Micro Monsters........ What are these?

[MegabiteOG]

I have micro monsters in my tank.

I suspected I had some dinos on the sandbed so i got a microscope. I'm pretty sure it is Dino's (not sure what type yet), but I have a couple of other things in that same water sample that I have no idea what they are.

Any of you guys know what type of Dinoflagellates and best way to get rid of? Also, what the heck are those other two things?

Assumed Dino's


Dino's and Unknown


Unknown

 

[MegabiteOG]

From what I’ve read and seen in videos, seems like these are Amphidinium sp. based on how they move around. Can someone confirm?

Haven’t found anything on the other two yet.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

@ISpeakForTheSeas

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

@ISpeakForTheSeas

Unfortunately, microscopic critters are largely still a weakness for me in ID (I used to rely on taricha for these, but they're not on here anymore), so I'm not much help here. Maybe @Jay Hemdal or someone else would know though?

 

[dwest]

Those are amazing videos.

I didn’t see the beaks that I would expect with amphidinium. I’m wondering if they were traditional 2 dimensional pictures that I’m used to (squished slides) they would look more like sesame seed shaped ostreopsis.

 

[MegabiteOG]

Unfortunately, microscopic critters are largely still a weakness for me in ID (I used to rely on taricha for these, but they're not on here anymore), so I'm not much help here. Maybe @Jay Hemdal or someone else would know though?

Thanks for the response in anycase!

Those are amazing videos.

I didn’t see the beaks that I would expect with amphidinium. I’m wondering if they were traditional 2 dimensional pictures that I’m used to (squished slides) they would look more like sesame seed shaped ostreopsis.

Thanks @dwest. To your observation, these were in a couple of drops of water with no cover so they were swimming around. So many interesting things you can't see without a microscope in the tank. I find myself a couple of times a week now pulling a sample just to see what's in there.

 

[EnterName]

Those dinos appear to have some kind of weird shape on their front-side (top right in the attached screenshot):

This is a quite typical feature for dinoflagellates of the genus "Amphidinium", as you can see here, even if it isn't the typical "beak". I personally wouldn't concentrate too much on the exact genus/species/strain as there are probably thousands of possible candidates and without DNA barcoding or at least clearer images we will never know for sure.

Usually people just want to know if their dinoflagellates go into the open water column once the light is too dim for photosynthesis. I would just add a UV sterilizer regardless and proceed with other treatment methods.

The second video might show a larger nematode species, while the third video might show a large ciliate (yes, they can have colors ) or some small flatworm, but I lack the knowledge to hint towards a specific genus or even species.