* George Patterson wrote, On 10/3/2006 7:14 PM:
StringerBell wrote:

Lots of pods,snails and little feather dusters have emerged. Also a
lot of plants springing up.

Great! I've got some pods I'm feeding, some things that look like they
might turn into aipstasia (hope not), something that looks like tiny sea
fans, and one or two other items that look like they will be
interesting. My oldest rock has sprouted some bivalves and a plant that
seems to be spreading. No feather dusters yet (I'm envious), but one can
hope.

I just put another 15 lbs of rock in my newest tank. Algae plants,
feather-dusters, sponges, bright red clusters of something, weird little things
on it. One of the rocks has a little round white ball about 1/8" across, with
wide-spaced stiff white spines a bit over 1/8" long coming off it. I placed the
rock so I could see it, but it hasn't changed or moved. A critter came in on
the rock too, because it's digging under one of the base rocks, left a little
pile at the edge.
My problem is I enjoy watching the rock come to life so much that I can't quit
buying it. I really didn't NEED any more, but they got a new shipment, and this
one piece had so much stuff on it that it looked like its own little reef.
Beautiful pink/orange coralline, which of course has faded...
I made a mistake the last time we went to the beach and brought home a little
crab. Not a hermit crab, looks like a stone crab maybe. Dark brown, pretty big
claws, stalks around the tank like a muscle-bound bodybuilder, ya know how their
arms don't hang straight because the muscles are too big...Yeah anyway I put him
in my 8-gal, and he dug ALL the sand out from under the rocks and piled it
around the edges and ate my peppermint shrimp. So he got moved to a 2-gal., and
he guards it jealously. It was one of those little oval plexi tanks that has an
airline built in that goes along the bottom of the tank under the sand. I turn
on the air once in awhile and he RUNS out and attacks the bubbles -- it's
hilarious. VBG I call him Rocky.

Cindy