Newbie With A Few Quick Q's

[ben3486]

Afternoon all. Have just joined the salty world and set my tank off cycling with some live rock in there. All seems to be going well. I went to swallow aquatics and got some great advice and picked up my live rock and water. So helpful there. They even sold me water from their system to help kick start my cycle. Any way. I've been keeping an eye on the rock and have seen signs of life. I have the odd worm popping out that are very thin and white. Almost like wiggly white hairs. Also have another worm that comes out of his hole when it's dark. It's like a dark from colour and has the odd creamish coloured bands. And I've also seen some little bug thing running around the rock. So guess all is going well. I've noticed on the floor of my tank on top of the sand some tube like looking things. They seem a similar colour to the rock and I wondered how and what is making them?! And this afternoon I've noticed a "swarm" of really really small skittish little critters in the top corner of my tank. They run around on the glass but also can swim about the water. Like quick darts and dashes. They're tiny so guessing they're baby some things? Any ideas on this little lot would be great. Just want to make sure I have nothing nasty in the tank. Thanks in advance. Ben.....oh and I have looked on sites to try ID this lot but I'm a bit rubbish at it haha.

 

[Aquascaper]

Sounds like normal copepods, bristleworms, tubeworms, etc.

Without any pictures that's all you get

 

[ben3486]

Tried to load pics from my iPad but it says the pics are too large and I don't know how to reduce them lol I'm guessing the "swarm" of little tiny baby things are Copepods?

 

[ben3486]

Will get onto my Flickr and try get pics asap


image by B.Caizley, on Flickr

 

[ben3486]

image by B.Caizley, on Flickr

These little tube looking things keep turning up too. There are thinner ones round the back of the rock on the sand too. Any ideas on these?

 

[ben3486]

Bump this. I'm really really curious. Please help!!

 

[crazyforcordoras]

Welcome to the salty world! I too am curious about those things,in my 3 systems ive never seen anything like them! Were was the rock harvested from?

 

[ben3486]

I got it from swallow aquatics in east harling, Norfolk. I've only heard good things about them and every time I visit I'm still blown away. They have three tonne of live rock in a pool at any time the guy told me. Really hope can get to the bottom of this. Lol

 

[ben3486]

No one shed any light on these at all

 

[Aquascaper]

Can you remove some and take a close up photo?

 

[Donya]

First pic looks to be a peanut worm. I can't make out what's going on with the things on the sand in the other pic.

 

[Aquascaper]

Do you know if they have urchins in the live rock tank at the LFS? Don't know why but they look to me like broken urchin spines from that pic.

 

[Treefrogs1234]

I think what crazyforcordoras means is where did the rock come out of the ocean? Figi, hawaii?

 

[ben3486]

I will have to get onto swallow aquatics and ask them where their rock is from. I know they urchins. Could it be the spines have been in the rock and been pushed out? The tank is cycling so when it gets a water change soon I will siphon some of them out and try get some good close up pics. Peanut worm any thing to worry about or should I just leave him be to come out of his hole every now and then? Thanks for replies.

 

[Donya]

More than you probably ever wanted to know about peanut worms in excerpts from a column written by Dr. Ron Shimek (peanut worm = Sipunculan):

(...)The sipunculan body is a simple, but tough bag, with a couple of layers of muscles around the outside edge of it. Given this structure, there is a limited potential for elaborate movement, and that limited potential is fully realized. About all sipunculans can do is bend, flex, contract and expand. Obviously, these are not the most mobile or active of animals likely to be encountered in an aquarium. As they tend to live in burrows, about the whole repertoire of visible motion will be the extension and retraction of the introvert or proboscis and its "daubing" motion on the substrate. Exciting, they are not.
(...)
Sipunculans are detritivores. There really is little difference between them or between what they eat. The species with longer tentacles seem to sort their food more, and probably live in environments with a more diverse array of detrital products. Forms with short tentacles don't seem to sort their food much. The tropical species tend to burrow into the limestone of the reef and form permanent tubes in the rocks. They burrow by secreting chelating substances that dissolve limestone, and then they use a roughened area of the cuticle, such as the nuchal shield, to abrade the places were dissolution has occurred. Forms living in temperate seas generally form temporary burrows under rocks.
(...)
Sipunculans are never purchased as aquarium pets. Indeed, one would be hard pressed to think of a reason why one should purchase such an animal; they are drab in coloration and null in behavior. Nonetheless, they are a successful group of animals, and are not uncommonly found in the dead reef rubble that is imported into our aquaria under the distinctly inappropriate euphemism of "live" rock. Considering the condition that the rock arrives in, it could barely be less alive, but in some cases it does contain a few hardy survivors of an ancient lineage of detritus-feeding worms. Such worms may persist in reef aquaria provided the aquaria are fed well. However, most aquaria are fed too sparsely for these animals to persist and they starve to death and disappear.

(from Reef Keeping Magazine, A Spineles Column: Peanuts, April 2004)