Need help ID'ing

[Gwee]

Hello all!
Well I'm about 3 months into my tank now and there are no fish in it because of an ich outbreak so I'm keeping it fish free for about 6 weeks.
Actually I'm having trouble ID'ing some things in my tank that I couldnt find on melevs page. It's going to be hard because apparantly, no pics yet but I'm going to try and describe my best..
First thing I am seeing looks kind of like a white star, there are a couple of them actually and one just appeared on the glass (about an 2 hours ago). I am hoping they are mushrooms or something and not a bad thing.
Second thing I am seeing is like a little hairy crab about the size of a thumbnail and has green eyes . Is this something I should be worried about?
Third and most important thing I am seeing are many..and I mean MANY tiny little bugs on my glass. Now they are tiny so I'm having trouble to see if they are copepods or something so I don't know. There are 2 forms of them, one looks like a tiny white dot and a couple of legs like a spider that don't move and the others are linear like copepods that walk around but are they?
Hope you understood me
Thanks for the help,
Guy

[peregrinus]

the star is prob an mini star some say good some say bad. i have tons and never caused any problems. most crab that are hairy are bad nastys.. put him in your refugium. the pods are great to have natural food supply. prob sand fles, isopods, mysis shrimp.

[SpektralerSpeer]

Hi Gwee,

hard to be sure without pics, but here goes:

White stars could be Asterina sp., they are generally harmless;
Little hairy crab could be potentially destructive - but need pictures to be sure (many crabs are fine however);
Many little bugs on your glass could be isopods (miniature woodlice), amphipods (laterally-compressed with an arching back) or maybe copepods (teardrop-shaped with long antennae, but they are usually free-swimming).

Paul

[Gwee]

Thanks for the quick answers guys!
See the thing is I've seen copepods free swimming in my tank and they are quite large (I think they are dead copepods since they just float and don't swim by themselves?)
Anways these little buggers are all over the glass and are tiny compared to the swimming copepods.
Oh and do the white stars spread out and get big?
Are they food for anything?helpful?
By the way the hairy crab with green eyes stays on the same rock all the time and does nothing, kinda picks at the rock and not move all day, only sometimes. ( kinda cute actually )
Thanks again!
Guy

[BurntOutReefer]

"By the way the hairy crab with green eyes stays on the same rock all the time and does nothing, kinda picks at the rock and not move all day, only sometimes. "

watch him in the dark thou........

[peregrinus]

the stars will stay small.. they propagate by their legs falling off.

[Gwee]

So should I buy one of those cool looking shrimps to eat the stars or would that be a mistake?
Kinda hard to see the crab in the dark since he's so small but I'll try.
Does seeing many isopods/copepods/amphipods on my glass mean bad water quality? Because there are so many its actually kind of annoying when looking into the aquarium itself. I'm in the stages of creating a fuge, would that help?
Thanks
Guy

[bertoni]

The little stars likely are harmless, and the harlequin shrimp will require feeding of live starfish as long as you keep them. The shrimp are gorgeous, though.

The small animal population will drop back on its own.

[Gwee]

Cool thanks.
So your saying that they will most likely just fall off the glass?
I keep magnet cleaning them but they just re-appear instantly, it's kinda annoying
Guy

[Paintbug]

i think you are describing hydroid jellys, not a star fish, they dont move around on the glass right? they will go away on their own, and are generally harmless.

i would add copepods are generally tiny. 1-2 mm tiny. theres some species that will get big, but they are not usually seen in our systems, if ever. they dont free swim much either. you are probably seeing mysid shrimp, or amphipods. and if they are not swimming on its own its probably a molt (shedded exoskeleton).