Could beneficial nematodes be cleaning my tank?

[sixty_reefer]

Weirdly enough I’ve never come across this discussion before today, In a attempt to try and understand why my sand bed remains clean and the lack of protein skimmer production I’ve looked into my sand bed under the microscope, everything seemed normal until o started to observe a large amount of this slug type of things and with help of google I’ve ID them as nematodes not going further as there is thousands of species.

is it possible that the sole responsible organisms to clean my system being this organisms? The demand for phosphates has been high of late that is often connected to tissue building and there is literally thousands of this things living in my substrate I’ve looked under the microscope in three different parts of my tank and there where around 15 to 25 per sample that was no bigger than 20 grains of sand. Looking forward to absorb some more knowledge on this little organisms if anyone care to share their experience.

the system is only 25 gallons no filtration just light, heating and protein skimmer with 9 fish and coral, water is always extremely clean similar to UV and sand bed remains also clean without extensive work. Feeding 4 cubes of frozen and live phytoplankton 48 ml a day, nitrates solid at 10 phosphates consumption is around 0.2 to 0.1 a week.

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[sixty_reefer]

@Jay Hemdal are you aware of any specific species that could be beneficial?

 

[Jay Hemdal]

@Jay Hemdal are you aware of any specific species that could be beneficial?

Sorry, I don’t know species at all. All I know is that most aquarium nematodes are free living and not parasitic. They make up what is termed the microbiome…and are important for processing organic material.
Jay

 

[razorskiss]

I study nematodes for a living, although not specifically marine species, and those are definitely not nematodes (round worms). All nematodes move by oscillating their bodies in a sinusoidal fashion and I can't identify any internal anatomy that would support ID'ing them as nematodes.

What magnification were those taken at? The way they seem to be able to move without dramatically changing their body pose makes it seem like an organism with motile cilia or something that can move by expelling water from an orifice.

 

[sixty_reefer]

Sorry, I don’t know species at all. All I know is that most aquarium nematodes are free living and not parasitic. They make up what is termed the microbiome…and are important for processing organic material.
Jay

Thank you, they may be the reason the tank is fairly clean, unfortunately I can only find information on the species used in gardening.

 

[Garf]

Weirdly enough I’ve never come across this discussion before today, In a attempt to try and understand why my sand bed remains clean and the lack of protein skimmer production I’ve looked into my sand bed under the microscope, everything seemed normal until o started to observe a large amount of this slug type of things and with help of google I’ve ID them as nematodes not going further as there is thousands of species.

is it possible that the sole responsible organisms to clean my system being this organisms? The demand for phosphates has been high of late that is often connected to tissue building and there is literally thousands of this things living in my substrate I’ve looked under the microscope in three different parts of my tank and there where around 15 to 25 per sample that was no bigger than 20 grains of sand. Looking forward to absorb some more knowledge on this little organisms if anyone care to share their experience.

the system is only 25 gallons no filtration just light, heating and protein skimmer with 9 fish and coral, water is always extremely clean similar to UV and sand bed remains also clean without extensive work. Feeding 4 cubes of frozen and live phytoplankton 48 ml a day, nitrates solid at 10 phosphates consumption is around 0.2 to 0.1 a week.

videos from today.

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

youtube.com

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

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Well, they gotta be eating something.

Thank you, they may be the reason the tank is fairly clean, unfortunately I can only find information on the species used in gardening.

lol, you mean the slug killing type?

 

[sixty_reefer]

I study nematodes for a living, although not specifically marine species, and those are definitely not nematodes (round worms). All nematodes move by oscillating their bodies in a sinusoidal fashion and I can't identify any internal anatomy that would support ID'ing them as nematodes.

What magnification were those taken at? The way they seem to be able to move without dramatically changing their body pose makes it seem like an organism with motile cilia or something that can move by expelling water from an orifice.

150x have you seen both videos? I’m not familiar with cilia are they archea

 

[sixty_reefer]

Well, they gotta be eating something.

lol, you mean the slug killing type?

Yes all the information I found was in the natural ways to control pests in the garden.

