I have a salt water fish tank with live rock a hermit crab and a choc. chip star....?

Question

I have a saltwater tank with live rock a hermit crab and a choc. chip star, I recently noticed tiny what looks to be star fish on the fake plant leaves. I just wondered if anyone knew where they may have came from the look like what I believe is called brail star fish... They are so small and light that the current from the filter will blow them away and kill them... I have noticed from what i have seen so far about 6-8 of them but some have dies from the current.. Also I have noticed tiny what looks to be shrimp or bugs that look to be eating the shedding from my crab is this cause we have not had fish in the tank in so long?

Answer 1

You get all sorts of things that come in on live rock. If you've had fish, the only life that survives will be things that are active mostly at night or can hide well in the rock, but if you haven't had any fish in the tank for a while, these may have reproduced to the point that they're coming out all the time to find things to eat.

I've found a small (1/2 inch) bat star and small brittlestars (up to an inch across) on live rock already, and there is a very tiny star called asterina which is what you might be seeing on the plants. I've also had sponges, clams, coral, 3 kinds of small shrimp, pistol shrimp, several types of snails, sea cucumbers, sea urchins, tunicates, and other forms of life. Try using a flashlight and looking in the tank at night and you might find even more that aren't active during the day.

You can use these links to see if you can identify any of the organims you're seeing:
http://www.reefs.org/hhfaq/
http://home2.pacific.net.ph/~sweetyummy42/hitchhikers.html
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-08/reefslides/index.php
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/ - this one will take a while to go through the articles!

Answer 2

i'm now below the impact that with time and attempt you're able to do something; i'm unsure in case you in basic terms have been given the tank or the tank with each and every of the climate; sand, salt, clear out, heater, easy , piece of stay rock approximately 6.ninety 9 a chew or 6.ninety 9 a pound reckoning on form of rock; hydrometer to purpose the salt point; attempt equipment to purpose for nitrates etc ; de-chlorinating chemical; water evaporates , salt does not so once you're making water ameliorations you do no longer upload new salt; small crab/snail to freshen up the sand; protein skimmer; I in basic terms offered 2 clown fish(Nemo) for 12.ninety 9 each and every and damsels 3 for 9.ninety 9 ; that is going to be a fee to establish ; in case you pick it undesirable sufficient , provide it a attempt; shrink the form of fish to 2 ; I also have a 29 gallon tank and have 4 fish , a million crab and a starfish ; wish this facilitates ; i like mine !!

Answer 3

No all of these creature got into your tank via the live rock. You will notice a lot of little creature in your tank. I have had my tank set up for quite some time and every now and then i still find new things that i havent noticed before. No worry's its normal and thats one of the reasons you got the live rock to begin with. you will possibly find all sort of invertabrate's, corals, worms, many kinda of algae, and other stuff as well. Some of these things are good but some can potentially bad so as you notice things pop up try to ID them so you know if they are safe or measures should be taken to get rid of them. www.wetwebmedia.com is a great site to search through in order to ID all of the things you find in your tank. After a little while youll get good at figureing out whats what and it will be easier to identify things. Feel free to email me if you have any other questions or problems with the tank as they arrise. hope this helps good luck with the tank

Answer 4

The little star fish are hitch hikers andare good about cleaning the tank.The little bugs are copods and are normal and show you have a healthy tank..Both are normal and you get them with or without fish in the tank.As they come from the rock not fish.