rock spitting?

jencheung

AC Members
Jan 22, 2007
194
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Cambridge, MA
So I have about 30 pounds of live rock in my new tank (cycle finished about a week ago) and have an abundance of life in my tank from it from tunicates and sponges to TONS of feather dusters and I think an aptasia or two. I added my cleanup crew two days ago with various hermits, snails and a peppermint shrimp. Everything seems to be going swimmingly, but I noticed a couple of times today that my rock seems to be spitting. I've seen it coming from at least 2 different spots and it seems to be mostly a bit of sand and a slightly mucusy sort of substance sort of like the stuff a nassarius snail leaves behind it. It's just a little spurt that gets expelled pretty violently into the water column - not gradually drifting off the rock but being forcefully jetted out. It's isn't a lot and I've only seen it 3 times but I was just wondering if anyone could tell me what is doing it. Thanks!
 
I saw that happen in my rock a few times. Not really sure what it is. Some organism is spitting out food or something.
 
The possible fertilization of something. I have had snails shoot out a cloudy substance into the water when other mature snails are in close prox. Could explain my hundreds of babies! At any rate, it's all fun to observe.
 
My guess is Stomatella's (sp) snails broadcast breeding. Very cool. If you start to see a bunch of slug like looking creatures (mainly after the lights are out) in a few weeks you will know if my guess was right.
 
Ya i see cloudy stuff shoot out every now and then too. You know what it looks like...
 
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