Another Hitch Hiker Id Thread

[xxBarneyxx]

Tried to get pictures but it is too small and I cant pic it up with any of the lens I have for my camera (sorry going to have to go with my vague description).

It looks something like a very small 'nem
About 1cm across
White
Has like a small circular white "mouth" with a slight larger circular body.
It has lots of little white tenticals that are very fine (about a hairs width and extending about 3-5mm each). Each is tipped with a little "ball" about 1mm in diameter.
I see it better under the LED moon lights as it seems to "glow". Not sure if it retracts during the day or that it just blends in with the rock/sand under full lighting.
It is attached to the LR and hasnt moved.

I know its not likely anyone can ID it from that description but thought it was worth a shot

I also have just noticed something in one of the holes in the LR. Not seen much of it, just 2 pairs of antena and what look like little eye. Not seen anything else but it does react to light (what I saw of the "face" looked vaguely shrimp like).

Edit: The thing in the hole is worm like, has a segmented head, grey colour, and came about 4-5cm out of the hole before darting back in.

 

[littleme1969]

Hi , your second sounds more like a mantis shrimp of some kind. check out my nano thread in my sig for pictures

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Yeah I think thats what it could be as well. I only saw it for about 2 seconds but it moved in much the same way I have seen mantis shrimp move. I haven't heard any clicking from him yet. If he does turn out to be an intresting mantis shrimp (one that doesnt hide all the time) I might rethink my plans for this tank and keep him in there.

What are mantis shrimp like with corals (I know small, fish, crabs and snails are probably all fair game).

 

[Musho3210]

if its not an aipstasia it may be an orange ball anemone. Look up that.

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Thanks Musho. It looks exactly like that except that it is white with no colour on at all (looking at the pictures it might just be because it is still very small). Behaviour is exactly the same too (closes up during the day and only opens up at night).

I have a few large sheets of 5 and 8mm acrylic so Im going to make a small 1 or 2g tank for the mantis shrimp (if I can trap him).

 

[littleme1969]

Matis shrimp depend on the variety, most of the small species I think are in a set up with medium sized fish hermts crabs etc. they dont seem to get much above one inch so are are really only a threat to tiny fish or dying stuff that is laid around. I have a 1inch one in my tank and here him clicking away. hes been feeding on all the small muscels in the tank and nipping out at feeding time to get bits of food. I did see him run out and smack a small sand dwelling snail the other day, but the snail just ignored it and went about its business..lol They are quite fiesty though, he ran at my Skunk cleaner when food was about , I wouldnt mind but the skunk is now 4 times the size of him in body mass, again the skunk just gave him a dirty look and flicked at him annd he went back to his hole. My only worry if for my sexy shrimp which i just added, I expected them to be bigger as I order large ones and they are only about 1cm long, which is withing the pry range for the mantis, fingers crossed they grow fast enough before the mantis spots them, if not I'll have to catch him and stick him back in the trap.

 

[SkiFletch]

Well, could be a bleached orange ball anemone... Somethin tells me it's trip on the LR wasn't exactly non-stressful

As for the mantis, littleme offered some great advice. Mantids dont care about corals but make sure you don't have loose frags laying around that are small enough for the mantis to move. They're great interior decorators when they get older

 

[xxBarneyxx]

I found out last night that it is not a mantis. Not sure what it is and whenever I tried to get a photo all I got was a picture of the hole it lives in and an hours wait until it came out again

It is at least 2-3 inchs long (could be longer but I haven't seen the tail end yet). It is about 4-5mm wide.
It has two pairs of antenee, one long pair at the top of the head and a shorter pair which I think are underneath.
It is grey coloured and the head is segmented from the body.
It has a lot of legs (like a millipied).
It's mouth looks like that of a caterpiller, couldnt see it clearly but it appears to have small sideways moving mandibles and it was rasping over the rock outside its hole.
It doesnt seem to have any arms/claws, it is not bristle worm, only comes out when its dark and lives in a hole which it doesnt seem to move to far from.

The orange ball anemone seems to be doing pretty good. It seems to be a lot bigger now and extends a lot further.

 

[SkiFletch]

Wierd, some kind of strange filter feeding worm?

 

[pengy666]

Take a look at this website see if it helps


Hitch Hikers guide !!




you may already have seen this site but its useful

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Thanks, I had looked at that page and quite a few others but cant find anything that looks similar. It might be a quill worm but haven't found any good pictures of them to compare it too.

 

[Donya]

Sounds like you've got a white ball corallimorph. With enough and good feeding those can develope a pinkish tone to the body; if deprived of light/food for a long time, they'll often be completely colorless or transparent except for the color of the balls on the ends of the tentacles. I'm not sure if bleaching can affect tip color in corallimorphs; that's seemed to be independant of body color based on what I've seen of them. Just a caution on the corallimorphs - I had one that wasn't much bigger than you describe snare a small goby that was around 1.5". They have a very strong sting for their size even compared to things like Aiptasia.