5.5 Gallon

[MadCatter]

There's the picture of my new 5.5 nano. Still waiting for it to fully cycle. The photo quality is horrible because it was taken with my laptop's camera. I'm planning on stalking with a brittle star and a clown coby of some sort (along with a couple snails and hermits of course), to keep it simple, but am waiting a while just to see what happens with some assorted hitchhikers. It's fun to see what shows up, even if they aren't necessarily the best things to have in a tank. I don't plan on keeping any corals.


My first question for this journal is about shrimp. I've discovered a shrimp hitchhiker, or at least what appears to be one. It is tiny, and white-ish currently (only about 3mm at the longest). It darted away into the live rock before I could really get a good look at it. I hope he makes it and gets bigger so I can see what he is. Any idea what this guy could be? I haven't seen him since earlier, so obviously can't get a picture, but he looked very similar to the mysis I've fed to my other fish before - except longer bodied, and not so "feathery" legs.

Second thing is that I appear to have tiny little white "bugs" in my tank as well. I think they came in on my most recent rock as well. They're all over the place, ranging from the size of the end of a pin, to about a 1mm long. They have tiny little antennae from their heads, as well as little hairs from their abdomens.

I also have a hitchhiker snail of some sort. He's a racehorse in disguise, I swear. His shell is very flat, not like a turbo, and it doesn't do much to protect it's main body. I'm not sure what the thing eats, or if it's safe, but his name is George, and he enjoys rushing around the tank

One of the little hydroid-creatures I have on one of my rocks has doubled in size in the last 3 days, maybe if it gets bigger, I'll be able to get a photo.. but it'll have to get much bigger than it is now for any camera to pick it up. It will grab pieces of food from my fingers if I move slowly.

 

[atmmachine816]

Nice tank, I like the little slant with the rocks. How much you have in there?

As for your questions I can only answer that your little white bugs I think are little critters that are helpful to your tank and will multiply rapidly until you introduce fish which eat them, though don't quote me on that.

 

[@ombomb]

Sounds to me like like

Amphipod

Copepod

Stomatella

 

[MadCatter]

I think George is a stomatella. Are these guys okay to keep?


It's still impossible for me to tell if these little white bug-things are what you gave me a photo of.. they're just so tiny! There was one larger one that looked like a Copepod, but none of the others have such long antenae, nor are their back ends that 'hairy'. They are tiny specks all over the walls of my tank.

Nice tank, I like the little slant with the rocks. How much you have in there?

I think I have about 4 lbs right now, and it's still pretty empty it seems.


Also, just spotted a now hydroid-ish creature.. except this one is redish-orange, instead of the transparent/clearness of the other two. They're adoreable They might have to have names too.

 

[@ombomb]

George is a great addition to the tank, definitely a keeper.

 

[MadCatter]

Okay, so my nitrites are now at zero, my nitrates about 40, amonia at 0.5, and my pH has gone down to a steady 7.8 (I'd like it higher.. could this be due to my crushed coral/shell substrate?).

My problem is that I know that because of the progress the tank has made over the last few days, I'll be wonderfully cycled within a few days. I also have spring break coming up in a few days as well, and will be out of town for a week.

My tank has started to grow some form of green algae, as well as other I'm sure edible things on the LR. With what my test readings are right now, would it be safe to add a couple snails before I go on break? The green algae I can tell is progressing pretty quickly, and I don't want to come back to a completely covered tank.

 

[MadCatter]

So.. my tank survived spring break. I went ahead and added crabs and snails.. and they are doing just great .... considering I don't think my light got turned off for the entire week, and there are diatoms everywhere.

Against the opinion of many people in the invert section, I left this little hydroid-anemone thing alive in my tank. One of them I'm certain is aiptasia.. but the bigger one is now about 3/4" tall, and still has not turned the color of other aiptasia i've seen (has been right up by the light, whereas the other one is brown, and mostly in shadow).

I know it might not be a good idea.. but I haven't even decided if I'm going to get a fish for certain.. and it's just so cool watching these things grow on such low maintanence.

