Every one of us who has ever bought live rock or sand has at
one
time or another stood in front of our tanks wondering what that thing
is that just crawled out of the rocks. Usually our first thought is of
concern if that "thing" will eat our fish or corals.
Thankfully most of what does hitch hike in with the rocks
are
harmless and add to the diversity of life within our aquariums. Yet
there are some creatures that just do not belong in an enclosed system
and can become a problem. Since live rock can and does provide homes
for multitudes of various life forms, knowing each species at a glance
is far beyond most of us, of course one must get a correct
identification in order to determine if it is considered harmless or
not. Hopefully these pages and others will help you to determine the
suitability of such finds. If you find an identification impossible to
locate, then
common sense will have to suffice, if the animal in question is
obviously behaving badly, then it should be removed.
A
special thanks to Dr.
Ron Shimek , Leslie Harris and Susan Spark for their invaluable
help with the identifications made and to David Lee
for providing the means in which to provide better photo quality. Your
generosity will be greatly appreciated for many years to come.
The
most commonly found shrimp species within live
rock are the mantis and pistol types. I would only consider the mantis
to be non-reef safe. Other types of shrimp are usually carried in as
commensals of corals species or hiding within the rock's crevices
posing no real threat to other livestock being kept
Thankfully there has been enough identifications done, in large part
due to Leslie Harris, that with the
multitudes of worms species it has become easier to
identify most worm family & genus groups. For identification
purposes, the head structures are most important.
With the exception of the commensal crabs I do
not introduce or allow to
remain, any of the crabs found hitch hiking in with live rock. Such
free ranging crabs including the hermits are just far too destructive
to the life within our reef aquariums.
When
snails are found as hitch hikers there is a very good chance that it
may be a predatory species. Identification may be difficult if one does
not know the features to examine or does not have reliable reference
material. This section also includes some nudibranch and sea
slug species.
From
copepods to reproductive worm segments, there are few aquariums that
one can not sit in front of at night with a flashlight and a magnifying
glass and not discover a whole new tiny world if one takes the time to
look, closely. Nutritional content and how to
catch your own zooplankton from the wild.
It is very common for an established reef tank
with live rock to have
numerous sponge species just appear out of seemingly no where. While
some types will persist and remain, far to often you will see a sudden
growth of sponge which will linger for a few weeks and then disappear
as suddenly as it appeared.
From Foraminiferans, Sea Spiders,
Jellyfish, Ctenophors to Synaptids. This
page includes some of the more unusual, yet still common finds within
our systems.
Thankfully
starfish and sea urchins are fairly obvious as to what they are.
The
juveniles are most likely to be encountered as hitch hikers.
I do
not recommend purposely keeping starfish and sea urchins as they either
do not survive our systems or become dangerous to other aquarium
inhabitants along with growing too large for most aquarium systems.
It
would be extremely rare to have a commonly kept species appear as a
hitch hiker. The vast majority of sea anemones found will
become
a threat either due to their rapid growth and spread or by their moving
through the aquarium and stinging sessile invertebrates that can not
get out of their way.
It is not uncommon to find corals or polyps growing upon
live
rock,
some of which are common and easily identified. Those I will leave to
the coral pages and only high light the most commonly found species.
There are numerous other organisms that may appear within our
systems which tend to become problematic as the aquarium conditions
that favored their appearance most always favors their becoming a pest.
Please
take a moment and consider supporting any one of the projects listed
within. Thank you.