What is THIS?

B

Bobindy1

AC Members
Jun 9, 2005
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While examining my LR, which I do frequently, and for long periods of time, I have begun seeing little signs of life: little grey bug-like thingys (about 1/8 inch long and narrow bodied) that crawl around on the rock and move so fast I barely have time to say "hey, I saw something!!!" and they're gone. Anyone know what they might be?

Also, and much more interesting, I think: I was looking deep into a hole thru one of the rocks, I could see light through the other side and hanging down from the top was this white tube... about 1/2 inch long (at least that's all I could see of it, anyhow) and about oh, 1/16 to 3/32 of an inch in diameter at the MOST. It seemed to have ribs.. er.. rings around it (imagine a slinky with opaque white plastic around it). It didn't appear to be moving. Any :idea2: ideas?

I can NOT believe that I find myself sitting for .. well sometimes an hour or more, just looking... at these rocks!!! LOL But it's good.

One more question!!! I added 3 very small blue leg hermit crabs today. They started munching away on the brown alge the INSTANT they hit the bottom. Now, though, they seem to be sitting very still.. one is nearly totally retracted into it's shell. So, do these things sleep, or ... stop moving around at night, or should I be worried that they are going to die and foul my lovely 0-0-0 reading tank?????
 
Bobindy1 said:
I can NOT believe that I find myself sitting for .. well sometimes an hour or more, just looking... at these rocks!!! LOL But it's good.
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*Laff* I can completely believe it, I'm in the exact same boat - just set up my reef tank and can't keep my eyes off the rocks! Imagine how obsessed we'll be when we add corals...
If you have a digital camera, maybe you could snap a pic of the 'slinky', if not the speedy little crawly critters. There are about 1, 000 things they could be, so a picture might help one of the more experienced people here ID them.
 
Get a flashlight with a red lens on it. Then, wait about 30 min after turning the lights off and check out the rock, under the red lens. You'll be sitting in front of your tank all night.

I think my girlfriend finally hid my flashlight...there would be nights when she'd get mad and finally go to sleep, after calling me to come to bed for 45 min. and I'm still sitting in front of the tank. lol
 
You should try and get a picture of that "bug" you saw on your rock. I hope for your sake that its not any of the little beasties I have been dealing with lately. Called crianolid isopods, they seem to be found more prevalent on lr from florida during the spring/early summer months. I think I have some pics on here somewhere.

Not trying to scare you since you just started but it is much easier to deal with them when you don't have much in your tank. I also spent HOURS looking at my live rock. I actually ended up moving it around so I could see what was on the other side of the rock!! Take some pics so we can see all the cool stuff on your rock!!
 
Usually the little bugs are "pods" (amphipods or copepods more than likely). Copepods are usually very small (speck sized) and amphipods can grow up to a good cm size in my tanks. Of course yours could vary, but "little bug-like things" usually means a type of pod.

Not sure what the tube could be, there really is alot of different things. Is it still there in the same position? Could be the tube of some type of worm, but I cant really say...

and yes I still find myself up at 3am with a flashlight just looking at my rocks :-D

I moved recently and lost my flashlight somewhere. Reading AW2EOD's post makes me wonder if it was really "lost" :-)

Rick
 
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