Hitchhikers

[Demm]

well i just bought about 30lbs of live rock, a day later i'm already starting to see weird things in my tank that ive never seen before.

here is the one i'm really worried about...

and then this one...just looks like half a starfish?? i cant get around to the frontside of it because my tank is against a wall.

what are these? and if they are bad what can i do to get rid of them?

thx!

 

[Tommy Gun]

The second one is a starfish...which I have in my tank as well, and are relatively common hitchhikers. Since some stars are 'reef-safe' and others are not, the "rule of thumb" is that if they are found mostly on your substrate, glass, or possibly only on your live rock, they are safe...but if found mostly on corals, they should be removed. Of course, I am not sure if you have corals or not yet, but my understanding is that these stars are also not going to pose any problems to fish. In fact, here is a relatively good list of common hitchhikers with some pictures and descriptions:
[URL="http/www.xtalworld.com/Aquarium/hitchfaq.htm"]http/www.xtalworld.com/Aquarium/hitchfaq.htm[/URL] (look under the heading of "ASTERINA STARS")


For the first photo, I can't really tell what they are, probably because of my less-than-ideal laptop screen

 

[Demm]

is that the way that starfish is supposed to look like? i mean, is it a half of one, or is that the whole thing? lol

the first picture, i cant really get a good picture of it. it's in a hole int he liverock, what i took a picture of seem to either be pinchers, or antlers or feelers of some sort...

 

[Tommy Gun]

is that the way that starfish is supposed to look like? i mean, is it a half of one, or is that the whole thing? lol

I assume yes, because I have the exact same looking starfish in my own tank...and they are not 'whole' starfish, but at least one of them that I have seen lately is very close to looking like one might expect a starfish to look. I also have at least one other which looks like it has two and a half 'arms'. None of them spend any amount of time on my corals though...and in fact, spend about 90% of the night time hours on my glass, seemingly scraping algae (can't tell if it is them, or my snails making the scrape-mark-like patterns) and hidden for 100% of the daylight hours (I often go downstairs to peer into the tank at night....its like having two different tanks)

the first picture, i cant really get a good picture of it. it's in a hole int he liverock, what i took a picture of seem to either be pinchers, or antlers or feelers of some sort...

Really wish I could help you here, but even on my desktop, the picture is hard to discern. And there are just too many hitchhikers we can see for me to feel really comfortable about giving you a guess. Perhaps someone who has seen the same thing in his/her tank would be able to help

 

[SkiFletch]

The starfish are wierd. I dont know why they have different leg combinations but they do... I have some in my tank with 5 and 6 legs and others with 2 or 3.

Do the "legs" in the first pic move or stay put?

 

[Demm]

they "legs" move. i've seen them go totally into the hole and stick out like they are into the picture. also when it's out pretty far there is also a third smaller and thinner "leg". i asked a local fish store guy and he said it might be a spaghetti worm...not sure. it has not moved from that spot and doesnt come out totally.

here is another bigger picture of it.

 

[Tommy Gun]

Hmmm, still am not sure about what that might be in the new photo...but to me, it might look a little bit like some sort of brittle star since some have that same banding on their arms, and it looks like there may be some small 'suckers' or 'feet' (can't think of the right term to describe them right now). Perhaps it would be worth taking the rock out of the tank for a few seconds in order to get a better look from more angles and/or under a better lighting situation. Until you know what it is, it might be good to refrain from touching it since some hitchhikers can sting or otherwise cause pain...for example, a bristleworm -- which I have never been 'stung' by one even though I used to be pretty careless when dealing with them, but apparently it is a possibility. Of course, I am bringing this up in the spirit of 'better to be safe than sorry' and don't mean to worry you too much.

 

[Demm]

ok i moved the rock to the very front of the tank, here are two more pictures. these are the best out of about 20 that i took. this thing is very small and hard to focus on. the tenticles are about 4cm long and about 2mm thick. it is in a very small hole and it actually looks like it's stuck in there. it's able to get 3 tenticles out, and it seems to be trying to squeeze it's way out, but cannt seem to do it. seems to be groping for something to grabs onto and pull itself out.

 

[Lynden]

Looks like a brittle star. How lucky!

 

[Demm]

will it ever be able to make it out of that hole you think?