"Plant" ID...Any ideas???

[Orcus332]

Ok, so this afternoon, I was looking into my newly established tank and found something interesting. Attached to the driftwood is a green stem about 3mm long, at the top of the stem are 6-7 cilia-like projections 1-2mm long. You can see what plants I have in my sig. Any ideas what this tiny 'plant' may be?

 

[BillD]

It looks very much like a hydra, although they aren't usually green. A hydra is basically a fresh water form of a coral polyp. They can eat small fry (if that is what it is). Does it recoil when you come near it with something? I would remove it with a siphon, to a small container for closer examination.

 

[Scottm]

hydra are very small as I understand. This thing seems too big.

 

[travis simonson]

That is definitely a hydra. I've had them before and they are actually indicative of excellent water quality because they don't do well in dirty water. BillD is exactly right, try touching it with somthing and the cilia at the end should close up. This is how they catch prey. They use some sort of toxin to immobilize their food once they've caught it and they can be a danger to small fry but are otherwise fairly innocuous.

 

[Tiffi]

Wow, I have bunches of these little things in my tank and always thought it's some kind of algae because they're green! Got a long stake and came near them and they snap together and get really small.
Which fry would be small enough for them to eat? And are you sure I can just suck them away with a gravel cleaner?

 

[Simpte]

They are very hard to get rid of. Hydra employ the encapsulation technique in reproducing. When water quality begins to slip downward. The buds form durable protective shells that can survive the harshest of conditions for years at a time. A full, thorough tank cleaning is not enough to rid your self of ‘em! They are immune to most everything short of lava once encapsulated. (Sailor Johnny). Fenbendazole
which is a horse and dog dewormer will stop them dead. A complete tank teardown will not usually work.

 

[Tiffi]

So I guess I just leave them in 8O .

 

[Friendly]

I have things that look like that in my tanks but they're all white and not as big as that one. I like the way they look so I don't have a problem with them being in my tanks

 

[Orcus332]

Yeah, as long as it's a sign of good water quality I'm ok with it Thanks for the ID guys!