Saltwater Reef: Live Rock Hitchhikers, the Good and Bad

As a Reefer, when we start a reef tank we start with live rock or base rock. So say that your going to start with live rock or just add some live rock to your tank. You are looking at your new purple rocks and see some critters. What the Heck is that? you ask yourself. Well here are a list of common hitchhikers that you may expect to find.

          Common Live Rock Hitchhikers- The Good and The Bad

#1    PODS!!

Copepods and anthropods!! Tiny little white bugs everywhere on your glass, on the rocks and in the substrate. Some are very tiny, and these are your copepods and some are small shrimp like crustrations, these are your anthropods. These guys are GOOD!! Fantastic little critters that love to eat diatoms and other algae and are really great for those finicky eaters such as mandarin dragonets, goby's and blennies. 

#2 Stomatella Snails

Sure these little snails aren't the cutest snails but they are extremely hard working reef safe herbivores that will help control micro algae growth. They are fast moving snails that look more like slugs with a small flat shell. They really mean business when it comes to mowing down unwanted algae, keep these guys around, they will spontaneously spawn if your reef tank is well established, and wont multiply enough to become a nuisance. 

#3 Feather Dusters

Beneficial worms, you can often buy these just about anywhere, this is a bonus if you have one of these as a hitchhiker. They feed by filtering water particles with their feather like tentacles. They are very pretty worms and if startled they will shot back into their tube.

#4 Spaghetti Worms

These guys are really great, they will eat all that left over food your fish missed, keeping it from breaking down and turning into those unwanted nitrates and phosphates. Just make sure thy aren't bothering your corals, some corals may find a spaghetti worms tentacles  irritating, you'll usually see these critters in small burrows on the rocks surface.

#5  Limpets or Keyhole Limpets

Some of these are harmless and benificail to a reef aquarium and others will feed on the flesh of your SPS corals, so be sure to look up the species, if your unsure just go ahead and remove them from your system. They are usually black and tan pattern, and do not have a mantle that covers their shell. 

#6 Tube Worm

Somewhat similar to feather dusters and are harmless in a reef tank, you will usually find them in your substrate or on the live rock. 

#7 Sponges

 These are fantastic little spongebob dudes that will gather up under a rock in little clusters. No, they don't look anything like spongebob, but they filter feed just the same. Seeing sponges in your reef tank is a great sign that your tank is on the right track. 

#8 Brittle Starfish

These guys are awesome, usually you would have to buy one of these just to get one in your tank. They are a great part of a clean up crew. You will usually see these crazy looking critters around your live rock or in your substrate.

#9 Zoa's

Beautiful Colorful polyps or SPS, but lack a calcium based skeleton. If you got some of these as a hitchhiker then you definitely want to keep it. There are many varieties of a Zoanthid Coral, and most have some pretty wild names, such as red headed kid or cherry bombs just to name a couple.

#10 Bristle Worms 

Now there is an on going contriversy about weather bristle worms are good or bad in the Reefing community. Some reefers love them and most hate them. In very small population they can be benifical, as long as they are small, once they become big they have been known to snatch up small fish. Don't attempt to grab these guys with your hands, their bristles will easily penetrate your skin, causing different reactions to different people. We usually remove them as soon as we see them, but of course that is up to you.

#11 Fire worms

Fire worms look similar to Bristle worms, but they will eat your coral, there is only one species of fire worm that are beneficial to your reef system, the Eurythoe Complanta, but again if you are unsure if it is a good one or a bad one its just best to rid yourself of the problem all together. You don't want to just grab these guys with your hands either, they have a poison in their bristles that is much more harmful than a bristle worms.

#12 Flat Worms

Every species of the flat worms is a predator and is not reef safe at all. They reproduce very quickly and can wipe out a colony quick. Remove these guys as fast as you see them.

#13 Aiptasia

This is a big pest. These guys are relentless, if threatened they will throw spores all over your tank. We usually burn them up with a laser, but make sure its a good strong one, you don't want to just harm it and cause it to reproduce more, make sure you burn him to a crisp!! Its very cool to watch them sizzle in the water, you can actually here them crackle. These guys have a nasty sting, and can harm fish and coral in your tank.

#14 Coral Eating Nudibranch

These guys are hard to spot, they will take on the color of the coral that its feasting on. They usually feed upon Soft corals such as zoas or leather corals. They can devoir a Zoa Garden in a few days.

#15 Astera Starfish

Sure these guys are pretty on the glass and floating around in your tank, but don't be fooled. These little coral munchers are a pain in the butt to get rid of. They repopulate and reproduce extremely fast. Just by scraping the glass and acceditanly cutting off a leg or two will cause one or two more. Get rid of these guys as quickly as you can.

#16 Sea Spiders

These are actually Marine Arthropods not real spiders or arachnids. There are more than 1300 specie of these guys, and not a one is good for your reef tank. They will devoir your corals, anenomes and sponges, Especially Zoanthids!! The Spider will crawl inside of a zoa polyps mouth making them extremely hard to spot, then they lay their eggs and the polyp turns to a grey melted mess. Get rid of these guys the second you spot them!!

#17 Sundial Snails 

These are Zoa Eating monsters, they look more like a flat spiral with black and white colors, a little smaller than your everyday reef snails, and should be removed as quickly as you see them!!

#18 Vermetid Snails

Vermetid Snails will slowly kill your corals by smothering them with the mucus webs they cast from the ends of their open tube shells, which are used to catch food and nutrients they need for survival, the webs often irritate surrounding corals, causing polyps to remain closed eventually ending in tissue loss. Vermetids also hurt or slowly kill corals by stealing their much needed calcium, impeding their skeletal growth! Often the Vermetids will attach their selves to a coral causing lesions that will result in tissue loss and tissue damage, eventually killing the coral if not removed.

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