microorganisms?

[tcarola154]

ok so i have these little things swimming around in one of my tanks... they are smaller than like 1/2 mm and honestly the best way to describe how they look... is like sperm or something. Im kinda curious what they are, anyone have any ideas?

 

[JM]

I had the same thing in my 75 reef shortly after switching over to reef. I have a great fish store by my house, i actually beleive it is the best in the state of NJ or the tristate area for that matter. I couldn't get a definate answer on what they were, but they advised me to get a 6 line wrasse because he would eat the little critters and in worked. Along with many huge water changes. Copper might work also, but since i had a reef i couldnt run it in that tank.

 

[tcarola154]

so they are bad for the tank? do you think maybe just a few cleaner shrimp would do the job as well?

btw... what store are you talking about?

 

[Feron]

I think perhaps they are part of the food/ecosystem and probably nothing harmful at all..
Sounds like pods or some such..
Good food for a variety of larger life forms no doubt.
You have live rock or live sand or macro algaes or anything like that in the tank?

 

[Raker333]

here is a good link to a site explaining Copepods. Also has some good pics to match what you have in your tank.

I have them also and my chromis runs all over the tank eating them
I have switched to feeding every 3 days since he is the only thing eating them

 

[Raker333]

heheh forgot the link

http://www.oceanpods.com/faq.html

 

[tcarola154]

I just added some new macroalgae to my tank... and im assuming thats where they came from. currently they are in an extra 10 gallon tank that is normally connected to my main tank through my fuge... but i disconnected it and left it to the hob filter while i tried to figure out what these things were... so im gonna go ahead and hook it back up, because im sure my goby or royal gramma will probably like them. I just wanted to make sure they wouldnt harm anything

 

[JM]

They told me that they wouldnt harm anything in the tank, but they were just unsightly so i wanted to get rid of them. I'm not sure if i am allowed to say the name of the store on this forum. I dont know if that would be considered some sort of advertisement that would break a forum rule or anything like that. but i will PM it to u.

 

[Raker333]

They are food for fish. Some species of fish only eat pods.