I do however need a couple more snails.. my tank is coated in a thin layer of diatom evil

 

[steelhealr]

Seems like you are on your way. It would be cruel to put any kind of star in that tank. You'll starve it to death and when it dies, it will nuke that little tank. I hate to say this also, but, that tank shouldn't have a fish in there. At 5.5, there shouldn't be anything in there save snails, shrimp, crabs, etc. Once you put a goby in there..it needs to eat. That will be the demise of your 5.5. If not that, when it dies........... SH

 

[MadCatter]

Seems like you are on your way. It would be cruel to put any kind of star in that tank. You'll starve it to death and when it dies, it will nuke that little tank. I hate to say this also, but, that tank shouldn't have a fish in there. At 5.5, there shouldn't be anything in there save snails, shrimp, crabs, etc. Once you put a goby in there..it needs to eat. That will be the demise of your 5.5. If not that, when it dies........... SH

Thanks for the input I'm pretty sure I'm sticking to crabs and snails.. mostly because the tank is already so low maintanence.. don't need to add any more. I'll let whatever is on my LR grow.. just to make it look cool.


Edit: There's a feather duster worm on the shell of one of my crabs! It's adorable, and tiny! what a wonderful way to get food.. on a mobile home!

 

[steelhealr]

You could put a blood shrimp in there...or two....would look cool. SH

 

[MadCatter]

Found what looks like a tiny brittle star today.. it's orange (darker toward center, and tips of arms turn yellow). It's been crawling around this one rock for a while now.

I've also found some more feather duster worms, another stomatella snail.

The anemone-thing is still name-less, but is getting larger by the day

 

[MadCatter]

So.. I have a tiny powder-blue colored hermit that has been piggy-backing on my scarlet hermit going on 24 hours now... I haven't seen him eat anything.. he's just been getting carried around by the scarlet for the last day.

Is there any reason for this, or is he holding on just for fun? Should I separate them? Nobody is attacking anybody, and the scarlet is significantly bigger than the blue.. he's getting around just fine.

Saw my first bristle worm today in broad daylight - huge! I always thought they remained smaller. It's just over an inch long.. and looks absolutely disgusting. I'm glad it's suck a recluse... ew!

 

[Donya]

Saw my first bristle worm today in broad daylight - huge! I always thought they remained smaller. It's just over an inch long.. and looks absolutely disgusting. I'm glad it's suck a recluse... ew!

Just over an inch? That's a baby bristleworm, not a huge one!

 

[MadCatter]

Saw my first bristle worm today in broad daylight - huge! I always thought they remained smaller. It's just over an inch long.. and looks absolutely disgusting. I'm glad it's suck a recluse... ew!

Just over an inch? That's a baby bristleworm, not a huge one!

Spooky It's huge when you thought they were always smaller! I haven't seen it since. Good thing it's a recluse.

 

[MadCatter]

I have started to take a liking to Hank, my friendly briste worm. He lives in the purle-ish piece of live rock towards the middle-left of the tank (eeerr... my photo needs to be mirrored actually... I'll update with a better picture perhaps tonight or tomorrow). I also finally have a name for a creature I noticed a long time ago... tunicates.. just to the right of my little anemone (Arnold is it's name now )... rarely seen, and is in a tiny little cave.


I have discovered a newer growth on the doughnut shaped LR. It's about 3 mm wide, sort of a curly-cued looped tube (shaped like how most people draw pig tails). I poked at it before, and it didn't respond, so I didn't know if it was actually alive.. but today I tossed some frozen mysis into the tank to boost growth of the hitchikers. I noticed that there was a thread coming form the white looped guy, connected to a piece on the LR. It was catching pieces of the shrimp. It is now pulling the pieces in towards the white tube.

I've heard of something like this before.. and have searched the forums.. but anything I've found on here, and that I've googled, doesn't look the same as what I have. I assume it's some sort of worm.


Looks like:
white/transluscent
Tube, and if stretched out completely, probably about 1/2 cm long.
it curled up like people draw pig tails - not neatly spiraled like a snail shell.
silky thread, like a spider web - not thick and noticeable (I only noticed it because it was catching things)



Also.. I don't think that I have a starfish anymore... it's stretched out as much as I've ever seen it before (always in the same spot, though occassionally pops through the other side of the rock, which is about 1cm thick) there is actually one thicker "stalk" that holds the arms out.. like an anemone.... sort of... It almost looks like a bristle-less bristleworm, connected to a tiny starfish.. it's really the only way I can describe it. It doesn't just hang out and wait for food to land in it - it actively searches out food items, and its bright orange/yellow. Unfortunately, I can't see how it is attached.. but I've never seen this stalk before - I always thought it was a tiny starfish, crawling back and forth on the rock.. but now that I see the rest of it's body, it seems very possible that it has never moved out of this small area.