Things keep on showing up!

[b-towndoc]

After almost 6 weeks of my LR being in there I would of thought I had seem most mobile organisms, but there are some new things today when I got home from work! Can anyone help me out with these:

Top left is actually two things:
1), one is the small snails attached to my snail there. Are these the parasitic Pyramid snails that I need to be worried about? Any ideas of what to do to get rid of them?

2) Just to the right of the snail is another snail looking organism with a very flat shell. Is this a chiton or some type of limpet? Odd that it has been in the tank for 6 weeks and this is the first time I have seen it! It is pretty dang good at munching on algae tho.

Top right:
The thing attached to the rock, I thought initially this was a dead sponge but it never fell off and actually is growing. Is this still a sponge or some sort of macro algae? Not the prettiest thing in the world, but if it is beneficial I am fine with it.

Bottom left:
This is just some starfish. I think they are astrea, but only reason I am asking now is b/c I seem to suddenly have about 30 of them everywhere. The have stayed off the zoas/ric/macro algae so far but if this is right, what are your thoughts on them?

Thanks!

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

After almost 6 weeks of my LR being in there I would of thought I had seem most mobile organisms,...

Shoot... I've had my tank up for 4 years now, and I'm STILL finding things I didn't know I had!

Top left is actually two things:
1), one is the small snails attached to my snail there. Are these the parasitic Pyramid snails that I need to be worried about? Any ideas of what to do to get rid of them?

Can't really tell, but they look a lot like what I have in my tank too. When I look really close at them, they appear to be tiny tiny hermit crabs. I can see legs sticking out the opening of the shell and they move like a hermit. Does that sound like what you're looking at? Either way... not sure what you've got - but they don't look like the pictures of Pyramid snails that I've seen.

2) Just to the right of the snail is another snail looking organism with a very flat shell. Is this a chiton or some type of limpet? Odd that it has been in the tank for 6 weeks and this is the first time I have seen it! It is pretty dang good at munching on algae tho.

Google "stomatella snail". I think that's what you're looking at. Good thing.

Top right:
The thing attached to the rock, I thought initially this was a dead sponge but it never fell off and actually is growing. Is this still a sponge or some sort of macro algae? Not the prettiest thing in the world, but if it is beneficial I am fine with it.

Either a sponge, or possibly a tunicate. I get confused between the two things, but yours is starting to take on a form that looks like pictures of tunicates I've seen.

Bottom left:
This is just some starfish. I think they are astrea, but only reason I am asking now is b/c I seem to suddenly have about 30 of them everywhere. The have stayed off the zoas/ric/macro algae so far but if this is right, what are your thoughts on them?

Asterina star... astrea is a type of snail. But yeah... those are asterinas. I have a bunch and they've never caused any problems with corals/zoas/softies. But some folks swear they're coral munchers. I think maybe it's just that some species are, and some aren't. But mine are well behaved.

 

[thincat]

Okay, First welcome to AA. I do not believe that these are bad snails. Here is a link that I use to ID new animals in my DT.
Live Rock Hitch Hikers
Can you give us some tank parameters so we can help you to see the health of your tank. ammonia, temp., SG, nitrite, nitrate to start off with.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Can you give us some tank parameters so we can help you to see the health of your tank. ammonia, temp., SG, nitrite, nitrate to start off with.

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f16/question-re-ywg-132225.html

 

[b-towndoc]

Thanks Kurt and TC! I have been reading on here for a while before setting up my tank, but I have posted a few times in the last month.

Last parameters from 2 days ago (taken from the linked post above): pH 8.3, Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 0-5ppm. Temp 78.5-80. This is a ~30G tank 24X17X20. Lighting is AquaticLife PC with 65W 460/460nm Lamp, 65W 700nm Lamp, and 2 1W Lunar LEDs. I also have a Koralia Evolution 750 ph as well as a 9W UV sterilizer going. Temp is pretty stable at 78-79F with digital therm.

Topping off with RO/DI water. Still doing PWC with store bought RO/DI water but waiting on my filter to come in.

Only thing I have in the tank right now is ~30lbs LR with hitchhickers (3 hermit crabs, 2 snails, starfish), a Coral banded shrimp, and a yellow watchman goby. I have a few zoas and a ric (ric was shown in other post below) that were hitchickers on the LR. They seem to be doing quite well so far! Here is my post in the newbie forum: http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f14/beginner-132116.html.

Speaking of the YWG- it hides in a rock that is directly under my PH and I cannot figure out the best way to feed him as it shoots the food around to my skimmer if I place it near his rock. Will he scavenge at night regardless? I have a turkey baster, but right now that seems to scare him enough that the food just is circulated about without him eating it! I do seem him swim around and pick at things though.

 

[b-towndoc]

Thanks for that link as well. I had seen the Xtal and the one referrenced from here above, but your link I think had them both in it. That certainly looks like a stomatella varia. I think the smaller snails must be eating algae on the larger one as they seem to be all on the shell. Your eyes are better than mine Kurt, though they may have legs. Will have to wait and see when they get bigger!

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

...Your eyes are better than mine Kurt, though they may have legs. Will have to wait and see when they get bigger!

I didn't mean I could see them in your picture... I just meant that the ones in my tank have legs. The shape of the shells in your picture look like the ones in my tank... and they never seem to get bigger.

 

[thincat]

Here's another go link with photos of different saltwater snails from the good doctors website.
Aquarium Snails: Sea Snail Species and Aquatic Saltwater Snails

 

[Jimbo7]

As far as feeding the YWG, I usually turn off all my pumps and power heads in my tank. My fish are trained, the second they feel no flow they start going crazy at the top of the tank.