Feather Duster? Aiptasia? Algae? Other?

[starypotter]

Hi everyone,
I got live rock and sand from a local reefer a week ago now, so far I have found: spaghetti worms, bristle worms, apparently some tube worm casings but I'm not sure if they're occupied, an Astera Starfish which I accidentally killed a couple days in, a bivalve, and some unidentified sponges. I'm sure as it all gets more used to the terrible conditions of my tank (still finishing up cycling) more will come out.
Today when checking out the tank I noticed that there's this little thing on my one rock, about the size of a pencil eraser just wiggling around in the current. I checked some critter ID pages but I'm not knowledgeable enough to tell what it really is. The title says it all, those are my guesses.

Also my rock, most notable on the dry ones, is starting to develop an orange coloring?
Thanks!

 

[Crabs McJones]

The very first picture is an aptasia anemone. The second picture is your dry rock becoming live. It's going to have many different colors over the coming months

 

[starypotter]

The very first picture is an aptasia anemone. The second picture is your dry rock becoming live. It's going to have many different colors over the coming months

So my next course of action would be to find threads on how to remove the anemone, correct? All of the reading I've done seems to point to them being not good.
As for the rock that's good! It seems to be appearing on the other white looking live rock too so I was concerned it was one of the algae that I've seen horror story threads about.

 

[Swoody]

Aiptasia or Majano....needs to be removed ASAP! If you can get the rock out....burn it off...literally with a lighter or any flame producing device! If you are not able to, there are a bunch of advice threads on methods people have used to eradicate them from their tank.

 

[starypotter]

Aiptasia or Majano....needs to be removed ASAP! If you can get the rock out....burn it off...literally with a lighter or any flame producing device! If you are not able to, there are a bunch of advice threads on methods people have used to eradicate them from their tank.

Fire is good, fire I can do.;Rage I've seen posts about where there's one there's more, should I inspect all of the rock? Should I take it out, burn it put it back or do I need to keep it out? And about for how long should I keep checking?

 

[starypotter]

Update/bump- it seems to be coming out of one of the holes in the rock, a snail just wandered near it and it retracted into the hole slightly.

 

[Swoody]

Aiptasia or Majano....needs to be removed ASAP! If you can get the rock out....burn it off...literally with a lighter or any flame producing device! If you are not able to, there are a bunch of advice threads on methods people have used to eradicate them from their tank.

 

[OriginalUserName]

Burn it off if you can and then seal up the hole with super glue. If you can't take the rock out you can inject it with kalkwasser paste and then use glue.

 

[starypotter]

I'll burn it later, but having a tank emergency RN in QT so I'll have to get to it later. I'll burn it and super glue it ASAP.

I'll be posting to the urgent forum as well, but not sure if it's actually an emergency or not. I got some halloween hermit crabs, in QT I didn't have any extra shells, my mistake, I did have some sifting snails. Hermit left his shell, started attacking snail. Snail produced slime, naked hermit crab stuck in slime. Added empty shells, removed snails but how do I help the naked gooey hermit crab?

 

[Swoody]

Fire is good, fire I can do.;Rage I've seen posts about where there's one there's more, should I inspect all of the rock? Should I take it out, burn it put it back or do I need to keep it out? And about for how long should I keep checking?

Once you've sent him to Aiptasia hell you can put the rock back in...keep an eye out though as there are usually more than one. I only ever saw any in my old tank in the sump and in my overflow box...those ones I used a Majano wand on and the others in my sump got FIRE!!!!!

 

[Swoody]

I'll burn it later, but having a tank emergency RN in QT so I'll have to get to it later. I'll burn it and super glue it ASAP.

I'll be posting to the urgent forum as well, but not sure if it's actually an emergency or not. I got some halloween hermit crabs, in QT I didn't have any extra shells, my mistake, I did have some sifting snails. Hermit left his shell, started attacking snail. Snail produced slime, naked hermit crab stuck in slime. Added empty shells, removed snails but how do I help the naked gooey hermit crab?

Throw some empty shells in for the crabs...you can try and rinse the slimed one off in some tank water and then present him an empty shell....they usually will go right in!!

 

[starypotter]

Throw some empty shells in for the crabs...you can try and rinse the slimed one off in some tank water and then present him an empty shell....they usually will go right in!!

I immediately dumped in every empty shell from my old tank and noticed he wasn't going anywhere that's when I saw all of the good, all of his legs are stuck together and it just looks so delicate I was afraid to try to touch him to rinse him off. I also think it's also molting which I didn't notice before, it's back is all raw.

Once you've sent him to Aiptasia hell you can put the rock back in...keep an eye out though as there are usually more than one. I only ever saw any in my old tank in the sump and in my overflow box...those ones I used a Majano wand on and the others in my sump got FIRE!!!!!

He will be sent to hell shortly after the hermit crab situation is under control. Where do you usually get empty shells? I have a bunch that were buried in the sand that I got, but they're mostly small like bumblebee size, I guess I should go shell collecting one weekend?

 

[Maritimer]

Craft shops often carry shells, though there'll be a lot of sorts that your crabs can't use. Aquarium shops sometimes carry them as well.

~Bruce

 

[Zeal]

Whenever I buy hermit crabs I always always always ask for extra empty shells from my LFS, I have all shape and sizes and colors spread around my tank

 

[starypotter]

Craft shops often carry shells, though there'll be a lot of sorts that your crabs can't use. Aquarium shops sometimes carry them as well.

~Bruce

Whenever I buy hermit crabs I always always always ask for extra empty shells from my LFS, I have all shape and sizes and colors spread around my tank

I'll ask next time I go in which looks like it'll be tomorrow since the hermit crab has died. I cleaned off as much snail goo as I could and presented all sorts of shells including it's old one, and when I came back home it was dead.

 

[Holy_makerel]

Kalk paste has been an excellent means of killing aptasia and not having them release spores.

Mix some up to a consistency slightly more runny than toothpaste with rodi or tankwater. Suck it into a little syringe(i like the 1ml ones). Remove the rock its on and coat the hole it lives in with kalk, trying to get some in the hole as well. Give it few minutes and it will gel up. Put back in the tank and in a few hours it will dissolve away and the aptaisia will be totally dead

 

[starypotter]

Kalk paste has been an excellent means of killing aptasia and not having them release spores.

Mix some up to a consistency slightly more runny than toothpaste with rodi or tankwater. Suck it into a little syringe(i like the 1ml ones). Remove the rock its on and coat the hole it lives in with kalk, trying to get some in the hole as well. Give it few minutes and it will gel up. Put back in the tank and in a few hours it will dissolve away and the aptaisia will be totally dead

I don't have any Kalk but I guess it's something I should be adding to the next order. Fire and Super Glue will have to work for now.