[gibbo909]

well what can I say, Ive had my reef tank for around 5 weeks now and Im spotting some really bizzare critters, life forms and inverts all starting to apear on the live rock and live sand but tonight takes the cake !!

Im sitting there wondering what keeps zipping out of a hole in the live rock and then into another hole at the speed of light when all of a sudden I see this smoke like living hair start kreeping accross the front of the tank out of a piece of live rock at the far end, the only way I can describe it is like hair with small other pieces of hair growing out of the hair that are clearly alive and controlable and movable, it must be picking up plankton or somthing but it just looked amazing and I had to call all of my freinds up and describe how bizzare this thing is.

Ive been putting green water in for the last 2 weeks and this seems to be having great results as theres things popping up all over the tank.

could someone please ID the hairy alive smoke like moving thingy job for me as I am facinated to know what this thing is, looks like im hooked as Ive spent hours in front of my new tank, much better than the TV!



Newbie Stuart

[Samper]

Originally Posted by gibbo909

Ive been putting green water in for the last 2 weeks and this seems to be having great results as theres things popping up all over the tank.


Newbie Stuart

What is this green water that you speak of?

[gibbo909]

She's caled "Phyto Aqua" not sure if thats the reason but the rock seems to have really started to come alive since Ive been putting it it, loads of little bits of coral starting to grow, have you any idea what my hairy thing was?

[Ninong]

What did this hair-like creature look like? Exactly.

If it looked like a pair of long waving thin white hairs with branching hairs growing out of only one side of each main hair then it may have been a ctenophore of the class Tentaculata. Imagine a long wavy V with hairs pointing away from the outside of each arm of the V. This is a type of comb jelly but it usually stays attached to the live rock and just waves it's tentacles in the current at night to capture phytoplankton and particulate matter, although it could release itself and move around.

If it seemed to be extending out from the live rock and then retracting back into the live rock like a sort of fishing net, it could be a feeding net from a Vermetid snail. That's a snail that doesn't look like a snail. It looks like a worm in a tube that throws out long sticky white lines at night to catch food. When it's net is full, it retracts it. http://www.globaldialog.com/~jrice/i...e/vermetid.htm

I doubt if this is what you saw if it appeared to be undulating and waving "in the breeze." That would sound more like a ctenophore. I have several in my tank but I can't find any pictures online that look like the ones I have. I think it's because you really can't see their tentacles unless the lights are out. I have a 25w blue incandescent moonlight in my metal halide fixture and that's the way that I can see them. They don't come out if the regular lights are on.

If what you saw appeared to "glow in the dark," then it was almost certainly a ctenophore of some sort. They are bioluminescent (biochemical light production process involving enzymatic hydrolysis of ATP).

[gibbo909]

thanks very much for that, you found it al right and Ive done some searches on google and found a picture that confirms exactly what this little fella is



Here's the info I found, http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/...4/wavenus.html

how many do you have in your tank and how long have you had them ?

Thanks for the ID, the folks in my LFS did'nt have a clue!

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by gibbo909

how many do you have in your tank and how long have you had them ?

Thanks for the ID, the folks in my LFS did'nt have a clue!

I believe I have at least 10 or 12 of them in my tank. I have no idea exactly how long I have had them but the tank was set up on July 8, 2003 and I first started noticing them about two or three months after that. They can be really weird looking at night with just enough illumination to see them. Almost like ghosts drifting in the current.

The people who work at local fish stores aren't paid enough to "have a clue." Their job is simply to sell whatever is on the shelves or in the tanks. You can pick up some interesting bits of advice from LFS employees and occasionally it will be correct.