Help with identifying some live rock stow-a-ways

[Gary]

My son and I rearranged the layout of the tank tonight and decided that there was one piece of rock that we didn't like. For fun, we busted it up with a hammer. This is what we found. This rock was about the size of a softball. Also, recently a Peppermint shrimp, Scarlet Skunk Shrimp and a Firefish disappeared without a trace. The worm in the picture excreted a blob (left center) after I pulled out of the rock that kind of looked like a shrimp. From what I could find, it seems that the large worm might be a Peanut Worm? Fully stretched out it was about 4" long. I know that the other 3 worms are bristleworms.

I've searched for this and can't identify it. The ruler is in cm.

 

[tat2z_21]

The last is definitaly a pistol shrimp. The others are bristle worms and a peanut worm I believe.

 

[Gary]

Thanks for the quick reply tat2z_21! I slapped my forehead when I read Pistol Shrimp. It seems that the Peanut Worm is not a bad thing and neither is the Pistol Shrimp.

Would you put them back in the tank?

 

[user 26995]

Great hitchhikers. I have all those in my tanks. I would put the pistol shrimp and the peanut worm back in the tank. You will probably never see either one of them, but they will both help with clean up. You will most likely have a lot more bristle worms, but not to worry. They are good for eating left over food too. Bristle worm traps are pretty easy to make to thin them out if you need to.

 

[Gary]

Do you think that the Peanut Worm ate my missing shrimps and fish?

 

[user 26995]

Do you think that the Peanut Worm ate my missing shrimps and fish?

No. Not unless they were already dead and other critters where eating them. It would eat some then, but it didnt kill them.

 

[Gary]

Cool. Thanks for the advice. I put the Peanut Worm and the Pistol Shrimp back in the tank. Any idea what happens to things that just up and disappear? There were no traces of the shrimp or the fish.

 

[user 26995]

They died for one reason or another, and with the amount of bristle worms you found, you have many more and they would have taken care of the dead animals pretty much over night. Some fish will kill and eat shrimp. Some fish will be to agressive towards other fish and kill them. Well they die from stress. There could be a number of reasons why animals are dying. Check water parameters. pH swings, ammonia, nitrites, temp swings and other water parameters could contribute to stressing animals and causing death. Acclimation to a new tank can be a big stressor.

 

[Gary]

Thanks for the suggestions. I've been doing weekly water tests and everything is stable. pH 8.1, nitrates 0, nitrites 0, ammonia 0, PO4 0, Ca 400, KA 6 (I'm trying to raise this slowly) Temp 79°, salinity 1.025. The Firefish went missing the day that my Orange Spot Goby jumped out of the tank. I have an Oceanic Illuminata rimless tank. Tonight I ordered the Oceanic glass top which I am not thrilled about putting on, but we'll see what it looks like. The Firefish had been in the tank only 3 days before it went missing. The cleaner shrimp was 19 days and the Peppermint about 6 days. Maybe it was the acclimation that stressed them.

 

[mercenary-grunt]

could be. or did you mve your tank?? did you do a huge water change??

 

[Gary]

Nope. No move or large water changes. The Firefish reappeared yesterday and looked good. It seemed to be breathing hard (this may have been a normal breathing rate, but I don't know for sure). But, today I found it on the bottom half eaten.

 

[mercenary-grunt]

Yay then dang!

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