t3hRobG
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
I just added my major addition to my sw tank a few weeks ago. I purchased 2 (thought it was 1) star polyp on a piece of branching tonga rock. They seem to have taken hold in their new locations finally and are looking pretty good (check my gallery for a photo).
What I didn't expect was the population explosion that that 1 5inch piece of liverock would cause. Much to my elation, during the drip acclimation a fancy brittle starfish reached out and very nearly tried to climb up my arm. When I pulled the star polyp back a bit I found a nest of them. My hope is that all of my acclimation time spent will be enough to sustain them, though their tiny size (quarter at best) has made them virtually impossible to keep track of. My hope is that in a few months I will see one or two re-surface at night foraging.
In addition to these little guys, looking at the tank now, I am seeing all kinds of other activity that I didn't previously have. Most intriguingly is an explosion of small white, 180 degree spirals all over my live rock. At about the size of the head of a pin they are really hard to get a good look at, but I swear I have seen crowns on some of them, which makes me think they are some type of feather duster worm? I will get a picture when I can play with the macro lens and get a good shot. There must be 40 of them in total (that I can see). Has anyone else seen this happen? I am excited to have the life in the tank, but I am very new to this so everything that happens seems like a curious natural miracle, and I have a surprising amount of trouble finding out more. Its hard to do a library/google search based on hunches and descriptions.
Thanks again!
What I didn't expect was the population explosion that that 1 5inch piece of liverock would cause. Much to my elation, during the drip acclimation a fancy brittle starfish reached out and very nearly tried to climb up my arm. When I pulled the star polyp back a bit I found a nest of them. My hope is that all of my acclimation time spent will be enough to sustain them, though their tiny size (quarter at best) has made them virtually impossible to keep track of. My hope is that in a few months I will see one or two re-surface at night foraging.
In addition to these little guys, looking at the tank now, I am seeing all kinds of other activity that I didn't previously have. Most intriguingly is an explosion of small white, 180 degree spirals all over my live rock. At about the size of the head of a pin they are really hard to get a good look at, but I swear I have seen crowns on some of them, which makes me think they are some type of feather duster worm? I will get a picture when I can play with the macro lens and get a good shot. There must be 40 of them in total (that I can see). Has anyone else seen this happen? I am excited to have the life in the tank, but I am very new to this so everything that happens seems like a curious natural miracle, and I have a surprising amount of trouble finding out more. Its hard to do a library/google search based on hunches and descriptions.
Thanks again!