Have you ever had a cool coral, fish, invert or other critter hitchhike in?

[revhtree]

This week we're going to be talking about reef tank hitchhikers! They are normally thought of in a negative sense, bad critters, but they can also be very cool, and good! I thought today we could start with the "good" ones!

What's the best hitchhiker you've ever had and how did it hitchhike in? Could be coral, fish, inverts or anything you like!

image via @LgTas

 

[Anemone_Fanatic]

I had a tiny brittlestar sneak in on a coral. I tore the tank down the day before yesterday, and I found it in the rock. It had grown quite a bit. Other than that, I haven't had any luck with good hitchhikers. Mainly just algae.

 

[SaltwaterandLime]

I got a pretty neat paly growing from a piece of wet rock I brought home from my lfs. And I've had micro brittle stars and stomatella snails on frags

 

[i cant think]

I have yet to find my dream hitchhiker however I have seen others find them on SPS corals.
Bryaninops gobies! I’d love to have a pair of them hitchhike in at some point but doubt that’ll happen any time soon.

I haven’t really had anything cool looking hitchhike however I have had a vicious hitchhiker before.
Bobbitworms, 4 of them! My first ever hitchhiker to appear, the smallest was 4 inches and the largest was a good 14 inches give or take. This was about 8-10 years ago now.

 

[Sharkbait19]

Can you make it so we could select multiple?

Coolest is definitely a brittle star, large fan worm, and an orange montipora (which I killed in my reef’s early days).

 

[AlgaeLove]

I have little limpets from I don’t know what…. Lol they’re super cute but it super random. I also got little tiny bristle stars that hitchhiked as well and now they just live in the rock work.

 

[i cant think]

Can you make it so we could select multiple?

Coolest is definitely a brittle star, large fan worm, and an orange montipora (which I killed in my reef’s early days).

Man, if I have a fan worm hitchhike into my tank I’d be so happy. You really hit the luck of the draw with hitchhikers, I haven’t even found a micro brittle star let alone a large one.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

We got some cultured LR from deeper water in the FL Keys. It was kept submerged all through delivery. We ended up finding damselfish in our LR tank!

The rock also had some tiny Atlantic corals on it (the only really legal way to acquire those).


Jay

 

[sixty_reefer]

Probably one of my favourite hitchhikers of all time, unfortunately they didn’t live long, jorunna parva also known as sea bunny’s.

and a few more that I’ve collected over the years

 

[i cant think]

Probably one of my favourite hitchhikers of all time, unfortunately they didn’t live long, jorunna parva also known as sea bunny’s.

They’re beautiful, how does one keep them alive?

 

[Sean Clark]

I found this little Chiton a while back.

 

[sixty_reefer]

They’re beautiful, how does one keep them alive?

I don’t think it’s known yet, mine come with some spider sponges, I tough he may eat them at the end it just vanished

 

[ying yang]

Reason why regretting not qt my corals with quite a few pests now in dt lol ^_^

https://youtube.com/shorts/Glcu0lIBXtQ?feature=share Possible eunicid worms. Sea slugs,pulled about 25 out in last 3 weeks from my gsp. Flatworms. Aiptasia Possible Spioniod worms on zoa rock and hermit shell. Black bugs eating sps. Some kind of worm in sump,not sure what lol So yeah I...

www.reef2reef.com

In first post here the main COOL hitch hikers I've had and tank only 14 months old and all coral frags dipped,but still they come through ha ha.
Apart from tube worms and 8 different kind of pods,they all considered pests unfortunately .

5-6 aiptasia on a zoa frag for 6 months or more that keep meaning to pull out and remove but haven't yet, maybe my cbb getting any new sprouters but not touching the original very small ones.
Removed few vermitted also and got 2 vermitted on side of a chalice frag,that keep meaning to remove also but haven't yet lol

 

[Biglew11]

I had some micro brittle stars come in on some coral frags.

 

[Hairyteeth]

Got a plate as a hitchhiker! Came in on some wild zoas, it was so tiny and I didn’t know what it was, tried to kill it for months, scraping, gluing, cutting aptasia x… finally left it along for a few months… low and behold it was a green plate with blue stripes….now I have a bunch of these guys!

 

[DeniseAndy]

I had some cool ones over the years. This one was the craziest as it ate about 4 fish before i managed to find it. The tentacles on this guy glowed and radiated lights to attract fish. So, I found it one night watching the tank. Super cool, but super deadly to my fish.



This was just a cool rose coral from Florida Live Rock. It colored up to red and green. Very pretty.

 

[i cant think]

I had some cool ones over the years. This one was the craziest as it ate about 4 fish before i managed to find it. The tentacles on this guy glowed and radiated lights to attract fish. So, I found it one night watching the tank. Super cool, but super deadly to my fish.



This was just a cool rose coral from Florida Live Rock. It colored up to red and green. Very pretty.

Predatory invert tank anyone?
Man that brittle star sounds like it was such an interesting creature to watch. Did you find out the species?

 

[Sharkbait19]

Man, if I have a fan worm hitchhike into my tank I’d be so happy. You really hit the luck of the draw with hitchhikers, I haven’t even found a micro brittle star let alone a large one.

I’m honestly surprised the worm survived through all my blunders.
He came in on a Yuma rock along with lots of peanut worms and some sponges I got at the lfs. Also a bivalve which died a few months ago.
Fan worm:

The brittle and monti came in on a rhodactis rock (dead coral skeleton) from LA. Not sure where the brittle is hiding these days, the side of the tank it’s on is so overgrown with cloves and Xenia.

 

[MnFish1]

This week we're going to be talking about reef tank hitchhikers! They are normally thought of in a negative sense, bad critters, but they can also be very cool, and good! I thought today we could start with the "good" ones!

What's the best hitchhiker you've ever had and how did it hitchhike in? Could be coral, fish, inverts or anything you like!

image via @LgTas

I woke up one night after putting some Florida live rock in the tank. Turned on the light - only to find a 3 foot long bright blue worm swimming accross the tank. (it was not an eel)

 

[Anemone_Fanatic]

I woke up one night after putting some Florida live rock in the tank. Turned on the light - only to find a 3 foot long bright blue worm swimming accross the tank. (it was not an eel)

Do you have a picture of it?