Kara
02-28-2003, 11:24 AM
About 30 minutes after I turn out the lights on the tank, and the room is pitch black.. I come tiptoeing back into the room with a flashlight and magnifying glass in hand.
My past adventures in observing my reef at night have been mostly unremarkable. The tank has only been set up for 4 months. I've been thinking that something was very wrong with my tank cause I wasn't seeing aspastia (spelling?), bristle worms, sea bugs or any of the things everyone said I would see.
Last night all that changed!
After about 2 minutes of observing the rocks a swarm of 2 different types of little (3mm - 10mm) 'worms' flocked to the flashlight beam. Some looked like your typical reddish bristle worms, some were white with brown heads and laterally running bristles on the white portion.
I also saw some clear planaria type organizms. They were blueish clear with 2 or 3 bioluminescent eye spots on the anterior end. The posterior end split into two 'tails' (like a whale tail). They had a rounded profile. I saw a tiny brownish organ in the center of the body. The largest one I saw was about 15mm fully extended. They moved like sea slugs.
I also observed white transparent tunicate like things nestled in the rocks, they seemed semi-rigid, with one large tube opening. I didn't see any worm or organs inside the structures. The tube opening did change diameter. These were all about 20mm in length at the base and the tubes were about 10mm long x 3mm wide.
Lots of small pinkish colored fan worms that had a hard white tube.
And the thing that made me 'EEK!'.. A LONG worm thing. It was dark brown with a few bands of beige, no bristles were present. It resembled an earthworm in movement and body type. Unfortunately I didn't get to see the whole worm, only saw about 4" of it extended out of the rock. When it sensed the light it 'retracted' into the rock.
Lots of little um, seabugs? crawling over the rock. Silvery grey and about 5-8mm in length with cute little antenna.
I went to bed with the biggest smile on my face, knowing my tank was finally a 'normal' tank.
Is there a website that details some of the little diurnal and nocturnal critters one might observe in a reef tank? If not, I'm considering identifying each of these animals, taking photos (no easy task in the dark) and creating a site that could be of use to reef newbies like me.
My past adventures in observing my reef at night have been mostly unremarkable. The tank has only been set up for 4 months. I've been thinking that something was very wrong with my tank cause I wasn't seeing aspastia (spelling?), bristle worms, sea bugs or any of the things everyone said I would see.
Last night all that changed!
After about 2 minutes of observing the rocks a swarm of 2 different types of little (3mm - 10mm) 'worms' flocked to the flashlight beam. Some looked like your typical reddish bristle worms, some were white with brown heads and laterally running bristles on the white portion.
I also saw some clear planaria type organizms. They were blueish clear with 2 or 3 bioluminescent eye spots on the anterior end. The posterior end split into two 'tails' (like a whale tail). They had a rounded profile. I saw a tiny brownish organ in the center of the body. The largest one I saw was about 15mm fully extended. They moved like sea slugs.
I also observed white transparent tunicate like things nestled in the rocks, they seemed semi-rigid, with one large tube opening. I didn't see any worm or organs inside the structures. The tube opening did change diameter. These were all about 20mm in length at the base and the tubes were about 10mm long x 3mm wide.
Lots of small pinkish colored fan worms that had a hard white tube.
And the thing that made me 'EEK!'.. A LONG worm thing. It was dark brown with a few bands of beige, no bristles were present. It resembled an earthworm in movement and body type. Unfortunately I didn't get to see the whole worm, only saw about 4" of it extended out of the rock. When it sensed the light it 'retracted' into the rock.
Lots of little um, seabugs? crawling over the rock. Silvery grey and about 5-8mm in length with cute little antenna.
I went to bed with the biggest smile on my face, knowing my tank was finally a 'normal' tank.
Is there a website that details some of the little diurnal and nocturnal critters one might observe in a reef tank? If not, I'm considering identifying each of these animals, taking photos (no easy task in the dark) and creating a site that could be of use to reef newbies like me.