Please help identify!!

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CamT223

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Mar 14, 2015
Messages
19
Could someone please help me identify this little spore that has been showing up in my tank? The tank has been setup for about 6 weeks now. When I first put water in it I added a yellow-tail damsel and some live rock, about 2 days later the yellow tail damsel died and this weird looking thing was on top of him when I found him. Didn't see the thing again for quite some time but I've had several mysterious deaths in the tank including a replacement damsel, a pistol shrimp and goby which were added last week. The goby died last night. Please see pictures and help me identify this little terror. It looks like a spore of pollen under a microscope but it's blue and it can retract its little antennas when it wants to move (see picture with the damsel)

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at first I thought it was a pod but looking again I have no idea weird looking creature appears to be eating the dead fish .

how long has your tank been up and running ? do you have the parameters for your tank .

are you sure your tank cycled with everything dying sounds like it may not have .
something to look into .

those bumpy things on the rocks I have tones of them they are harmless but you can scrap them off if they drive you nuts ,

that tiny creature is bugging me it has the shape of a copod but I never seen one with bumps like that , and I don't think it's a pod ,

may be someone will chime in with a better idea of what that creature is
 
The bumpy things on the rocks are the same as the thing that was eating the fish. When they're fanned out they look like they do on the rocks but when they suck their little tentacles or whatever they are in, they look like the one in the picture with the damsel.

Yes, tank cycled completely. Had it up and running for 4 weeks before adding any real livestock, went through the entire nitrogen cycle, cleaned it up and everything stabilized at 0. After the pistol shrimp died the ammonia was at the lowest level detectable but this was due to the fact the pistol shrimp was accidentally left overnight...oops.

Any other ideas? I'm afraid these little things are some kind of virus or parasites


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Those are ball anemone. They are harmless.

In terms of what is going on in your tank, you say that the ammonia was at lowest detectable? As in 0? If not, this is an indication of what is going on in the system as you shouldn't be able to detect any ammonia or nitrite due to it being poisonous to livestock.
 
You're right, thank you! Ball anenome is the correct answer.

I just checked all of the parameters yesterday and everything is good, ammonia & nitrates, pH and salinity
 
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