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I got some “live rock” from a specialty store, and it ‘s the greatest thing ever. I don’t care if I never get fish – the rock itself is so great!
Just a few weeks ago, I wasn’t sure I knew what live rock is, but I think I’ve got it now. Most of it is skeletons of coral, not really rock at all. It’s available “uncured” “cured” or “cultured”. The uncured live rock carries on it and in it, the life from the waters it came from. Of course that can be good or bad, depending upon what’s on it.
Cured live rock, is the natural “rock” that came from the ocean, but only the hardiest life remains. The things that wouldn’t survive in your tank, are removed before you get the rock, as well as any “hitch hikers”. Rumor has it, it’s a very smelly process to cure live rock.
A clam who hitched a ride on the live rock. More of a stow-away, than a hitch hiker.
Cultured live rock is formed cement or other material, that has been seeded to grow beneficial bacteria and other life onto to it. It may be cultured in vats or out in the ocean. The red “donut” in these photos is actually cultured cement!
My “rock” is cured live rock. It’s covered with beautiful purple coralline algae, and just before I put it in my tank, a little crab came out of it! So I put him in the tank, of course. He may turn out to eat fish and coral, but I don’t know yet. I haven’t seen him again. The morning after I put in the rock, a clam appeared attached to one of the old rocks. Oh, and there is a tiny little fish swimming around too. It’s so tiny that it must have just hatched.
I looked in the tank with a black light the first night that I had the rock, and I saw bright green spots of something. There are also yellow pollups on the rock. They look like little brown feathers in the daylight, but are yellow under a black light. The “rock” pieces I bought are purplish in daylight, but under the black light they are an amazing orange.
I was looking at the rock one evening, and I saw a crab come out. Not the little red one that I had seen earlier, but a mottled tan and brown crab. He climbed out of one rock, and then moved into another one. He’s kind of scary looking. He has big claws and a lot of legs.
So for now, I’m happy to just look at my live rock. I don’t feel the need to run out and get some fish. I did add a few snails, and they are also great to watch (Perhaps I’m easily amused). But look at these guys! They’re beautiful!
Banded Trochus Snails blending into the rock
Tiny nassarius snails pop up for a meal
This is an awesome lil story. Thanks for sharing. I’m tempted to start a tank now!
I completely understand how you feel!!! My husband and I have just started 3weeks ago setting up our 75gallon saltwater tank. This is our first saltwater aqaurium for us! All we have in our tank is live caribbean sand and live rocks! We now have 6 rocks, and weve learned what to be looking for when you want good live rock! Our first 2 were a red-ish brown color rock and realized nothing was growing but algea and a snail. We then went to a different store and bought 4 rocks from them. We got the rocks rocks, got them in the tank and my husband has been so amazed with these 4, its like hes a kid again!
We have a purple mushroom growing on 1, along with shrimp, snails, sea worms,and have now found 2 octopus looking creatures on 2 of the rocks. We are still trying to find out if in fact they are tiny octopus? Which would be so amazing to find out if its possible!!! At this point, my husband has stopped looking at fish he wants to buy later, and is wanting to go get more live rock….
I wish you luck with your tank, and ill check back to see if youve added more… Its nice to see someone else going thru the same stage as us!
It’s great to hear from someone else who is going through this at the same time,and is also hooked on Live Rock! Isn’t it amazing? I did eventually (after about 6 weeks) get a few fish, and they are beautiful and fun. After I greet them and feed them, I then study the rocks for anything new going on there. My purple (coralline)algae is spreading to the white rock, so that’s cool. I bought some corals, and they are really nice watch too.
More posts are coming!
Wow! Sounds interesting…
Great read and great pictures. What an exciting tank!
Hi,This is my first time to hear it.I think you love of life so much!Great!
This is so interesting. I wish I could afford to get every think needed to have a tank like yours. Thanks for sharing.
It can be expensive to set up a marine tank, but it doesn’t have to be. The best thing is that you have to go VERY SLOWLY as far as adding life to the tank, so that spreads out the cost over a long period of time. And cool things like the snails, and a little crab that I got, were all very inexpensive. The fish are costly, but you don’t need many of them, if any at all!
You should totally get fish tho =) makes the whole thing THAT much more awesome.
checking back on blog and saw youve added more things to your tank… we as well have done the same… weve added some polyups, few red leg, yellow leg, and blue leg crabs, fire fish, damsel, blue green chromis, and a flame red scallop… this whole event has been so fun watching everything grow and get along… ive also disovered the octopus body looking things turned out to be actual sea stars.. so now we have 3 that have hitched rides… hope your having as much luck as we are with out tank…