 

[razorskiss]

150x have you seen both videos? I’m not familiar with cilia are they archea

I'm pretty confident that they're not nematodes, or at least nothing like any of the free living or parasitic species I've ever seen. The basic musculature needed to move like that is not something nematodes generally have.

Cilia are hair like structures that lots of organisms have. Some, mostly single cell organisms like paramecia, are covered in them and can beat them to move around freely in liquid.

 

[sixty_reefer]

I'm pretty confident that they're not nematodes, or at least nothing like any of the free living or parasitic species I've ever seen. The basic musculature needed to move like that is not something nematodes generally have.

Cilia are hair like structures that lots of organisms have. Some, mostly single cell organisms like paramecia, are covered in them and can beat them to move around freely in liquid.

Is there beneficial cilia, am not familiar with this type of organisms and I’m just wondering why is there so many, other organisms that it looks similar is amoeba but that could be actually a bad thing right?

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Is there beneficial cilia, am not familiar with this type of organisms and I’m just wondering why is there so many, other organisms that it looks similar is amoeba but that could be actually a bad thing right?

Cilia is not referring to an organism, but to short hair or tentacle-like appendages found on certain organisms used for motion.

 

[sixty_reefer]

Cilia is not referring to an organism, but to short hair or tentacle-like appendages found on certain organisms used for motion.

Thank you had no idea, what would you say the organisms in the videos are, they seem like two different organisms and the second video was quite large. Wasn’t able to magnify enough to see the hairs/tentacles, they seem to move almost like a slug type.

 

[sixty_reefer]

Narrow it down to dileptus and paramecium, prey and predator

 

[sixty_reefer]

 

[sixty_reefer]

Just guessing here, bacteria and archaea will be assimilating organics, then the paramecium will eat bacteria and the dileptus will eat the paramecium it appears that dileptus can also eat copepods, it’s crazy this little trophic levels may need to invest in a better microscope to observe this more effectively.
I can’t stop but wonder what a eDNA test would look like in this system.

 

[Dan_P]

I study nematodes for a living, although not specifically marine species, and those are definitely not nematodes (round worms). All nematodes move by oscillating their bodies in a sinusoidal fashion and I can't identify any internal anatomy that would support ID'ing them as nematodes.

What magnification were those taken at? The way they seem to be able to move without dramatically changing their body pose makes it seem like an organism with motile cilia or something that can move by expelling water from an orifice.

Not what I would think of as a nematode either. Could be a big ciliate as you suggest. The very flexible body gives a ”wormy” impression. I have seen things like this before.

 

[Paul B]

They make up what is termed the microbiome…and are important for processing organic material.

A Yep. Almost all those microscope life in your sand is what cleans your tank and they do the same in the sea. My tank is very old and I never have to clean the "gravel". I never see anything on it but crabs.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Thank you had no idea, what would you say the organisms in the videos are, they seem like two different organisms and the second video was quite large. Wasn’t able to magnify enough to see the hairs/tentacles, they seem to move almost like a slug type.

Unfortunately, I'm not sure. I've been slowly starting to learn more about the microscopic inhabitants of the ocean, but I've really just begun to scratch the surface with it.

 

[sixty_reefer]

Unfortunately, I'm not sure. I've been slowly starting to learn more about the microscopic inhabitants of the ocean, but I've really just begun to scratch the surface with it.

It is fascinating subject, I’ve been all day absorbing knowledge from the World Wide Web and thanks to you and @razorskiss i am now aware of what a ciliate is, thank you both for that, I already found a bunch of information on this two ciliates and it appears that the one on the first video (possible paramecium) is food for the larger one in the second video (possible dileptus, lacrymaria olor).
It’s highly likely that they were introduced from cycling the tank with terrestrial media instead of standard hobby methods, as it seems they are fairly common in freshwater ponds. It’s a odd method although I wanted to see if there was much difference between terrestrial and saltwater bacteria.

 

[sixty_reefer]

A Yep. Almost all those microscope life in your sand is what cleans your tank and they do the same in the sea. My tank is very old and I never have to clean the "gravel". I never see anything on it but crabs.

I always thought that most tank cleaning was made mainly by bacteria, I am starting to learn that I may have got it wrong, it appears that there is much more to it.