Help ID: Hydra or Bryozoan? Picture and Video included

[cloaker]

Hi everyone,

Freshwater Tank, newly cycled. These started appearing more and more, mostly near the bottom half of the tank where water flow is the strongest. I used a sinking bottom feeder disc a couple days ago that disintegrated overnight and spread fluffy food bits everywhere, which in turn probably fed these little animals. I got rid of as much of it as I could, but definitely did not get them all.

So, is this hydra or bryozoan? It's on the glass, driftwood, and decorations. Pretty much every surface of the tank. What is it and what can I do to get rid of them? I have read that gourami's will eat hydra (if that's what it is) as well as mollies, otos, and some people have reported apple snails will do the trick as well. I have a gourami and an apple snail in there right now, but I haven't seen them eat it, although the gourami is a recent addition and he has been hiding for a day now.

The video might be more useful as it's hard to take a good picture of them when they're constantly moving with the current.

Thanks everyone!

 

[Gillie]

It's the start of algae, I just dealt with the same thing in my river tank. Unless you put plants in the tank recently and feeding small live foods like baby brine you won't see hydra in numbers like that and it would be very hard for bryozoans to survive in the aquarium.

Sent from my KFTT using Tapatalk

 

[cloaker]

That is excellent to know. Guess I was freaking out over nothing serious! I was watching the snail to see if she would eat it but she seemed to just glide right over them. I'll scrub the tank clean and change 30% water.

Thanks!

 

[Gillie]

Yeah I thought it was hydra or something similar when I saw it in my tank, but I poked at it a bit and no tentacles retracted so I knew I was good, I just scrubbed it off and went about my day.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Aquarium Advice mobile app