Question by : What is this growing from my live rock?
I don’t have a decent enough photo to show of it, but it looks like a clam but a plant. It is no bigger than the end of your pink, though it opens during the day and shuts at night. We have also had several brittle stars though one is green, and we read on the internet that they can be more aggressive. Though that was about pure green stars, and ours is pea green with dark green stripes, is it harmful. Any help would be appreciated as we’re new to saltwater aquariums. Thanks so much.
Best answer:
Answer by TheRav1n
Sounds like you have microstars which are not the same as “green death”. They are great scavengers and very common on live rock.
Here are pics of each:
Micro Star: http://media.photobucket.com/image/green%20mini%20serpent%20star/jazthree3/brittlestarI.jpg
Green Death: http://cdn.wn.com/pd/c5/0d/ea24b4b753099791909d1af6be72_grande.jpg
Green death are not the super deadly aggressive animal they have a reputation to be, but are very opportunistic scavengers and get decent size. When large and hungry they are known to prey on weak or sleeping fish. I’ve never had mine cause a problem but feed him regularly. He is huge! I also have the microstars in all tanks. When you do a large water change they sometimes can all come out and mass breed which is an amazing thing to see!
The thing on your rock is likely a mussel, but can be any number of bivalve critters including clam, oyster, scallop, etc. The common ones are kinda fuzzy looking and resemble a split leaf to me. They are harmless and interesting animals.
I tried to find a good pic of one, but couldn’t find a good one of the common type I am thinking about.
For reference, this is a great page for common hitchhiker identification (you will find more and more little critters you got with your rock!)
http://www.chucksaddiction.com/hitchhikers.html
Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!
Tags:from, Green, growing, Live, Living, Pure, rock, this
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