sweet news!

[TwanDizzle]

hey guys, i went to the LFS today and bought some baserock and liverock (not the 80 lbs i was wanting, but that's beside the point)... and the guy said that since i've 'been a good customer' (in other words, i've given them enough money hehehe), that he gave me some kind of decoration, its a big clam shell with 3 or 4 conch type shells on top (broken, so all that's there is the center), kind of resembles an island with palm trees... i thought "ehh, well, its free, so why complain?" and then he told me that he was gonna start fixing some frags of his green star polyps (i think that's what he said they were), and he was gonna give me some whenever my tank is ready for them.. that's what i thought was the coolest...

now, about the rock that i bought.. i got 8 or 9 pieces of baserock, some of which looked pretty cool... i guess the best way to describe it is a honeycomb rock... thats what the guy called it anyway... and my liverock, well, i need a couple of ID's for it... on one, there's a bunch of purple, hard, bubble looking stuff... its covering more than half of the rock... and on the other piece of liverock, there's a small brown bubble looking thing, but its not hard like the purple... he called it "a type of mushroom"... but i was wondering if i could get a specific ID...

i have to admit i am a bit dissappointed because i don't think i'll see anything come out of this rock, because the LFS has had it for a while, and i figure whatever's going to grow out of it already has.. i mean, besides the algae and stuff... but i'm not expecting to see any crabs or stars or featherdusters or anything like that to show up... are there any good signs that i may get some surprises?

[YoFishboy]

Good deal! It's nice when your LFS takes care of you when they know you are a good customer....I went to a shop the other day that I go to all the time...he is moving the shop...so he gave me 2 sealed, 4.5 pound tubs of tetra flake food for free...

As far as the IDs go, the purple rock is covered with coraline algae...without pics, not much i can say about the rest...rest assured though, if it is quality rock, new stuff can pop out for months...even years! I am always seeing new surprises in my reef tank. Enjoy!

[TwanDizzle]

first of all, fishboy, i like the komodo... ok, got that off my chest... and un-freakin-believable! i've already proven myself wrong on 3 accounts, all within a few minutes! i've found either a snail or hermit crab (tiny, black cone-shaped shell, moving around, all i can see is the back side, so i can't see tentacles or legs if its a crab)... real close to this crab/snail i saw a tiny tube that would stretch out from a crack in the rock, open up on the end, and then withdraw back into the hole... i saw it do this several times... 3rd discovery... I want to say that its an anemone... real small, has several "arms" (about 10 or so), light tan/clear, with light brown rings around each one... i'm slightly worried about this being aiptasia from what i've read...

[TwanDizzle]

ok, already an update... #1, definately a snail, #2, same spot, but the tube is coming out to a different area... #3, i'm more confident that its aiptasia...
http://www.york.ac.uk/depts/biol/units/symbiosis/symbiosis.html

there's a picture on there that looks a lot like what i have... except that mine is a lot smaller... so my question is this... is all aiptasia bad? and should i go ahead and try to get rid of this one?

[skippy2]

If the link you just showed is what you have in your tank, definately get rid of it now. Joe's Juice works great. If you can't find that readily, lemon juice or vinegar works just as well.

If you have a digital camera, I would love to see some pics of your rocks. :)

[TwanDizzle]

well, bought some more rock... plus, more goodies! lol... i now have 2 snails (although i don't hardly see them anymore), a hermit crab (he's hiding in between 2 rocks, he's still alive, just not moving around...) 3 feather dusters in a cluster, 2-4 of what look like feather dusters, but the feather parts are bright red.. a dead clam on a piece of rock (on one of my first pieces, didn't notice it at first), and a live one on my new piece! its a real pretty green and red mix... umm... a bunch of copepods and bristleworms, oh, and one, massive, nightmarish bristleworm... i was feeding my mollies (which i got yesterday), and a piece of flake food got stuck on the rock, and the worm came out of a crack closeby, and sucked the flake down like nothin! 'bout the size of a drinking straw, although i don't know how long it is...