As always the living things found on live rock weeks after arriving is fascinating to me. I have found a couple that are new to me and was wondering if they are reef safe. The first is a cup coral, it has a brown shell with clear tentacles with white tips and spots. Not very big the shell maybe 1/4" the tentacles extend alomost an inch. The second may be hard to find the exact type so it may be easier to narrow it down. It is a sea urchin, it must have been much smaller when I placed an additional 15# of live rock in tank a few weeks ago or I would have seen it. Now it has a body about the size of a chick pea dark in color with cream color spines just shorter than body diameter. He seems to hide in the day, moon lights gave him away at night. The exact type may be impossible but are there any that are not reef safe?
live rock stow-aways reef safe?
- Thread starter Tab64
- Start date
Most urchins aren't reef friendly most of them eat coraline and some will eat soft corals etc. The cup coral is reef safe as long as you don't place any other sesile inverts too close. You'll have to feed it as well it'll lke phyto,zooplanctons marine snow etc. they aren't picky about foods and aren't light dependant ,"it it's really a cup coral that is."
hth
Chris
hth
Chris
I could not get a picture of the urchin he was hiding in a small cave like hole this AM. The cup coral, or at least I think it is was much easier. Although he had his tenticles really extended looked great, but the water movement made the picture show them blurry. So I turned off the pumps for awhile, then he knida went in alittle, so his tenticles are normally twice the length of these pictures.
Never posted pictures at this site before so I hope this works.
Never posted pictures at this site before so I hope this works.
http://www.tampabaysaltwater.com/thepackage/organisms.html I forget exactly which one it is but, it's a pretty common hitch hiker on rocks from the gulf. They are pretty hardy and 100% harmless ,"use common sense don't put any corals to close to each other."