Removing Crabs, Bristleworms, Mantis shrimp from live rock

Place the rock in a tub and cover with wet newspapers (water from the tank) go away for about an hour+ or so... then quickly remove the newspaper and be ready to deal with the crabs/bristleworms etc. Using this method usually works, they come out of hiding looking for water. I'm a little tired but wanted to answer your ? You may have to repeat this a couple of times.

How to remove undesirable creatures

• Put the tub (upright) on a counter top, floor or what ever. The tub is to keep any dripping water in place. You can use a CLEAN (no soap residue) dish pan, large picnic cooler (recommended) or a Styrofoam packing box etc. or a 5 gal bucket
• Take the rock out of the tank and place it in the container get another container 5 gal bucket or so and siphon some water from the tank, this is to wet the newspaper. Get just enough to wet the newspaper ( a towel will also work) just dunk some newspaper in the water bucket so it gets kind of damp/wet and cover the rock with it.
• This just gives the rock and undesirable creatures a sense of security.(darkness) Some of them will begin to venture out if... you don’t make any noise vibrations and such you leave it alone for an hour or 2 then....
• Quickly snatch off the newspaper and get ready to separate them from the rock. For crabs and mantis shrimp, I like to use a regular kitchen spatula to either whack them or to quickly flip them away. The bristle worms once they are out of the rock don’t have a chance!

Those can be removed if necessary but that’s smarter not to do for now. Is it the same rock the worm is in?

Would the anemone live for an hour out of the water in the plastic box.

No, I wouldn't want to be limited by worrying about if the anemone would make it of not.

This is what I would do

• If you can get a disposable latex glove Put it on and use your hand to fan water around close to the anemone This should close it up. Keep doing it untill the anemone completely shrivels up very small.
• Take a very thin piece of plastic something thin but rigid like a rolodex card protector, name badge cover, rigid thin plastic package wrapping, and cut it into the size of a credit card rounding the corners with scissors. Once the anemone is completely closed use this to unfasten it from the rock.
• Be careful! of course you Don't want to damage the creature! Take your time. If after several tries you know its not coming off you will have to leave it.
• If it does come off use only the latex gloves to handle it some oils from your hand may be harmful be safe to you and the anemone and use the disposable gloves.
• If it does come off I would place it temporarily in a fish bag in the tank (floating attached to the tank wall with a cloths pin) this will keep it safe until you finish.
• Then do the procedure with the rock in the tub, the longer you have the rock out the better chance of undesirables coming out/ or falling out as with bristle worms

If the anemone does not come off... and you REALLY want to get the crab the only other way I can think of is to simply split the rock with a hammer and chisel (while carefully leaving the anemone in tact.

These crabs have 2 claws, six legs=color dark gray. body kind of oval. They barricade themselves in the rock holes during the day time. If it looks something like This I would do everything possible(within reason) to get rid of it. Rock crabs can be a nasty predators.

I just read in Fama magazine today that bristleworms clean up the reef sand and are beneficial. Yes they are useful to the sand but they can eat zoanthids polyps etc. Also they can get very large!! I have had 12in+ fall out of rock when it was taken out and moved So one that size is eating something!!!!

Unless they multiply in excess it recommended to leave them alone. What do you think?

You can wait and see Its funny some creatures of the same species have different levels of aggressiveness. I would try the nylon on fishing line and see what you come up with

I was wondering what your opinion on the Arrow-crab was. I've heard they may eat bristle worms but I've also heard that they might like feather-dusters. Is there any truth in that ? Not in my experience, but EVERYONE ELSE seems to say that! I am always hearing stories about the same creatures with different habits. These Arrow crabs, chocolate chip stars, pencil urchins etc. The Arrow crab is very interesting and will probably eat bristle worms and he "might" eat your duster worms also So I would not get him, because you seem to have so many it would be a shame to have them disappear!

Were there bristle worms in the bottom of the shipping box? One way to have a look to see any is again, after the lights are out for about an hour or so carefully examine the tank with a flashlight (you know I like that) <g> and if you see any either use the nylon stocking or trap and this will usually eradicate them. If not a more drastic method is to remove the rock for a few hours till they fall out. see faq1.htm I understand it would be easier to have a natural predator, But there always seems to be other possible hazards that go along with that.

How much of a problem can bristleworms be ? How much devastation can they cause ?

