Help ID

[Josett Waid]

So this morning after I turned on my lights in my tank I noticed little circle things with roughly six legs or more on them. I came to realize they may be asternias and there's literally hundreds of them on my tank glass.. also what is making me question, is that there is also these little things on the glass also. They have a round body, two antennas and what looks to be maybe a tail. I looked it up on the internet and it showed something similar to what a copepod looks like. I wish I could get a picture but since they are so small my iPhone won't zoom in on them close enough so if my theory's on them are right, then I would like to know if these are good to have in my tank or do I need to get something to get rid of them?

Thank you,
Josett Waid

 

[Reeferdood]

Mini brittle stars?
Hard to tell without a photo....
If you have asterina stars I would start removing them as they are hit and miss on some of your livestock.. If the others are pods, they are good...

 

[Josett Waid]

Mini brittle stars?
Hard to tell without a photo....

Yes I know I tried getting a picture but it's like impossible since they are so small. But I would have to look a picture up of the brittle stars and see if that's what they look like.

 

[Josett Waid]

Ok no I don't think they are, I looked up a picture of a hydroid jellyfish and I believe that's what they are.
The picture is almost exactly what they look like but some in my tank have less legs than the picture has.

 

[Reeferdood]

Not good my friend if they are droids....:(

 

[Josett Waid]

Not good my friend if they are droids....:(

Oh crap, ok um what should I get to get rid of them?

 

[Josett Waid]

And are the copepods a problem also?

 

[Reeferdood]

Pods are good but below is something I looked up for you and quoted from the internet...

Unlike the jellyfish, remain attached to the reef their whole lives. Like the jellyfish, hydroids can pack a powerful stinging punch. The sting from hydroids is considerably more powerful than that of most corals. They will tend to prefer your sps and lps and will grow over their skeleton; soft corals are less likely to be bothered because they do not provide ample space.

Hydroids filter feed and photosynthesis, which allows them to grow and colonize quickly. They prefer a lot of light and high water movement

There are two types of hydroids. The main one being colonial hydroids and less common digitate hydroids.


Solutions

Physical Removal -- Either picking them or burning them off the rock. Both are not good ideas. like aiptasia if you do not remove the whole entire hydroid root you risk the chance of these coming back.


Chemical Removal -Kalkwasser or super glue - you can smear kalk paste or super glue on these ... however, you chance that you won't get the whole tube emerged (remember these can get into small pores in the rock)* super glueing them you risk the chance of the hydroid actually rotting in the rock. This risks the chance of causing an infection to your nearby corals.


Natural Solutions

The lynx nudibranch (Phidiana lynceus) - Only eats hydroids, especially fond of Myrionema amboinense.


Pterolidia Ianthina - sea slug that feeds soley on hydroids


Sea Urchin Salmacis bicolor- Good eater of Myrionema. but very slow & can not get into the pores of the rocks where roots are.


Diadema setosum (Sea Urchin) - Good eater of Myrionema. but very slow & can not get into the pores of the rocks where roots are. Will also eat sps corals


Flameback Angelfish* (Centropyge acanthops and Centropyge loriculus)* - Hit & Miss and will occasionally nip at your corals especially your sps and some polyp corals.


Dolabella auricolaria - sea hare

good luck and see what you can find. They need light and flow if your corals are about done cutting your light may help

 

[Lionfish Lair]

You don't have to do anything for medusa hydroids... which those are. They are frequently seen when your tank is new. How old is your tank? I love it when I see these guys as they are most interesting and I know they'll be gone pretty quickly.

 

[Josett Waid]

You don't have to do anything for medusa hydroids... which those are. They are frequently seen when your tank is new. How old is your tank? I love it when I see these guys as they are most interesting and I know they'll be gone pretty quickly.

It's almost 4 months old. And what's the difference between the two hydroids? I just don't want anything to end up happening to my corals, because at the moment my tank is going fallow because of velvet so I can either get chemicals or some invertebrate to get rid of them.

 

[Lionfish Lair]

There's a lot of different hydroids, not just two. These aren't a type of hydroid, but a stage in their lifecycle. Hydroids reproduce well in our tanks, yet not using this method. Do not medicate for your tank for these, please. I promise you they will go. They do not use light and are only after pods in your tank. I've had them last a couple of weeks and up to a month before, but that's about it. The place they are a pain is in breeding tanks and I encountered them a lot there, but that's a different situation all together. I've set up over a 100 tanks, and I got a flourish of medusa hydroids about 25% of the time.

This is them in my tank...

 

[Josett Waid]

There's a lot of different hydroids, not just two. These aren't a type of hydroid, but a stage in their lifecycle. Hydroids reproduce well in our tanks, yet not using this method. Do not medicate for your tank for these, please. I promise you they will go. They do not use light and are only after pods in your tank. I've had them last a couple of weeks and up to a month before, but that's about it. The place they are a pain is in breeding tanks and I encountered them a lot there, but that's a different situation all together. I've set up over a 100 tanks, and I got a flourish of medusa hydroids about 25% of the time.

This is them in my tank...

Alright I'll just leave them alone and just watch for anything different. But in the video are those the copepods?

 

[Lionfish Lair]

That's medusa hydroids.

In the top hand left corner of the tank you can see me touching one that landed on the glass to get it to come off and swim. They pump like jellies when they swim.

 

[Josett Waid]

That's medusa hydroids.

In the top hand left corner of the tank you can see me touching one that landed on the glass to get it to come off and swim. They pump like jellies when they swim.

Oh alright interesting, but ok so usually this is just a part of the tank cycling process, and something I just don't need to worry about so much?

 

[Lionfish Lair]

They show up when the tank is new, not necessarily when it's cycling. They usually show their face when you have lots of pods for them to eat. When tanks are new, they go through periods of having a lot of diatoms. This gets the copepod population going, which in turn feeds the medusa hydroids. Eventually the diatoms fade, the copepod numbers reduce and the medusae just die off.

 

[Josett Waid]

Alright well I guess I shouldn't worry then. Thank you! I had no clue really what they were, but now I do!

 

[Lionfish Lair]

They're pretty cool, right! I always found them so interesting to watch.

 

[Josett Waid]

They're pretty cool, right! I always found them so interesting to watch.

I guess I should watch my tank tonight, I haven't seen them move so that should be interesting. They were just attached to my glass so that's why I had no clue what they were and the pods were moving everywhere on the glass also. I was thinking I might have got them either from putting pods in my tank or from a coral.

 

[Reeferdood]

They're pretty cool, right! I always found them so interesting to watch.

Interesting, thanks for the education on them..
I have never seen them in any of my tanks so I had little to no knowledge on the matter..