Very Live Rocks

[pommie]

Well I've just learnt one valuable lesson and that is don't trust the sales guy in the LFS!

I brought 6Kg of supposedly "cured" rocks which were very expensive.

The guy told me I could simply add them to my tank as they had been scrubbed, cleaned, cured etc.

I guess I should have realized that they weren't cured by the plants growing out of them.

Anyway, after a few hours last night I turned the lights on only to see what looked like a small rock to the sand bed, which I can only assume was some seriously camouflaged crab (it was about 1" and looked green and fury).

I then found another crab, living inside another crevice.

Several snails had also appeared.

And there is this white/pinkish jello type organism stuck to one of the rocks, it's about 0.5" by 0.2" and doesn't move.

Sorry I don't have any pictures.

Anyway, I just wondering whether I should just leave everything as it is and let the tanks cycle or remove the rocks, scrub them and leave them in the sun for a while?

Also will the snails climb out of the tank? I only have a light strip and not a fully hood.

Advice for a newbie appreciated.

[veliferium]

Dun ever clean ur rocks wif FW,dun even scrub them,if u scrub,ur live rock will become dead rock..

Jus dun disturb ur rocks and leave the tank as it is..

If its necessary,trap the crabs and remove the dead organisms ASAP...

I belive that the snails would not crawl out of the tank unless u have got those pesky Nerites

Just my 2 cents

[pommie]

is there any way to know what is good and what is bad? My son was saying he could here a click click noise last night, and this morning only 1 snail was visible. Could it be possible that I have a mantis or pistol shrimp?

[veliferium]

If i could remenber correctly,i read frm somewhere tat the noise made by mantises are 3 times in a row consecutively(not very sure on tis)whereas the noise made by pistols are more hollow(not sure if its the rite word to use)...

Anyway, having a pistol shrimp in ur tank is a lot better than a mantis..

Good things tat hitchhike on LRs are snails,pods and maybe if u r lucky corals...

Bad stuffs are crabs,mantis shrimps aiptasias

Ah,there is also the bristleworms,some may consider it to be a nuisance while others think that its veri useful

[pommie]

Without sounding lazy (as I am searching honest!). Can anyone direct me to a web site that has descriptions and possibly pictures of potential hitch hikers identifying what is good and what is bad?

Alternatively give me an idea of signs to look out for as they critters only seem to come out at night!

Thanks again

[jem]

you can just do a yahoo search "live rocks hitchhiker

http://www.reefs.org/hhfaq/pages/main_pages/faq_rock2.htm

i am no expert..but what i suggest is u buy a trap to trap all living critters if u don't want them in your tank..or if u r budget wise u could DIY your own trap easily...

the clicking sound maybe the sound of a mantis or pistol shrimp...just put food into the trap and in a few hours u may be able to see them trapped..the mantis shrimp is a fast guy..so i don't suggest u use your net and start chasing him around the tank...

just my 2 cents

[seafood]

read somewhere that can use high salinity treatment. soak the LR in a pail of high salinity water 1.03-1.04 (can't remember the figure) and remove all hitchhiker when they try to escape.

wonder will the high salinity treatment kill the coraline algae??

[veliferium]

Or u can use epoxy to seal the hole of the mantis...hehe

[cornyfish]

Actually the best way to tell whether the live rock has been cured or not is to smell them.. Uncured rocks smell horrible, a disgusting fishy smell. btw, how much did you get the rocks for?

When i bought my live rocks, i asked the LFS owner if the rocks were cured or uncured. He was like "huh? what is cured rock?"

I thought, ok, maybe he didn't understand my question.. so i asked him "So can i put the rocks into my fish tank and add fishes immediately?" He went "ke yi, ke yi (can)".

But i took the rocks home and still treated them as uncured rocks, cos they stink like anything..

The moral of the story is, never trust your LFS owner's advice. Always better to rely on more reliable sources of info like the internet, or the experienced reefers (not me!) in this forum.

[hotlemond]

unless you transport them in saltwater from LFS to your tank, there will be some die off and still needs to go thru the some curing process

[daimy068]

Personally, I prefer to scrub the LR when I get home, then give it a hypersalinity bath (abt 20min). Critters will start jumping out...have found bristleworms, mantis shrimps, crabs etc in the bath after removing the LR.

Then it's into a tub of NSW with a powerhead and an airpump+airstone for abt 1wk. Then change water and soak for another week bfore placing in the tank.

What to do...K.S syndrome.

[Kelmen]

Even a cured one doesn't mean you won't have undesired hitchhikers. Unless you wanna go extreme, which practically bring you a "dead" rock, not LR.

The best is to "quarantine" them. Observe it b4 putting in main tank. Yah, I know, its tedious

I read can use PVC to hose\support the LR, so if the crab (dunno work for mantis or not) fall down during foraging time (cari makan ), it may not able to "go back home". Can try similar maybe with string hanging the LR.

HTH

[zorden]

Personally, I prefer to scrub the LR when I get home, then give it a hypersalinity bath (abt 20min). Critters will start jumping out...have found bristleworms, mantis shrimps, crabs etc in the bath after removing the LR.

Then it's into a tub of NSW with a powerhead and an airpump+airstone for abt 1wk. Then change water and soak for another week bfore placing in the tank.

What to do...K.S syndrome.

i did what u mentioned. but still no use... The 3 inches mantis shrimp still refused to give in..

No choice..but to kill the Mantis with the Rocks.. Kamikazi

Mantis die, Rock also die..

Need to seed them back ..take time..but happy to see my Coraline starts to grow on my dead rocks again.