Is this a feather duster?

[J-P]

just wondering if this is a feather duster... I have a feeling it is, but want to be certain.

IMG_1660b.jpg

[bigfatfish]

Yes

[xrayjeeper83]

Looks like one to me

[FADE2BLACK_1973]

Yep, I used to have tons on LR on and in the past.

[J-P]

it is kind of strange when new SW tank owners got so excited at the tiniest signs of life in the aquarium I just hope to see a mantis shrimp in there at some point

[bigfatfish]

it is kind of strange when new SW tank owners got so excited at the tiniest signs of life in the aquarium I just hope to see a mantis shrimp in there at some point

Wait till you start seeing legs & feelers sticking out & waving around at feeding time!!

[jus85411]

i have like two or three of these on one rock, look just like yours but i dont have a good enough camera to get a decent picture. i might try though just to make sure of an i.d. i dont have any special lighting so i dont know if they would grow under stock lights, not sure how many watts

[FADE2BLACK_1973]

i have like two or three of these on one rock, look just like yours but i dont have a good enough camera to get a decent picture. i might try though just to make sure of an i.d. i dont have any special lighting so i dont know if they would grow under stock lights, not sure how many watts

They grow under any kind of lighting. They are filter feeders. I seen they florish under many different set-ups.

Jp, so you started a SW.

[J-P]

yep... my 5 gallon gold fish bowl SW set up

[jus85411]

FTS! lol

[J-P]

LOL!! I thought I posted one on another thread... oh well.

I spent most of the night last night trying to get a vid of what might be (I hope) a Mantis shrimp (but I couldn't be that lucky). The little bugger just wouldn't co-operate. He would sit there and watch the camera watching him. When I moved the camera away he continued to do his thing. Then I put the camera back and he would just sit there watching it. So I got 5 5 min vids of a bug looking at the camera.. really doing nothing. I know 1 bug I found was definitely an Amphipod (http://www.chucksaddiction.com/hitchpods.html). That is the one that caught my attention and then I saw this other little guy in an adjacent hole.

IMG_1600b.jpg

IMG_1597b.jpg

5 gal GF bowl, mini 25W heater and a mini pump. That's all.. on and a clip on lamp

[xrayjeeper83]

hows this working out?

update pics

[J-P]

It is going great. Better than I expected. Will add pics as soon as my PC has stopped telling me where to go

ok got it

[xrayjeeper83]

do you overfeed to keep the live rock alive, or is the food for 5 hermits enough?

[J-P]

it depends on what you mean by alive

You have to think small.. very small....

The nitrification bacteria is everywhere in there. It is in the rock and the sand and some is free floating. They feed off everything. So you could actually consider them as the largest group of organisms in there. So to keep things simple, imagine the food pyramid in reverse.

So..the hermits produce x amount of ammonia,
Then going down you have the bristle worms, flat worms etc..
Then the tiny bugs that live in there (and there are 100's that can be seen with the naked eye)
Then you have the bugs that can't be seen with the naked eye
Then your bacteria....
So I'm not just feeding the hermits. It is feeding and sustaining the entire chain. That's not to say if one section of the chain is eliminated (say the bristle worms) that the hermits won't survive. They probably will because I feed them. But there is more than enough life in there to keep that live rock producing the bacteria and the critters that help clean the tank.

Just my opinion, it is the critters that do all the work. If you wanted a 100% clean tank, no critters, you'd go for Dr. Tims or something like that and "cook or cure" some dry rock.