Oh Dear I hope these are copepods....

ilikefish69

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Last night, just for fun, I shined(shone?) a flashlight at my tank when the lights were off and it was dark. What I saw disturbed me, very very deeply disturbed.

There were thousands of little tiny critters, almost looked like the rolly polly bugs. It was impossible to get a picture of them as they were almost see through when I went to take the picture, but they were EVERYWHERE. I mean truly, thousands of them.

I don't have a picture, and by the quality of the lens from this picture I understand why I couldn't get a picture, they were showing up invisible in all the pictures I took, but found something on google they resembled
1660328834112.png


I am not being silly when I say there were thousands. It looked like an infestation that has gotten out of hand like 7 years ago, but the tanks only been up since late Feb, early March.

I have always noticed very small copepods on the glass of my tank, and know they are good.

Can copepods reach lengths of 4-5 mm? Is "too many" copepods a bad thing? They were not eating corals, but they were climbing all over them. If they are bad, at this point I am going to take everything out of the tank, burn it with fire, and start over, because I am officially 'grossed out' after seeing this last night.

I will never, EVER, shine a flash light at my tank when the lights are off ever again. Be warned.
 

Duncan62

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Last night, just for fun, I shined(shone?) a flashlight at my tank when the lights were off and it was dark. What I saw disturbed me, very very deeply disturbed.

There were thousands of little tiny critters, almost looked like the rolly polly bugs. It was impossible to get a picture of them as they were almost see through when I went to take the picture, but they were EVERYWHERE. I mean truly, thousands of them.

I don't have a picture, and by the quality of the lens from this picture I understand why I couldn't get a picture, they were showing up invisible in all the pictures I took, but found something on google they resembled
1660328834112.png


I am not being silly when I say there were thousands. It looked like an infestation that has gotten out of hand like 7 years ago, but the tanks only been up since late Feb, early March.

I have always noticed very small copepods on the glass of my tank, and know they are good.

Can copepods reach lengths of 4-5 mm? Is "too many" copepods a bad thing? They were not eating corals, but they were climbing all over them. If they are bad, at this point I am going to take everything out of the tank, burn it with fire, and start over, because I am officially 'grossed out' after seeing this last night.

I will never, EVER, shine a flash light at my tank when the lights are off ever again. Be warned.
5mm in length? Amphipods. Good guys.
 

Tired

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Amphipods. Most fish will eat them, and should keep them reasonably controlled. If you really want to have as few as possible, try to find a Hassel's goby, they love devouring all your microfauna.

They're generally harmless, useful detritivores, and good fish food. If there are no fish to eat them and an excess of food, they can multiply to an unreasonable number and annoy your corals. They'll also eat sickly corals, sometimes.
 

smacbride

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There are a lot of different types of fish that feed off of those. I would investigate those and maybe add one to your tank.
 

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Last night, just for fun, I shined(shone?) a flashlight at my tank when the lights were off and it was dark. What I saw disturbed me, very very deeply disturbed.

There were thousands of little tiny critters, almost looked like the rolly polly bugs. It was impossible to get a picture of them as they were almost see through when I went to take the picture, but they were EVERYWHERE. I mean truly, thousands of them.

I don't have a picture, and by the quality of the lens from this picture I understand why I couldn't get a picture, they were showing up invisible in all the pictures I took, but found something on google they resembled
1660328834112.png


I am not being silly when I say there were thousands. It looked like an infestation that has gotten out of hand like 7 years ago, but the tanks only been up since late Feb, early March.

I have always noticed very small copepods on the glass of my tank, and know they are good.

Can copepods reach lengths of 4-5 mm? Is "too many" copepods a bad thing? They were not eating corals, but they were climbing all over them. If they are bad, at this point I am going to take everything out of the tank, burn it with fire, and start over, because I am officially 'grossed out' after seeing this last night.

I will never, EVER, shine a flash light at my tank when the lights are off ever again. Be warned.
:eek::eek::eek: Sounds like amphipods to me also. Food for the fish! I like it when the creepy crawlies come out at night, you get to see that it's more than an aquarium, it's an ecosystem! :grinning-face-with-smiling-eyes:
 
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ilikefish69

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Amphipods. Most fish will eat them, and should keep them reasonably controlled. If you really want to have as few as possible, try to find a Hassel's goby, they love devouring all your microfauna.

They're generally harmless, useful detritivores, and good fish food. If there are no fish to eat them and an excess of food, they can multiply to an unreasonable number and annoy your corals. They'll also eat sickly corals, sometimes.
That was my main worry is that they become so apparent in the tank they just start walking all over my precious corals
 
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ilikefish69

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Have you got fish? There are many fish that love them. Clowns, damsels, mandarin. Don't worry about them.
It's a 75 with 2 clowns and blue eye kole - don't think the kole cares for them, she's the saltwater version of a cow, eat and poop all day, haven't seen the clowns pick at them either.

I feed frozen mysis and the three fish gobble that up, maybe they're as scared of the critters as I was
 

melonheadorion

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my small tank has a ton of them. its almost gross to shine a light in the tank at night, because they are everywhere. reminds me like a colony of ants scurrying about. i keep them there because they can be food for fish, but also feeders on stuff that doesnt get eaten by fish
 

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A small wrasse would murderize them in short order, but you shouldn't really have problems with them in a tank that has fish, as long as you aren't overfeeding the fish and leaving tons of food lying around for them to eat and multiply with.

There are loads of bugs we can encounter in our reef tanks, most of them of little to no concern to our reefs or to us.
 

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Is there any reason to tentatively start planning how to keep their numbers in check ?
Pods bloom in young tanks so not that unusual. The numbers tend stabilize as the tank ages.

They are fine and most fish eat them when given the chance. They come out in great numbers at night because fish are sleeping.
 

Dan_P

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Is there any reason to tentatively start planning how to keep their numbers in check ?
You do not have a problem. When whatever they are eating is diminished their numbers wiil decline.
 
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ilikefish69

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thank you for the quick help, this place is so awesome. Will just refrain from using a spotlight when the lights are off for the next 15 years
 

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I have a pair of Clowns and the bigger Clown will use his tail to stir up the substrate and get the pods swimming, and then both Clowns will eat the swimming pods. It's fun to watch, but the problem is that all my arragonite ends up in a big pile in a corner of the tank...
 

Duncan62

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I have a pair of Clowns and the bigger Clown will use his tail to stir up the substrate and get the pods swimming, and then both Clowns will eat the swimming pods. It's fun to watch, but the problem is that all my arragonite ends up in a big pile in a corner of the tank...
My blue damsel stirs them up and they all feast..lol. It is fun.
 

Tavero

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These things will absolutely devastate new set up nano tanks. As soon as they reached a certain population density they started to eat my zoanthus, candy canes, tube worms and other fleshy corals. The only way i got rid of them was to shut off all pumps for one day to suffocate them.
Then I introduced shrimps and a lot of bristle worms as food competitors.
 

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