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

[Naso180!]

Had a yellow watchman goby show up in my reef randomly a few months back. Still really have no idea what it came in on. Definitely from the LFS but no LR added in years. So weird but great freebie!

 

[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!

One of many now mwahaha

 

[Swayingoceans]

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!

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 have what I think is a plating montipora on a piece of live rock that came with a mushroom coral I bought from my lfs. Pretty great for a hitchhiker. Also brittle star fish and unfortunately bristle worms. Sorry about the quality of the picture lol.

 

[kdx7214]

The only interesting one I've found was kelp. Had the rock in a tank for 3-4 years with no sign of anything. One morning as I was getting ready for work I noticed a little brown button on this piece of rock. I knew it would be something to keep an eye on. I came how for lunch and it had grown 2 feet to the surface and then 4 feet across the tank. It was a fairly normal brownish colored kelp, with a calcium base (it was crunchy lol) and had spines on the stalk. Hated to remove it, but it was hogging all the light.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Never did. I asked people if they had every heard of starfish tentacles glowing, but no one had. This was 20yrs ago. I tried to keep it a while in another tank, but I did not feed it enough. I was very new to hobby. I should have given it silversides and kept it alive.
It was shocking the first time I saw it. I mean here I am in the dark when little lights go on in the tank flickering and waving. So cool.

Admittedly, ID'ing starfish is tough, so I may very well be wrong on this, but it looks like an Ophiopsila species - many of which are confirmedly bioluminescent. Surprisingly, there are actually several species (and genus) of brittle stars that are bioluminescent, but they rarely make it into the hobby (likely because many of them are from deep waters or underwater caves).

 

[BaraCats]

I currently have a pistol shrimp hitchhiker somewhere. I’ve had gorilla crabs and most excitingly a porcelain crab baby! I’m growing the little porcelain out and he’s getting bigger bit by bit.

 

[LgTas]

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

It's trippled in size and held off the advancing monti with ease.

 

[Tamie77]

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

My hitchhikers have been starfish and limpets. Some of those white feathery things that are curled up on live ocean rock we bought from someone. Yes. We cleaned it for a week and left it in the sun for another.

 

[Ro Bow]

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

tunicate

 

[i cant think]

tunicate

Got any photos?
I’ve never heard of tunicates as hitchhikers but know it can be possible.

 

[Ro Bow]

Got any photos?
I’ve never heard of tunicates as hitchhikers but know it can be possible.

I don't have it anymore unfortunately. It got suffocated by algae but before that happened it hitch hiked on a xenia and lived beneath it's polyps in the shade which was neat

 

[Solga]

Got any photos?
I’ve never heard of tunicates as hitchhikers but know it can be possible.

Here are a few of the tunicates that came in on my GLR & TBS rock...

 

[Sean Clark]

Here are a few of the tunicates that came in on my GLR & TBS rock...

This one is amazing.

 

[Solga]

This one is amazing.

I actually have several of theses. Each one is no bigger than the eraser on a pencil. And most of the time these tunicates look like a slimy orange blob on the rock. About once a week, or so, they pop out to form these multi cylinder looking tunicates.

 

[i cant think]

This one is amazing.

+1 to this! Really is eye catching, dang I’ve been getting the common hitchhikers and some of the worst at that. Really am missing out but oh well, I’m hoping on getting more coral next week so maybe I’ll make sure to look for acros with hitchhikers.

 

[DarkReefer]

When you notice a 'good' hitch hiker.
Are you all noticing it whilst it's being dipped or beforehand?

If you notice during or before, do you then limit the amount of time in the dip or refrain from dipping all together?

When I had my brittle starfish I noticed it whilst it was in the dip after a few minutes... I quickly took it out in order to try and save it and put it into the tank (risky for the coral hadn't been dipped long enough, but I wanted the starfish that was attached to it )

 

[Solga]

When you notice a 'good' hitch hiker.
Are you all noticing it whilst it's being dipped or beforehand?

If you notice during or before, do you then limit the amount of time in the dip or refrain from dipping all together?

When I had my brittle starfish I noticed it whilst it was in the dip after a few minutes... I quickly took it out in order to try and save it and put it into the tank (risky for the coral hadn't been dipped long enough, but I wanted the starfish that was attached to it )

This is kind of a "gotcha" question for me ...
I got my hitch hikers all on live rock from TBS and GLR. The trick part is, I didn't dip or treat any of the rock before I put them in my tanks. Just gave em a quick swish around in a couple buckets of 1.026 saltwater @ 78* and in the tank they went.
I have never got hitch hikers on coral or frag plugs. Unless you count hair algae

 

[CC_N]

there’s some zoa on my clam, a piece of liverock which has a mantis shrimp and a fricken dottyback in there and some micro algea on my clam that I couldn’t see

 

[AcanSkywalker]

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.

I was fortunate enough to have a decorator crab sneak in on a head of frog spawn I'd purchased. They're quite fun to observe as they're constantly changing their look!

 

[Matt Carden]

I found something new on my gulfliverock.com live rock. In the pic it's green about 1-2mm in diameter.
You can't see in the pic but the green polyps? are at the end of a stem/tentacle? Kinda looks like a patch of flowers.