I'm using a different product for my culture medium so I was quite curious! Would you be so kind as to continue to update the status of your phytoplankton?

Bizarre creature found...
 

I was doing a bit of gardening on this unusual coral (I still have no id on this, but I suspect it is a type of gorgonian). You can see in the photo below that the coral has some sort of hairy red algae growing in/on it. I was in the process of carefully tweezing that stuff out of there with 2 foot tongs when I found...it...

First, on the extreme left side of the following picture, on the tips of the branches...you can see white blobs. Those are nudibranchs of some kind. It turns out that there are probably 10+ of them on this particular coral. (unfortunately, I suspect they are killing the coral...but we'll see)

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/000_0058.jpg

But have a closer look at that photo. Look directly in the centre. There is a highly disguised ______? (crab?) It has 8 long legs, and no perceivable body. (sea spider would be a good description)

Here's a close up for the hard of seeing....
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r.../000_0058a.jpg

OK, confirmed that this is a sea spider. Here is an excellent article about them.
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-01/rs/index.php

It looks like a sea spider for sure. Check one out here... http://www.captbluefin.com/mysterious_creatures.htm Kinda looks like the one you have. :mrgreen:

I woudn't describe your "crab" as a sea spider. I would just call it that. sea spiders have some cool biology about them but are generally frowned upon in home aquariums. most feed on corals and or anemones i believe so yes i do believe it is munching your coral there. I read on wiki (how much do you trust that site? lol) that although they feed on anemones in a similar fashoin to a mosquito sucking blood, the anemone will almost always survive unscathed. Don't knw bout corals.

sorry, can't say anything bout the nudis.

I'll get a better shot of the nudis. Depth of field wouldn't allow me get both the spider and the nudis in focus at the same time.

I hope that the coral can take his feeding as I would certainly like to keep both in the tank.

Oh...I have a third mantis now. Another large, red, Wennarae. I haven't seen the smaller one now for 3 or 4 days...But I don't consider that to be unusual.

So that's mantis, gogonian eating nudis, too many gorilla crabs to count...and now a blood sucking sea spider. The tank is living up to my reputation nicely!

I spent about an hour observing the nudibranchs on that coral. It wasn't too difficult to see that they were in the process of decimating that coral. The larger of them was easily ingesting polyps at a rate of about 1 every 2 minutes and they were very mobile.

So...spent another hour or so picking them off the coral with tweezers. I haven't tried to exterminate them, but I have removed 6 or 7 of the largest ones.

At the same time, it was convenient to watch the sea spider a bit more. He is also eating this coral, but the pace at which he does it looks much less destructive, so he's going to remain.

It seems that if you stare at anything in this tank long enough, you'll see something new. There are at least 3 of what appear to be mantis fry attached to this same coral.

wow your tank already sounds sweet! i love the weird inverts. never did understand why so many people hated sea spiders. I think they look pretty cool. and that guys camouflage is great too. took me a while to find him in the pic.

hehehe sounds like you've got the beginnings of a mantis community! unfortunately the mantis fry (if that's what they are) will almost certainly die for various reasons. oh well, what can ya do?

are you sure they're not pods? here's a pic of a mantis larvae at different ages...
http://www.imagequest3d.com/pages/cu...stomatopod.htm

That link to the mini mantis is awesome!

looks like something right out of the Alien movie, very cool...

and the spider.....they are only around for about 2 months of the year, early spring, then they disappear, so you got lucky getting one, they are such a cool critter!
Richard TBS

These are certainly not 'pods' as most of us know them. Actually, they look pretty much like the mantis fry in that link. Here's my best shot of one.

They hang onto the branch with their back end. It's pretty much impossible to get a really good picture of one as the coral moves about in the current. In this shot, it is dead centre of the frame, leaning toward 10 O'clock. You can see both of the large raptorial appendages that lead me to believe that is what these are. This critter is probably 7-8mm long.
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r.../000_0068a.jpg

The sea spider also gave me a better pose. Here it is again.
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r.../000_0074a.jpg

I might have missed it but how did you actually transport the rock up here ? was it in water the whole time ? i got the driving it up from Seattle. where abouts is the rock actually from. How did you manage to get the rock without any of those corals breaking off ?

Kyle