tiny white "bugs" on glass

[Poseidons Pearl]

Just a quick question.

I have an 18 gallon nano with cured liverock and hermits, snails, bicolored blenny, and one yellowtail damsel. We also have some macro algae. Just overnight I noticed these tiny white "bugs" that appear to be some kind of feathery creature with 7 tentacles/legs/appendages. They are all over the glass and there must be at least 100 of them! Should I be concerned? Is something spawning?

oh yeah, we also have some zoos, some button shrooms, and some pink pulsing zenia. Any help/opinions will be appreciated!

Pearl

[ignite1402]

hmmm... sounds kinda cool to me... LOL
i think it's spawning.... not too sure about that would like to hear more too..

[Melody]

Sounds like either copepods or mysis shrimp...both very beneficial for your tank!!
Mysis seems more like what you described.

[ignite1402]

Originally posted by Pisces69
Sounds like either copepods or mysis shrimp...both very beneficial for your tank!!
Mysis seems more like what you described.

may i know the benefits?? not too sure about what they does... =)

[bkwudzjeep]

First thing that comes to mind when someone mentions white bugs on the glass is copepods or amphipods. Means your tank is pretty much, for lack of a better term.....healthy.

[lllosingit]

Here are some links with pictures to help you ID them.
From the description theysound like Amphipods.
Most "PODs" are good for the tank, They eat the little pieces of food that the fish miss and your fish/corals will make a snack out of them too.
copepods http://www.nmnh.si.edu/iz/copepod/
Amphipods http://www.museum.vic.gov.au/crust/amphigal.html
Isopods http://www.museum.vic.gov.au/crust/isopogal.html

[fishing_skippy]

Great sign for your tank. I agree, sounds like mysis shrimp, by your description. Keep up on your maintainence cycle and they should stick around.

[Entropy]

I have the same thing in my tank as well as copepods and amphipods. Anyone every spend some time watching these little guys kick the *!@#$! out of each other? I spent about 20 minutes last night watching these guys go at it on my macro algae in the refuge. If you watch after the lights go out (I have a 4 watt night light) you can see them rising to the surface. My clowns and royal gramma love to munch on them right after the lights go out.

[Maxxumless]

Wait until they start molting/shedding.

[Poseidons Pearl]

Thanks for all the input.

I looked at the pics and links and the guys on my glass are so tiny I can't really tell the shape. A few of them are round, white, and have little hair like structures growing out of them radially. Kind of weird. Everyone seems to be doing well and the corraline algae is the most beautiful I have ever seen it in our tank, so I guess if it's not broken, don't fix it!

Pearl

[Agro]

There is a small hydroid that most describe as 'dots with legs' that are common on the glass. They seem to come and go in my tank and do not cause any problems.

Take a look at this thread:

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...hlight=hydroid

[eyedoc]

I would think that observing these tiny critters (as well as coral polyps) would be easier with a special optical instrument.
I would think it would have a binocular set of eyepieces, be zoomable (different magnifications), have an external light source for viewing at night, have a stable tripod and have a digital camera attached to a beam splitter.
This setup would not be inexpensive.
Does this exist someplace??
Thanks

I will post this as a new topic as well.

[cjager]

speaking of things on the walls I had these white hard spiral dot things that looked like they had red hair. They were kinda small and all over the place. We had to scrape them off and it was a very hard task they were everywhere what are they?

[lllosingit]

Originally posted by cjager
speaking of things on the walls I had these white hard spiral dot things that looked like they had red hair. They were kinda small and all over the place. We had to scrape them off and it was a very hard task they were everywhere what are they?

Here is the link That I pulled the text that's posted below
.http://www.aquarium.net/1197/1197_1.shtml

Spirorbidae (spear-ror-bid-day)
I think spirorbids are the worm about which I field the most questions, because their tiny calcareous tubes are almost ubiquitous among reef aquaria, and they are so small that unless one looks carefully, you cannot see the crown worm itself, just the circular spiral of the calcareous tube (as pictured here). I usually receive questions to the effect of, "There are tiny calcareous spirals all over the glass and rocks in my tank. Are they egg masses of snails or something?" If you take any hand lens and look carefully at those spirals, you will most likely see a tiny set of pinnules and a tiny operculum

[cjager]

ty so much that qwas very helpful!!!
=0)