Last Question... What is this thing?

K

kaledrina

I wasn't paying too much attention when the guy at the LFS grabbed the piece of rock and stated what it was, he said it was some kind of worm? I wasn't paying attention at all so maybe he said something else. Regardless, its kind of cool looking and there was one or two somewhere else in my tank and I'd like to know what it is and what kind of evils it'll inevitably bring about to my system.

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(Click for larger) Like the newbie fake corals? :)

Maybe I should pay a little more attention when buying my rocks. :?
 
If it is a feather duster... would it normally hide? I couldn't get a pic of the rock (just washed my hands with soap so I couldn't turn it around) but on the other side of the rock looks like a little tube and sometimes during the day the creature is completely hidden down in there. I think theres a few more somewhere on some other live rock.
 
*nod* Some worms in the feather duster family secrete a parchment like or calcium based tube, others actually burrow a hole into rock. They can be very shy.
 
Wow... Fast response, thank you! Earlier today I got some Kent Micro-Vert food for all the things I hope will start growing and getting bigger in my tank (namely my new Condy, although apparantly they're big meat eaters, I like wasting money though) so I'm guessing this stuff will be good for the feather duster, as the label says so. I have a 45g tank and put in 15drops for tonight and will put in a full dose the day before I do my weekly waterchanges. Starting to get some algae so I want to do everything possible to not feed it.

Thanks for the fast response..! The guy at the store said something about a worm but it definitely does not look like a worm so I was confused.
 
Hi and welcome,
You mentioned algae starting to develop, new tank and condy anemone all in the same breath. The algae sounds like diatom's which are part of the normal cycling process, just make sure you have good flow through-out your tank and that there are no dead spots where nutrients(food) can settle. Make sure your source water is good also and does not contain phosphate's or nitrates which could also fuel unwanted algae issues. It's usually better to wait ~ 5 to 6 months before adding an anemone to a new tank...that gives your system enough time to stabilize somewhat. Can you list your current water parameters??

Cheers!
 
I totally missed the condy anemone. They're cheap, very pretty when healthy, fairly hardy, and no clown naturally hosts them. They'll also sting the heck out of other corals, like most anemones, so you may want to isolate him from other corals in the tank.
 
The condy is a super healthy one though... he refused to unstick from the pet store girl's hand and took a lot of coordination between the two of us to get him in. I dripped water in for 3 hours (dumping out half and redripping) and when I put him in, he stuck to me for at least 30 seconds. He's moved about 5" from where I put him and he's been happy, he ate a nice chunk of vitamin enriched krill this afternoon and in probably 20seconds he had finished eating it.

Anyways!

As of tonight..
SG 1.023
Thermometer says 70 but its kind of under a rock.. more like 73ish probably
Ammonia is 0-0.25
KH 10
pH 8.0
Nitrite .3-.8

The test kit is a Tetratest kit and you put the test vial up to a color chart, which is why its not 100% precise but thats all I could afford and theres still lots of testing to be done with it. KH is a bit high, but an RO/DI system is still a couple months in the future (need money!). Nitrite also is above what I'd want it to be, but the color was closer to .3 and water changes are on every sunday anyways.

I'm also really good at overfeeding everyone. They just look so hungry! :( As of now my plans are to get a Dual Strip Compact Florescent light next week. Thennnn probably a sump w/ refugium. And after that I was going to invest in an RO/DI system. Then I should be set. No more fishies for me although I wish I could take all of them home and cuddle them. I think the only livestock I'd be wanting for now is some more live rock.
 
I know I thought that was strange... The temp doesn't seem to be stable although it has been pretty warm some days, cooler on others. I can't figure it out, probably because my house temperature fluctuates since, well, TX weather is crazy and my dad is cheap about heating/cooling.

Something I noticed about my Condy is that when the lights go off (its real abrupt since theres only one light.. part of the reason I'm buying a real expensive 4 bulb system w/ moonlights) he starts.. flinching? He pulls some of his tentacles closer to him and just looks PO'd at me for being so mean. I guess its part of the whole adjustment process.

There's the anemone on his spot of choice, on some newbie fake corals. I got the rock since its made to hide the skimmer thats behind it. And the male Clownfish. Nemo!
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y174/janey24516/DSC02061.jpg
Right after I fed him, so he's a little shrunken trying to stuff the krill in his mouth.
 
if you're getting that vast of a swing in temps, you might want to increase the wattage of heaters you're using. I ran into a similar problem with my 55 when I first set it up and once I doubled the heaters my temps stabilized.
 
Hehehe... when I first started setting up the tank as saltwater and tearing down the old fw set up I kind of accidentally dropped my heater... And didn't realize the temperature changes until today.

This afternoon though I went to look at my tank and the Condy looked like he was eating himself... he had stuffed his tentacles inside himself completely and theres a dime size amount of tiny tentacles sticking out.. :shock: Help...? I knew that the Condy might not survive but I haven't heard of anything like that, I've heard of them just going POOF into a cloud of ickiness but eating his tentacles? Erp... And nope, none of my fish have even taken notice of him whatsoever. I looked at my pufferfish and interrogated him and his stomach is a bit shrunken in so I know he hasn't eaten anything other than what I've given him.
 
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