Pic Heavy New Live Rock I.D.

[JoannaCora]

Happy Saturday (to most). I purchased 20lbs of deco live rock from gulfliverock.com which arrived on Thursday, thanks Dan! I'm loving it so far and I am excited by every new thing I see. If you have seen my other posts you'll notice I'm kind of a name junkie, so as you can imagine getting rock like this is a bit of a nightmare (an exciting nightmare). On to the things.

First, a list of what I already figured out to the best of my ability:
Red Lettuce - Halymenia floridana
Red Grape - Botryocladia sp.
Bryopsis pennata
Caulerpa paspaloides
Halimeda opuntia

Various coralline algae
Various sponges and tunicates

Turkey Wing Clams - Arca zebra
Ring-Tentacle Anemones - sp.
Bristleworms (most of which were dead)
Maybe an isopod that I haven't caught a picture of yet, it flips and flops around like nobody taught how to swim proper.

Unboxing pics:


















Here it is after two days, I plucked off as much of the bryopsis as I could.


All three large clams are still alive, two tiny anemones and probably a feather duster have popped out.


I very much would like to know what these are. They are pretty solid, don't sway at all despite looking feathery, haven't changed as far as how open/closed they are, not sure if it's because they're dead or it's just their nature. There's a few more small specimens scattered about the rocks but these are a good 1" long.


Here I've circled what I'd like to know details on if anyone can tell. Could get better pics if needed.


Thanks for looking! If you spot anything you recognize please do share

Here have some more pictures:

 

[CuzzA]

Looks like it was shipped dry?

It appears to be a couple dead cup coral skeletons.

The yellow balls are yellow ball sponges. I can't make out the other things in your picture.

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

Fire! Keep us updated. Id like to know how it does. How lings ur tank been running?
Im gonna order. Lol. 20lbs looks like plenty.
D

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

Longs*

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

Happy saturday!
D

 

[JoannaCora]

Looks like it was shipped dry?

It appears to be a couple dead cup coral skeletons.

The yellow balls are yellow ball sponges. I can't make out the other things in your picture.

Yes it was shipped dry, paper towels and plastic bags. I’m surprised by how much lived, wasn’t expecting anemones to make it but they were obviously pretty deep in the holes.

 

[JoannaCora]

Fire! Keep us updated. Id like to know how it does. How lings ur tank been running?
Im gonna order. Lol. 20lbs looks like plenty.
D

Tank is essentially my curing/experimental tank, so it’s been up for about 3 weeks, 35ish gallons and plumbed into a 45 gallon that is my macroalgae grow out. Set it all up with filter media from my main tanks.

I meant to specify that in the picture of all the rocks arranged there is in fact a “fluffer” rock underneath it all. Nonetheless, seems like a big 20lbs.

The whole operation in all its glory:

 

[taricha]

I very much would like to know what these are. They are pretty solid, don't sway at all despite looking feathery,

these are the anchor points where bivalves were once attached to the rock.

 

[FMF0331]

NICE ;Woot

 

[JoannaCora]

these are the anchor points where bivalves were once attached to the rock.

Fascinating! Thank you, I probably would have never figured that out on my own.

 

[JoannaCora]

Any ideas on this little green algae? At first I thought it was another variety of bryopsis, but the only information I found with a matching picture was someone asking if it’s bryopsis and the answer being no lol. It’s cute.

It looks a lot like chara, my research finds that chara is primarily freshwater but is also found in brackish, so perhaps that’s what this is.

I don’t even know what I’m saying.

 

[andiesreef]

i also believe i saw some spirorbid worms on your rock. also, beware of that nem, could be a mojano!

 

[JoannaCora]

Update! I’ve moved things around and found a few new critters. The 3 large turkey wing clams are still alive. All the macros are doing well although there is definitely bryopsis, got some emerald crabs that will hopefully work on that, moved a portion of each macro that I actually want to other tanks so they don’t devour all of it. I figured out that the small green macro in the last post is caulerpa verticillata.

Botryocladia occidentalis. I’m still not 100% sure on the other two red macros.


I’ve concluded that the anemones are absolutely in the aiptasia family, however, not the common pest aiptasia, if it’s the species I think it might be then they don’t reproduce asexually, more will be revealed. Moved the rock that the larger specimen is on to a 5g AIO that I set up.


On that same rock, after moving it, I found 5 small clams, probably jewel box clams. One is fairly large, around 3-4cm. The open siphons can be seen near the center of this photo.


Here I think is a red sea squirt, it’s hard to decifer any siphons but it reacts to being touched.


