What in the world is this?

[noirsphynx]

Originally Posted by justinl

I don't think it's a chiton... it hasn't moved any and I don't see any of the shell plates. for the record chitons can be anywhere in the tank but usually graze on rocks.

you can scrape it off, but ten bucks says there's others in the tank you just haven't found yet.

I don't think it's a chitton either. It's still in the same place. I found it odd that it would show up overnight that large, I know it wasn't there yesterday. I do a daily tank check to see if there's anything out of the ordinary. It's probably 1/2" long or so. I may scrape it off but I'm so curious to see if anything further happens with it but then again what if something does happen(maybe something growing in there?) and it's a bad thing, lol.

[justinl]

ahh well, such is the nature of the hobby. it's really your choice since so far no one knows what the hell it is. Personally I think a lot of people overestimate hitchhikers and kill a lot of harmless - even beneficial - organisms. I would just let it live and keep an eye on it, and for others like it.

as for not seeing it until today, I don't mean to suggest you don't pay attention to your tank, but things can pop up like that without you noticing; especially if your tank is large. Almost every time I look into my tank I notice something new. Just because you didn't see it until today, doesn't mean it wasn't there yesterday. again, one more beautiful characteristic of the hobby.

[noirsphynx]

I think out of curiosity's sake I'm going to leave it for now and see what becomes of it.

It's in my 24g Nano(that includes the back sump area) so it's a small tank annnnnd I had just finished scraping the back of the tank(that's where it is) 2nights prior with a blade so I definitely know it wasn't there(and it's out in the open). It's so weird how things can just appear in our tanks like that.

I can defintely say I'm loving salty tanks more than freshwater. They're so much more interesting.

[noirsphynx]

It's alive, lol! After having the lights out for an hour or two I peaked and what do you know, it had come to life. Here it is right before I flicked the lights back on(he disappered again when I did that). So now does anyone have a clue?

[dsaundry]

some kind of nudibrank or seahare???????

[noirsphynx]

Nudi's are soft this guy is rough textured. It honestly looks just like a piece of live rock, kinda feels that way too. I would have never known it was there if it had of remained on the rocks. From what I'm seeing on the net the only thing I can find somewhat similar looking is a cucumber but I think they're round and stay on the substrate......right? Maybe it is a sea hare?

[justinl]

oh okay, no doubt, that's a filter feeding sea cucumber. They're basically like any other cucumber except for the fact that they filter feed. Because of that, they don't really care where they sit, sand rock or glass.

Many cukes are toxic so be wary. There is a yellow variant of what you have, same size, that is toxic and may or may not harm a 24g if it dies; they tend to find pumps or just die because they're unhappy. However, i do not know about yours. is it even tinged yellow?