Invertebrates which are "NOT" Reef Safe

[vorlx]

I just caught my emerald crab yesterday munching on the last of my zoa polyps (the rest of the colony was previously consumed by hermit crabs). Going to have to get rid of this guy too!!!!

How ironic. I had just purchased an average sized frag of Xenia and a Green star polyp colony. I had the Xenia lodged into a nice spot in the rock. I kept checking on it to see how it was doing and I saw the an EMERALD picking at it. So I fight him off, I couldn't get to him where I could get him out yet. He had a death grip on the bottom of the Xenia. I finally got him off. I found another spot for the Xenia and then later last night I see the grab has ran off with him and drug him to the bottom of the rock. I again beat him off and relocated the Xenia. I tried to lure him out with some Krill and almost had him but ran out of time and had to run some errands.

The Xenia had started to open back up and had a nice spot. My wife asks "wheres that other one"? I go to point it out to her AND ITS GONE. The dang crab ran off with it. I had JUST checked on it about 5 minutes prior. I can't find it anywhere. =(

 

[leocom2000]

That crab beat your *****s!!!!:grinyes:

 

[emptywallet]

coral banded shrimp<BR>
they eat my poor little hermits and leave their legs around like trash...

 

[Octavarium]

Politicians

 

[floridaskunkape]

How do you guys trap/ get rid of things? I've got a couple hairy crabs I'd like to get at but it's impossible unless i took out every rock. Or marine worms! I'd LOVE to be able to get him out of the rock. Tried shrimp meat in pantyhose. Tried smashing them at lightening speed. they weren't havin it.

 

[Cerianthus]

Look at traps avail on the market and you should be able to diy better one yourself even with interchageable flexible openings.

I used to lend mine out to other hobbyists. Diy'd using a Ghost House (transparent tube) OR small piece of gravel vacuum tube + one or two worm feeders (cone type). I believe i posted dwg of diy trap in this forum. Just cant remember when. Lmk if need further instruction as I have to type this time as my scanner is loaded onto PC yet. Used similar concept in larger scale to trap locally caught s/w fishes/inverts.

 

[RebeccaRhea1]

So I think I posted this on the wrong thread but I have a question. I’m new to this and have had this tank for a couple of weeks. It’s an established tank that a friend gave to us. I was doing a water change and started getting curious about what everything was in here. So I found out that this is a feather duster worm and that the little green balls are bubble algae. I took a couple of the rocks out to clean them and found these little guys living under the algae in the rock. What are they and do I need to eliminate them? I would describe them as little worms/centipede looking creatures. I just want to know if they’re beneficial or not before I continue cleaning the algae. I’m definitely going to get an emerald crab.. Help!

 

[Lalo J.]

So I think I posted this on the wrong thread but I have a question. I’m new to this and have had this tank for a couple of weeks. It’s an established tank that a friend gave to us. I was doing a water change and started getting curious about what everything was in here. So I found out that this is a feather duster worm and that the little green balls are bubble algae. I took a couple of the rocks out to clean them and found these little guys living under the algae in the rock. What are they and do I need to eliminate them? I would describe them as little worms/centipede looking creatures. I just want to know if they’re beneficial or not before I continue cleaning the algae. I’m definitely going to get an emerald crab.. Help!

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For what reason are you cleaning your rocks? It's not a good idea, I think what you have in your tank are amphipods but I'm not so sure they grow to that size, maybe it's something else, if you see little white things walking on the glass or on the rocks then it's about of amphipods and it means that you have a pretty good microfauna there.

 

[RebeccaRhea1]

For what reason are you cleaning your rocks? It's not a good idea, I think what you have in your tank are amphipods but I'm not so sure they grow to that size, maybe it's something else, if you see little white things walking on the glass or on the rocks then it's about of amphipods and it means that you have a pretty good microfauna there.

So I went to Advanced Aquatics and they confirmed that this is something that’s actually good for the tank. I had started to clean the rocks because of bubble algae and decided once I saw these amphipods that I should stop in case they were beneficial. I decided to get an emerald crab to help clean up the algae and an anemone for my clownfish! Thanks for responding!! Also I have recently had a new red/maroon stuff coming up.. do you happen to know what this is?

 

[Lalo J.]

So I went to Advanced Aquatics and they confirmed that this is something that’s actually good for the tank. I had started to clean the rocks because of bubble algae and decided once I saw these amphipods that I should stop in case they were beneficial. I decided to get an emerald crab to help clean up the algae and an anemone for my clownfish! Thanks for responding!! Also I have recently had a new red/maroon stuff coming up.. do you happen to know what this is?

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To be honest, your rock looks pretty good, it's very good looking live rock, so I would not touch it to clean it, just let the invertebrates grow everywhere, that reddish stain is cyanobacteria and it can occur for various reasons, one of the main ones is a bad water circulation, what are you using for the flow of the water in your tank? Everything else looks good, quite a mature tank indeed, any angelfish or butterflyfish would feast on food.