There’s a bunch of these clear tunicates, and in fact I believe I saw a breeding event of some sort, one night for a couple hours there were hundreds of what looked like tiny white tadpoles swimming around the 5g. I have a video of it that I may try to upload somehow. There are also orange tunicates that I haven’t gotten a photo of.


And then just last night I found another coral coming back, not yet sure what it is. Approx 1cm diameter


And of course a nice assortment of feather dusters, this is the largest one.

Now that I’m staring at it I’m wondering if it’s a tube anemone. I don’t know enough about feather dusters, but I don’t think they have mouths like that? Idk.

I think that’s about it.

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

Update! I’ve moved things around and found a few new critters. The 3 large turkey wing clams are still alive. All the macros are doing well although there is definitely bryopsis, got some emerald crabs that will hopefully work on that, moved a portion of each macro that I actually want to other tanks so they don’t devour all of it. I figured out that the small green macro in the last post is caulerpa verticillata.

Botryocladia occidentalis. I’m still not 100% sure on the other two red macros.


I’ve concluded that the anemones are absolutely in the aiptasia family, however, not the common pest aiptasia, if it’s the species I think it might be then they don’t reproduce asexually, more will be revealed. Moved the rock that the larger specimen is on to a 5g AIO that I set up.


On that same rock, after moving it, I found 5 small clams, probably jewel box clams. One is fairly large, around 3-4cm. The open siphons can be seen near the center of this photo.


Here I think is a red sea squirt, it’s hard to decifer any siphons but it reacts to being touched.


There’s a bunch of these clear tunicates, and in fact I believe I saw a breeding event of some sort, one night for a couple hours there were hundreds of what looked like tiny white tadpoles swimming around the 5g. I have a video of it that I may try to upload somehow. There are also orange tunicates that I haven’t gotten a photo of.


And then just last night I found another coral coming back, not yet sure what it is. Approx 1cm diameter


And of course a nice assortment of feather dusters, this is the largest one.

Now that I’m staring at it I’m wondering if it’s a tube anemone. I don’t know enough about feather dusters, but I don’t think they have mouths like that? Idk.

I think that’s about it.

Hi, cool rock. The bottom pic does not look like a tube nem to me. Every tube I have or have seen have a mouth full of little bright hair looking tentacles

 

[JoannaCora]

Hi, cool rock. The bottom pic does not look like a tube nem to me. Every tube I have or have seen have a mouth full of little bright hair looking tentacles

Good to know, thank you. Guess I’ll have to continue pondering possibilities.

 

[AlexG]

Any ideas on this little green algae? At first I thought it was another variety of bryopsis, but the only information I found with a matching picture was someone asking if it’s bryopsis and the answer being no lol. It’s cute.

It looks a lot like chara, my research finds that chara is primarily freshwater but is also found in brackish, so perhaps that’s what this is.

I don’t even know what I’m saying.

This is a species of caulerpa. I can't remember the species but it looks really nice as it spreads out.

 

[JoannaCora]

This is a species of caulerpa. I can't remember the species but it looks really nice as it spreads out.

C. verticillata, I figured it out, definitely like the look of it a lot, hoping it doesn’t outcompete my other macros.

 

[JoannaCora]

In regards to the bottom two photos in my most recent update: the second to last photo, the “coral” that’s coming back I believe is actually a type of sand anemone, in the actinostella genus, possibly fluscolifera but I think that species doesn’t have the right distribution as where this rock is from. Definitely similar looking though.

As for the last photo, what I thought was a feather duster, is almost definitely an anemone, as I’m pretty sure I see it’s foot now, didn’t get a good picture yet and haven’t figured out any specifics. There are at least two other specimens of this same creature on the rocks.

 

[TnFishwater98]

I got from Dan at Gulf Live Rock last year. These are 2 different anemones and both are OK for the DT. The 2nd one is a Corkscrew Nem I believe and not sure in the first pic. I’ll update you on other critters, I was real careful to wash and QT The LR. In fact my QT turned into observing tanks as I figured out all Nem species. I’m about to make my 3rd order from Dan for my new 20 long ....

 

[TnFishwater98]

I got from Dan at Gulf Live Rock last year. These are 2 different anemones and both are OK for the DT. The 2nd one is a Corkscrew Nem I believe and not sure in the first pic. I’ll update you on other critters, I was real careful to wash and QT The LR. In fact my QT turned into observing tanks as I figured out all Nem species. I’m about to make my 3rd order from Dan for my new 20 long ....

Maybe both are corkscrew anemones. The 2nd larger one does have 3 babies under it but I wouldn’t call that invasive. They are one of my favorite hitchhikers in the tank.