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

[i cant think]

The coolest hitchhiker I've found is a comb jelly. It came on the underside of a plate coral and would stretch out a long tentacle at night.

I've also had a couple different stylophora corals hitch hike in.

I also really like some small nassarius snails that came in from somewhere and multiply like crazy. They biggest are a little under 1cm long and most are closer to 0.5cm long. They do a great job of keeping my gravel clean.

Oh man, a comb jelly?!
How long did you manage to keep it alive for?

 

[pnubbs]

I’ve had a whole bunch of spirorbid worms (at least that’s what I think they are) show up all over my back wall and on some rock. I think they came in on a frag…. Also, found an Asterina Starfish show up one day and haven’t seen him since

 

[blaxsun]

I had a really nice red rhodactis mushroom hitchhike in on a space invader pectinia frag.

 

[smm52487]

Excuse the photo skills but this came in on my live rock. Not sure exactly what it is.

 

[Jubal_Harshaw]

I bought a large rock with mushrooms and it had hidden a Pom Pom crab, two Emerald crabs, and a large rock flower anemone.

 

[Cheezle]

Little stoma hitchhiked in as the tiniest little thing I'd ever seen, I didn't know what it was until it grew up a bit. I miss that little guy

 

[Karen00]

I know right!
I still have yet to find any fish let alone my dream fish (I have to find them as hitchhikers as nobody over here gets them as singular fish) of a Bryaninops species.

Oh ya, these are on my list as well. Can you imagine getting this as a hitchhiker? One can dream. LOL

 

[i cant think]

Excuse the photo skills but this came in on my live rock. Not sure exactly what it is.

Looks to be a trachy

 

[MarineCrouton]

I’m brand new to the hobby. I have a 90g display, and had ordered some live rock from a Florida company. Weeks after putting the rocks into the display, I noticed some broken snail shells appearing. I was puzzled, as all of my inhabitants were supposedly peaceful. Then I saw it. Whoa! What is THAT?! A buddy of mine helped me identify it. My hitchhiker was a Mantis Shrimp. It was the club variant, hence the broken shells. My LFS didn’t want it, so I had to find him a new home. Now my snails and hermits all have PTSD, but are recovering.

 

[saltyhog]

I first started my tank with live rock from TBS and I had lots of invert hitch hikers including snapping shrimp, long spine urchins, barnacles, fan worms and ball anemones. I loved the urchins (there were 7 of them) but in about a year and a half, they grew so big I sold them to my LFS.

 

[i cant think]

Oh ya, these are on my list as well. Can you imagine getting this as a hitchhiker? One can dream. LOL

I know right! They’re almost impossible to find in an LFS for sale as a fish that was imported on purpose. I’ve read somewhere about a few people saying they got these fish as hitchhikers on Coral, like how they manage to bypass everything unseen shocks me!
I guess they’re called sea whip gobies for a reason. Wonder if I’ve been hunting through the wrong coral and need to look at some gorges to find them?

 

[Dog Whiskey]

This dude showed up as a baby in mid-February. I believe it came in on some cheato as an egg. It's now about 1" long and terrorizing the chromis. I'm trying to catch it for a time out and rock re-landscaping. "Try" being the operative word.

 

[i cant think]

This dude showed up as a baby in mid-February. I believe it came in on some cheato as an egg. It's now about 1" long and terrorizing the chromis. I'm trying to catch it for a time out and rock re-landscaping. "Try" being the operative word.

I remember the thread you had when you discovered him!
Did you ever get a full answer? If I remember correctly we ended up agreeing on Killi fish.

 

[Dog Whiskey]

I remember the thread you had when you discovered him!
Did you ever get a full answer? If I remember correctly we ended up agreeing on Killi fish.

yeah, I think that's what it is. Although at the moment "bullifish" might be a better description

 

[JulesH]

I have a couple of Chitons moseying about in my set up.

 

[Titleist1964]

Nothing really for me. I did live rock and live sand, while there is good, the bad outweighed it. Four Gorilla Crabs to date and after finding the fourth on Saturday I haven't seen any noticeable traces of anymore. Hopefully they're gone

 

[carbasaurus]

In the garden variety category: stomatellas, colonista (sp?) snails, white fan worms and brittle stars.

In the cooler category: yellow sponges, little clams (unknown species) and tiny ball anenomes

In the all time best category: two long tentacle plate corals budded and grew out on a piece of live rock

 

[i cant think]

everyone who gets corals, do you get the LR from friends or LR that’s been in an established reef setting?

 

[Karen00]

I know right! They’re almost impossible to find in an LFS for sale as a fish that was imported on purpose. I’ve read somewhere about a few people saying they got these fish as hitchhikers on Coral, like how they manage to bypass everything unseen shocks me!
I guess they’re called sea whip gobies for a reason. Wonder if I’ve been hunting through the wrong coral and need to look at some gorges to find them?

LOL... I keep gorgs and have a sea whip and I still haven't had luck but you definitely need to look at those corals. They're just like trying to find the good toy in the cereal box. You have to keep buying the cereal in hopes of finding the good toy. LOL Keep buying gorgs and you might get the cool goby hitchhiker!

 

[i cant think]

LOL... I keep gorgs and have a sea whip and I still haven't had luck but you definitely need to look at those corals. They're just like trying to find the good toy in the cereal box. You have to keep buying the cereal in hopes of finding the good toy. LOL Keep buying gorgs and you might get the cool goby hitchhiker!

Fingers crossed!
I’m sure I read somewhere that there’s a species that enjoys hanging in SPS coral, hm… Definitely going to look into the Bryaninops species more