I can't believe it's still alive!

DebsSisterFlo · 04-24-2006, 01:31 AM

I removed an acro skeleton because it's getting soft and if I bump it pieces fall off, and it had hair algae on it. Well then I read how someone had GSP spreading and growing over a similar item so I thought I'd put it back in right next to the GSP and see what happens. Well I had this skeleton out of the water for a full 12 hours, and when I picked it up I saw what looked like a slug. It wiggled when I touched it with a spoon so I put it into a measuring cup and put a little tank water in... well it was a bristle worm! How did it survive 12 hours out of the water! Yipes! For the life of me I couldn't get a crisp macro shot, but I think these will do. I really zoomed in to try to show the bristles! So, anyone want a new pet? I think I'm going to flush it, I'm sure I have more.

hehe, I just added that 3rd pic, he had climbed up the side of the measuring cup and completely out of the water. I put him in the 5g brine tank, maybe he'll eat up any dead ones! Lets see how big he gets!

Wiskey · 04-24-2006, 01:53 AM

Crafty little buggers aren't they? I had a fiddler crab crawl out of my freshwater 50 gallon (first off I have no idea how it did that) crawl all the way across my bedroom, down the hall, and into the bathroom where it died. Some of these creatures that supposedly need water, seem to be able to do without it for quite a long time.

Great story,
Whiskey

Wiskey · 04-24-2006, 01:55 AM

P.S. if your acro skeleton is getting soft, you may want to check your PH, they should stay rock hard forever, unless the PH drops down to below 7.

Whiskey

DebsSisterFlo · 04-24-2006, 02:31 AM

yeah I'm not sure if it's soft or brittle, maybe brittle is a better word.
It's funny that you said that about your fiddler crab. If you have anything close to the glass they'll find their way out, and any uplift tube or even an airline those buggers will climb it. I had a female do that to me; she climbed up and out of the tank, fell to the floor, cruised all the way down the hallway, down two steps, and I found her, claws up while on her back, on the floor directly in front of the kitchen sink, I kid you not. It was impressive but pitiful, she knew where the water was but couldn't reach it! I do kinda miss them, but I don't know how they'd last in a tank with a pair of 7" pictus cats and various cichlids.

tdwyatt · 04-24-2006, 01:10 PM

several 100 million years of adaptation to tidal envirnments has its impact...