in mantis, then one day it ends up in the overflow

well, thats all I can think of.....
FOR NOW

 

[gazpep]

Johnny,
Heres a good one:
I'd just set up a dawn/dusk light and it was the second night it had come on. I'm sitting there alone in the room enjoying a beer in an otherwise dark room. The fish are sort of meandering in and out of the half-light in the centre of the tank and it was a kind of unreal sight. Heaps of buggy things congregating where the light was brightest, the Urchins come to life and is motoring around to the centre and front of the tank
when out of the rocks a little fish, a goby of some description, sort of dances into the lit area . I had never seen this fish before in my life. I rubbed my eyes, called out to the wife...." theres a fish in here which we haven't got "(or something equally inane)...she comes in and the little fish dances around for maybe 20 seconds and then departs the scene.

That was the only time I've seen that fish, it was obviously a hitchiker on a batch of LR and survived the rigors of collection on the reef, storage, handling, airfreight etc etc unbeknowns to anyone. I assume he's still in there today.

A magic moment in my reef scrapbook.

 

[Anonymous]

{}

 

[Sniper308]

Hey Cheese Sandwich, what the hell are those {}? You post them on every topic. Is this how you have 692 posts. You just go around and put stupid #@%$ on peoples topics. If you cant say something intellegent, dont say any thing.

 

[Mike02]

ive had my tank over 3 months and the day b4 yesterday saw a minature crab. about maybe 1/4" across, light colored, next to a hole in a live rock picking stuff off the rock. i moved to take a closer look and it darts in the hole.

 

[Carpentersreef]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Sniper308:
<STRONG>Hey Cheese Sandwich, what the hell are those {}? You post them on every topic. Is this how you have 692 posts. You just go around and put stupid #@%$ on peoples topics. If you cant say something intellegent, dont say any thing.</STRONG><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I think CS is trying to keep topics going and the board active. I don't mind, I think some subjects are worth revisiting..... and then again some are not. It does get tiring sometimes, seeing new questions that have been answered in the past.

To the topic at hand - I received an orange ball anemone and a hermit crab N/C on some LR I purchased.

Whoohoo! cough, cough.

Mitch

 

[Rick O]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Sniper308:
<STRONG>Hey Cheese Sandwich, what the hell are those {}? You post them on every topic. Is this how you have 692 posts. You just go around and put stupid #@%$ on peoples topics. If you cant say something intellegent, dont say any thing.</STRONG><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Maybe he's just trying to be an irritating @-hole

 

[Lunchbucket]

i got a ton of little brittle stars. and when i 1st got my rock i had a lobster of some type that was alive. tried to remove him to put in a separate tank...and we accidentally killed him in the process

also, i think i have found a sps of sometype i have pics i should post them in the hitchhicker forum and see what people think

later
Lunchbucket

 

[llowwelll]

I think old Cheese is just saying something akin to "here, here" or "I second that" or "that was a good input". I don't know, it's not like it pains me to read the {}'s that he leaves. It's kind of nice to know that somebody's out there in the distant cyberwebland...listening...responding.

 

[davelin315]

I have to agree, Cheese, why do you keep on putting those damn {}s everywhere? It's one thing for you to put them on an informative post, another thing altogether to put them on every old post you come across (obvious exaggeration here). It's cool to bring someone's post back to life, but there are a lot of posts you are pushing off the front 2 pages, and I know I usually don't go beyond the first page and a half when I'm on. I just went through some of the old posts, and noticed that they were from June or July or something like that, and it began to annoy me that I couldn't figure out which ones were new, and if people really needed help or if they had already gotten it. You obviously have every right to do whatever you want, but you have even revived old pictures of somebody's "new" additions. Not meaning to flame or anything, but just thought I'd share my thoughts and back up sniper a little bit (he might shoot me otherwise

).

 

[ging]

Wow guys pretty rough on the Man of Cheese

I also think he is trying to keep the interesting topics active.

I think the coolest thing I have found in my tank is a bright orange fleshy keyhole limpet.

 

[Anonymous]

I use "{}" instead of "^".

Don't worry folks, I won't do it again.

 

[davelin315]

Keep on doing it, I don't mean to stifle your posting, my only request is that you don't do it to every post you find interesting, just the ones that would benefit all of us by being brought up again!

 

[pathos]

awww, poor cheese

don't let these suckers chastise you! we like you and your quirky ways, just keep on doing what you do!

 

[NoriMuncher]

I was surprised by what I've recently identified as keyhole limpets(now that I've had a fluctuating population of 30-80 in a 55g tank for about 4 years), and some kind of segmented thing I call "Once a Year Harry"-- he mosies around underneath the substrate, so I see him about once a year, when I move.

 

[charro]

Hey Gino, just curious, I think I have the same from some Gulf LR. Does yours have a scalloped edge extending over edge of keyhole limpet. R. Shimek told me it was a sponge growing over the limpet. My other surprise was a load of urchins. Sure makes it fun!

 

[ging]

Hey Gino, just curious, I think I have the same from some Gulf LR. Does yours have a scalloped edge extending over edge of keyhole limpet. R. Shimek told me it was a sponge growing over the limpet. My other surprise was a load of urchins. Sure makes it fun!

I hope your talking to me

Shimek has a picture of my limpet on his web site. We sent to him to help identify,

http://www.rshimek.com/odd_critters.htm
Not sure if its a sponge, its more like skin actually attached to him. He is pretty cool!!

 

[Jenemone]

I have lots of pods and three snails who are murder on hair algae. Last night, one was even on a large turbo grazer's shell cleaning it.

By far the coolest thing that came on my rock is this tiny pink coral (?) that looks like an open brain. Its just over an inch long and now has two lobes.

I also have these neat polyp things that I was proud to show off to everyone, only to find out that they were aiptasia!

Jen

[ September 02, 2001: Message edited by: Jenemone ]