IMO their destruction is subtle for the most part, they Aren’t that bad but its odd..not all creatures of the same species have the exact same habits. Generally bristle worms are considered to be destructive especially when they get large I have removed up to 12 in + now that fellow isn’t eating just sand! I'm sure they eat some polyps, sea mat, gorgonia but that what you will find in the long run...some stuff disappears and other life forms take its place. The best advice I can give is to remove what is obvious as in shipping and washing the rock. watch the tank as to what you have and what seems to be missing, if you begin to see life mysteriously disappear then take corrective measures. For bristle worms look with a light to see them and remove what you can VIA various methods traps nylon stocking with bait, more drastic remove the rock cover and wait until they fall out.

I saw one larval looking critter cruising the rock. Didn't really look like the Isopods in your book. Difficult to describe really. Could it be something else ?

Does it look like a small shrimp? Hard to say of course, have to see what develops The only really BAD creatures are the bristle worms, mantis shrimp and an occasional isopod although they are fairly rare. To me that’s the really fascinating aspect of the hobby... we don’t know what allot of these creatures in /from the live rock are!! Most are harmless Just keep an eye on everything Observation, habits, make notes etc.

What about cleaner shrimp? Definitely get several 3 or 4 + they are really nice and extremely hardy also that’s one foolproof critter in relation to providing a benefit...If your fish ever get ich they take care of it pronto (with no side effects) <g>

Decorator Crabs ? Those are neat. You see this thing that looks dressed up walking around very interesting and they change decorations...this week some sponge and coralline, next wk some gorgonian and a sprig of algae. They are never out of style!

I'm currently in tank curing my Live Rock. 2 days ago, I noticed a 2 inch tentacle sticking out of a piece of rock and pushing a thinner piece of tentacle into the live sand. It sounds like spaghetti worms very common in live rock and are beneficial in the tank. Have a look in the tank with a flashlight after the lights have been off for a while, you will probably see more of these worms fully expanded and other strange creatures.
On one piece of live rock from Fiji, there is a white substance forming that cannot be removed by vacuum. Do you have any idea what this is?
Usually anything white is dead although your are saying "its forming" leads me to believe that is some sort of encrusting octocoral or gorgonian. If its gorgonian... eventually you will see little polyps popping out that will become a mat or shag (lite pink in color) like covering on the patch that's growing. Or, it can be some kind of octocoral that will develop, have to wait and see.I take it this growth is hard, relatively thin and smooth?
What should I do about it?
just observe... that's what happens with live rock some things die off and new life forms take over. A very interesting part of keeping a reef tank. It sounds like your tank is doing very well, so what ever your doing... keep doing it!

As far as I know they are purchased as a "mated" pair

2. Are Sally Lightfoot crabs reef compatible? How many can you keep?

I don’t have any experience with the sally lightfoots, I cant say.

3. I have a Orange Finger Gargonian that has the tips shrinking down to just a thin red. There are still polyps showing on these ends.

4. I have some green star polyps that seem to be thinning out and parts are coming loose from the rock that they were attached. What is going on, and what needs to be done?

3 and 4 sound like a lighting problem or poor specimens to begin with.Tell me the type of lights you have Bulb type and how old are the specimens.

This is IMO typical, it/they go through a period of "sloughing" from time to time. I have 2 Sarcophyton each at one end of the tank and it seemed that one is always closed. One day one would close the next the other. I believe this is some kind of regenerative process. That's a nice easy to keep animal.

To be honest I'm not sure exactly what they are. I haven't purchased ANY livestock in about 3 years what I remember is some were astera and some turbo. Turbo being the larger non coned shaped. I have hummm... hundreds of what seem to be baby snails They are oval about 3/8" long 1/4" wide/flat on the bottom/about 1/8" tall/grayish white in color with a few dark bands going the shorter distance the 1/4 " width/some are bright purple. They really only come out when the lights are off and have a somewhat hard shell I have observed some of them growing to a full snail (cone type) algae eater

They are very nice and extremely hardy... But they need relatively high light in the range of 5+ watts per gallon which is expensive to run over extended periods of time.

I also like Sea Horses... are they hard to keep and do they equal fish inches too?

Yes very... I would forget about the sea horses, as far as fish go in a reef you don’t really have that many fish just a few for highlight and algae management

2)ON the algae on the back glass there is multiplying some sort of parasite. It is smaller than the head of a pin and there are hundreds of them. They are white and move in a jerky fashion, plus I can see that they are producing larvae. Are they any cause for alarm and if so

I doubt if they are "parasites" there are millions of life forms on liverock and these are just some of them. Keep an eye on them to see what they turn out to be. Don’t do anything now, just observe.

Tell me

do you have a protein skimmer? how much live rock? how old is the tank? Fish? Corals? Type of filtration? How did you find me?

With these answers I may be able to offer more ideas about your system

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