Please help ID, Brackish tank

[Bengals888]

Hi,

This white stuff is all on the glass walls and filter surfaces. This is in a brackish water tank.

Might have been introduced by store
bought frozen krill.

Please help to ID. Does not seem to get bigger in size, just spreads all over. Microscopic.

Does not look like hydroids. I’m uncertain.

 

[Bleigh]

The blue pictures look like rotifers to me. Can you see them with the naked eye or only under the microscope? How do they move?

 

[Bengals888]

The blue pictures look like rotifers to me. Can you see them with the naked eye or only under the microscope? How do they move?

Hi,

Yes, you can see them. I attached new photo.
All previous images are of same thing, just took
microscopic pics(blue) to zoom in further.

Rotifers are free swimming?
These just attach themselves and cover the surface.

Thanks

 

[Bleigh]

Hi,

Yes, you can see them. I attached new photo.
All previous images are of same thing, just took
microscopic pics(blue) to zoom in further.

Rotifers are free swimming?
These just attach themselves and cover the surface.

Thanks

Rotifers can live everywhere. I was lucky enough to work with one of the world’s most well known rotifer expert in undergrad. (Which means, not overly well known, but he is brilliant.) he even discovered a species of rotifers that Only lived in the liquid held in some blog plants, such as pitcher plants. I may be wrong, but I’d be willing to bet $100 that those are rotifers.


Corals eat rotifers, so I’d imagine you have some happy corals. If they’re bothering you, scrape them off, but Unless they’re a weird species of rotifer, I suspect it’s a good thing that you have them growing like that.

 

[Bengals888]

It’s actually brackish water tank.

Thank you for the info.

I feel better that they are not dreaded hydroids.
I’m just cleaning the surfaces weekly, doesn’t bother me as long as it‘s not parasitic.

 

[Reef Nutrition]

Rotifers is a very good guess. Their natural proclivity is to attach to substrate and filter-feed. They will live colonially, like in the picture you supplied.

They could also be Vorticella sp. Here is an image of them:

Vorticella retract when agitated and have long stalks that they use to anchor and retract. These ciliates are not free-swimming like rotifers can be.

Chad