Unknown critter -02/08/08
Hi,
I want to thank you for all of the great advice that you give, you have been right on with everything I¹ve ever asked, and I greatly appreciate it.
Recently I have found a new animal in my 45 gallon reef tank. The tank has been set up for about a year, and noticed it about a month ago. It is a nearly flat disc shaped animal, thicker in the center but not by much, that is dark maroon in color with a white stripe (at first I thought the strip was a mouth, now I¹m not sure) on top. It moves slowly all over the live rock, and sometimes it lifts its edges. In the attached picture you will see it in the center (the dark spot on the rock). I think it¹s a pretty neat critter, and I would love to know what it is. I don¹t have any reason to think it¹s harmful. But I would like to know just to be sure.
Thank you, and keep up the good work,
<Lucky you! It's a Scutus. I love these guys! They're harmless algae grazers. Enjoy. :-)
http://www.seaslugforum.net/factsheet.cfm?base=scutus
Note: I've linked you to the slug forum, but these are actually snails, not slugs. They are often mistaken for slugs because their shells are usually mostly hidden.>
Joseph
<Best,
Sara M.>

Mystery Marine Eggs, Likely Snails – 1/29/08
Hi everyone,
<Hi Rochelle.>
Have some mystery eggs here I hope you can tell me what they are. No one is guarding them or tending to them (so far, it’s been 3 hours) so I am unable to figure it out. Here are the possibilities… I have … 3 Percula clownfish, (but when I looked up their eggs, it showed them yellow then turning to orange/red as they develop) I was rather hoping they were clownfish. I have 2 mated 3 strip damsels, BUT.. the male is currently tending to his own eggs on the opposite side of the tank, so that can’t be it.
<Correct. Neither of these species lay/deposit eggs in strands.>
1 magenta dotty back, she has her own private cave. If they were hers you’d think she would’ve laid them in there, not on a rock outside. 1 Hawkfish, I think he’s a male and wouldn’t have laid eggs out in the open if he was female. 1 chromis damsel, 1 mandarin goby, 1 clown goby and some pink foot snails. I don’t think it was the snails, they weren’t in the area at the time the eggs “appeared”.
<Heeee! They’re sneaky that way. I don’t know what species the “pink foot snail” is, but that egg strand looks like it came from either a snail or Nudibranch of some sort.>
I do have some crabs, blue legs, a sally and a hermit, but that can’t be right, crabs don’t lay eggs like that do they?
<No, they don’t.>
When I looked up the different fish I have, and what their eggs look like, my eggs don’t look like any of them. So do you think they are clownfish?
<Alas, no. It's more than likely a "snail trail".>
If so I’d like to move them to my nursery tank (already to go with micro food stuffs). If you think they belong to any other fish I’ll leave them be. Due to them not having a mate to fertilize them.
<That's how I'd handle these - leave them and let “nature” take its course.>
Thanks in advance,
Rochelle
<You're very welcome. Take care. -Lynn>

Cucumber?-01/29/2008
Hi guys! Can you help with an ID? This looks like a cucumber growing from the skeleton on my neon green candy. Am I correct?
<Does it move? It looks like a sponge or possibly even some kind of soft coral. But it's hard to tell from the pic. Does it change at night? (i.e. open up at all?)>
Thanks,
Geno
http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p151/gdevine_photo/DSC00056.jpg
<De nada,
Sara M.>

Re: Cucumber? 1/29/08
Hi Sara - Thanks for the quick response. After some thought, it can't be a cucumber because it doesn't move. It may be a sponge, that's my original thought but it's growing from both ends and the lights from my HO T5's don't bother it; and most sponges don't like light intense light from what I understand.
<It depends on the sponge. Some are "indifferent" to light. And some change color depending on the kind of light they are under. I have some bright yellow sponge that apparently doesn't mind light at all (it has growing merrily directly under a 250w MH light for years now). So, again, it just depends on the sponge.>
I've not seen any changes at night but I'll check it out later tonight again and see if it changes. I feed my Sun Cups DT's and freeze dried Cyclops each night target feeding and nothing opens up even with all these nutrients floating around...
<If it's a sponge, it is likely appreciating the DT's. :-)>
I think you're right, it's some form of a soft coral...
<Could be... those white dots look like they could be closed polyps.>
got to love the mystery of this hobby!
<Yep>
Thanks again!
Geno
<De nada,
Sara M.>

Re: help with gunk in my reef! - 1/24/08
I think it might be Dinos, am I off base?
<Yep>
btw, I have a 180G in wall setup, powered by a 3600 gph sequence dart, I wasn't sure flow was an issue. I just added a 1200gph Koralia pump 2 days ago for more movement.
Thanks!
Chris
<Keep reading. B>