WTF!!!! OMG is this a reef spider?????!!!!!!!!!
 

I found this in my sump sitting on top of my cheato last night and OMG it looks like a spider!!!!! :eek: :scared: :yuck: :faint: BTW did I mention I HATE spiders!!!!!!! I've never seen anything like it before ever! I'm guessing it came in on the new rock Doug just got for me. Any ideas as to what exactly this is? Good/bad??? Although I guess it doesn't really matter since it's in the sump now. I should add that it's fairly small about half an inch (roughly the size of my pinky finger nail) in size.

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/i...n/P9230589.jpg

I would hate seeing that. If its like any other spider... bound to figure a way up to your tank.

I would flush the little beotch!

I have heard of zoanthid spiders before but they don't look like yours at all.

I checked out the image of a zoanthid spider and you're right it doesn't look like the one I got. I attempted to google "reef spider" but all sorts of creepy spider pic.'s showed up and I couldn't bare to look at them :yuck:

The Ocean
 

And to think that there are sooo many undiscovered creatures in the ocean. There are countless things we can't imagine... and then this spider comes along. Creepy. I don't even like crabs in my tank. :P



How big is it?

Absolutely, however crabs I'm ok with spiders creep me out!

It's really small about half an inch.

flush it

On top of your cheato?

I think it might just be a house spider that somehow wound up there.

Mitch

That's my guess as well. It looks like a common jumping spider that we can find in Canada. I've only seen black and green ones in Saskatchewan, but it looks a lot like that one in the picture.

Perhaps more revealing though is that this spider doesn't have any traditional evolutionary traits of an aquatic bug. The legs are far too short and the tips not large enough for it to float on the water like other water bugs. Also, the large abdomen on the spider suggests that it still uses its silk like most other spiders and is not a water-dwelling creature. Also, if it were a water-spider it probably would have retreated into the sump had you come close and my guess is that it didn't - probably because it doesn't like getting wet :)

Most likely it was hanging around in your sump area and saw a pod on the top of your chaeto and jumped in an attempt for food. Its silk tether may have let go and it might have got stuck on your chaeto which is why you were able to find it.

Don't flush it though! Put it in a jar or something and set it free. Spiders are sweet. Especially jumping spiders! If anyone's interested here's a vid of one in action:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxbuysNGLOM&feature=fvw

There are such things as underwater species of spiders however they look *nothing* like terrestrial spiders. This is a land spider that wound up on the floating mat of chaeto.

I second the nomination to set it free outside and let it do its job of catching and eating the the more annoying bugs like skeeters and flies and aphids and/or whatever else they eat. :)