Please help ID bugs (and stuff)!

[Jello]

I have these little dudes running around in my tank, but I'm not really sure what they are. They are out during they day and night, and I suspect they like to eat coralline algae. They start out white, but after a while they turn to the color of the rocks they like to hang out on. The picture shows mostly purple ones, but there are also some maroon and pink ones. And some like to eat 'normal' green algae (macro and micro), so they turned green. I haven't seen them bother any fish or corals.

The first picture shows a nice purple bug, and you can see some of the light colored dots on the purple rock which I think are the result of bug munching. The third pictures shows some of them lounging on the screen that covers the powerhead intake. As you can see from the pics, they each seem to develop their own color pattern.

Does anyone else have bugs like this or know what they are? The people at the LFS didn't seem to know, and they look at me like I'm crazy when I say that that bugs might be eating my coralline.



And on another note, can anyone tell me what this is (see below)? They are about an inch tall, white at the base and bright green at the top. Is it some sort of algae?



Thanks for your help!

[Mrs Smith]

I'm not sure on your bugs... you might search www.seaslug.com or someone else will answer it. Chances are, if they eat coralline, they are helping to spread it, also.

Your green-on-a-stick is Neomeris annulata , if I'm not mistaken. It's a calcareous algae and won't do any harm, although it does eat up calcium.

HTH,
Danielle

[mojoreef]

Well I will take a stab and say itsa squat lobster.


Mike

[Jello]

To clarify...the bugs don't have pinchers.

The pic on the right might be a little misleading. Those bugs are facing to the right, so what might look like pinchers is actually a tail (or something). Not all the bugs have the little tails like that, only the big ones.

From looking around on the internet, the closest thing I can come to is some sort of isopod...maybe a pill bug of some sort. Do they eat coralline?