Surprise! Has your tank given you any surprises before?

[Gumbies R Us]

Our reef tanks are full of life, and sometimes full of surprises. Maybe we get a hitchhiker on rock we buy, or maybe one of our fish starts to lay eggs. I am wondering what surprises has your tank given you? Curious to see what everyone says!

 

[Jekyl]

My tank is coming up on 6 years old I think. Just a few weeks ago I had 10s of brittle stars come out that I never knew existed. No new additions in years either.

 

[Troylee]

Yeah jelly fish!! No clue where they’re coming from but they keep popping up in my tank! My hippo tang eats them for the most part cause they’re tiny but saw a decent sized one the other day.. I’d say the size of a peanut..

 

[i cant think]

Yes! Well, not the tank specifically but a coral. This Goni was wide open on day one!

 

[ChrisPPolys]

After running this system for four years I recently changed up my aquascape. This was an attempt to get rid of some pesky green star palys that had begun taking over. While moving my rocks I found a huge Mojave anemone about the size of a half dollar!

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Yes! Well, not the tank specifically but a coral. This Goni was wide open on day one!

That's a really nice looking goni!

 

[EricR]

Kinda pedestrian but chitons -- never saw a single one for 1.5+ years and now I have a ton.
*must've survived coral dip at some point but seems like I have tons of 2 different kinds now

Here's at least 4 small ones hitching a ride on my turbo snail:

 

[Manpeckz]

I had what I believe were baby snails on the glass just two days ago. I’m not sure anything else has ever spawned in my aquarium before that. Although they are so small I can’t even be sure of what they are yet.

 

[krollins]

Amphipods and an albino bumblebee snail were the most surprising things I saw.

 

[jtf74]

I found an interesting macroalgae I'd never seen. Got me looking into other macroalgae species, something I haven't thought much about in the 20 years I've owned saltwater tanks. There are some amazing macroalgae setups online. I never knew macroalgae could be so interesting.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Kinda pedestrian but chitons -- never saw a single one for 1.5+ years and now I have a ton.
*must've survived coral dip at some point but seems like I have tons of 2 different kinds now

Here's at least 4 small ones hitching a ride on my turbo snail:

That's pretty cool!

 

[Planted Reef]

Aptasia and vermetid snails.

 

[EricR]

Aptasia and vermetid snails.

I feel half of that -- No aiptasia yet but vermetids have been appearing within the last couple of months (in 2.5 year old tank where I'd never seen any before).

 

[Katrina71]

I feel half of that -- No aiptasia yet but vermetids have been appearing within the last couple of months (in 2.5 year old tank where I'd never seen any before).

Get some bumble bee snails for those

 

[SpyC]

Limpets. Never added them and nothing I added to the tank had them

 

[EricR]

Get some bumble bee snails for those

Thought about it but was a little worried about possible predation on other snails. Maybe next time I'm setting up an invert QT anyway,,, will grab a few.
Thanks...

 

[Katrina71]

Thought about it but was a little worried about possible predation on other snails. Maybe next time I'm setting up an invert QT anyway,,, will grab a few.
Thanks...

Never had an issue with that. Had them for years.

 

[smitten with ocean life]

one of our damsels disappeared for a few weeks. i figured that it must have died and the cuc took care of it. but yesterday my daughter happened to look down the overflow and lo and behold there he was swimming around! he must have jumped in there! no clue how ill ever get him out

 

[Jukesyy]

So far just a disappearing magic, firefish LOL. Oh and found my Dottyback in the Overflow this morning haha

 

[lil sumpin]

Started w liferock and as we all know it's actually devoid of 'life' but it was very cool to see different forms of life taking hold of it. More recently I'm beginning to see sponge growth