Are these pods? Good or bad?

[Mighty]

I turned on my tank lights this morning and saw something I've never seen before. There were a bunch of these small creatures roaming my live sand, like cockroaches. I did some research, and think they are some kind of pod. I think they're the undesirable type. I need some other opinions.

 

[melosu58]

Look in the pods in this link.

Xtalreef

 

[Mighty]

I did. I'm not a biologist, but they look like isopods...sort of. That's why I'm asking for opinions.

 

[fijiwigi]

I don't think you have any thing to worry about.

 

[melosu58]

Not all isopods are bad. Very few are but my guess is that they are copapods or amphipods. Your fish will probably take care of them.

 

[ccCapt]

The 1 on the far right is a flatworm. KILL IT! They can overtake a tank pretty fast.

 

[Fluff]

The one on the left looks like a harmless copepod, the one on the right though I thought looks more like a baby snail. ? Hard to tell since it's so small.

 

[Mighty]

I was thinking that one on the right is a baby snail. I've been seeing a lot of them over the last few days. Are these snails or flatworms?

 

[Fluff]

A better pic, although I realize how difficult that can be, would be needed to help give a positive ID. Can you tell if it has a shell? I have a feeling it is what is commonly referred to as miniture turbo snail (collonista). If they are a collonista sp. they should have a white to cream colored shell with light to dark brown stripes.

 

[ccCapt]

Very hard to tell, but here's a few flatworm pics.
FlatwrmFAQ2
FlatwrmFAQ3

 

[Mighty]

I think they're snails, but I suppose I'll find out for sure when they grow.

 

[Tommy Gun]

Do you have a guess as to what type of snail that might be? If not, what types of snails do you have? Did you see any eggs?

The only reason I ask is because waiting to see what happens if/when they grow could be the difference between solving a small flatworm problem versus a big problem that could restrict your ability to keep certain types of livestock. For some reason I also think that baby snails might be a bit smarter than to put themselves out in the open before they have the protection of a shell but then again, I'm not really a snail psychologist either

Anyways, I don't want to hijack your thread or anything but I have been following along closely because I've been having a lot of unexplained deaths when I add new fish and I have a ton of the critters that everyone else has identified as being isopods. So, in the hopes that it might help both of us out a little bit, I was wondering if anyone had a good idea or a resource that can help identify which isopods are harmless and which might be harmful?

 

[Mighty]

I haven't seen any eggs. I have Nassarius (newly added), Trochus, and Margaritas.

 

[Fluff]

Here is a link to some info on different types of pods. There are alot of other sites with info out there as well. You could try searching wetwebmedia.com too.

You Can't Tell Your "Pods" Without A Program by Ronald L. Shimek, Ph.D. - Reefkeeping.com

Also, if they are snails and I'm not sure if they are or not, the eggs could have come with the liverock, or the tiny snails could have come alone as hitchhikers just now showing themselves.

 

[Tommy Gun]

Thanks for the link Fluff.

the eggs could have come with the liverock, or the tiny snails could have come alone as hitchhikers just now showing themselves.

Absolutely and I apologize if I seemed to imply that not seeing eggs means it is not a snail...I just tend to lean toward playing it safe so what I was getting at is if there were eggs, then the hypothesis of this being a snail would be further supported.

 

[Fluff]

Absolutely and I apologize if I seemed to imply that not seeing eggs means it is not a snail....

You didn't seem to imply anything IMO so no worries. I was just offering another "maybe" for info sake. It's what we do and your point is a valid one as well.

 

[Mighty]

I e-mailed the people at Wet Web Media. Here is the response..

The creature on the left is a harmless/beneficial little isopod in the family Munnidae, commonly known as a Munnid. For more information, please see the following links:
FAQ’s here: http://www.wetwebmedia.com/isopodid.htm
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-08/rs/index.php
http://bb.wetwebmedia.com/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=12
I can’t see much detail on the other critter, but the silhouette looks like that of another generally harmless isopod, family Sphaeromatidae, commonly known as a Sphaeromatid. For more information, please see the following links:
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/isopodid.htm
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-05/rs/index.php
http://isopods.nhm.org/information/
If you have some time and want to try for an ID (or at least narrow things down), you can go through the images at the following site: http://isopods.nhm.org/databases/isoimages/ . It will only bring to view a limited number of images for any given search, so you’ll need to pare things down a bit. Check “Sphaeromatidae” in the “Select taxa” column, followed by “Show Images”. Then select one genus (at a time), “Select view” = Dorsal, “Select sex” = Male, “Select age” = Adult, “Select geographic region” = unless you know where your little guy came from, select “Unknown/could not be determined” and leave the rest as is. It’s a very time consuming process, but interesting and potentially rewarding.
I hope this helps settle the controversy, if not, please let me know. The good news is that Munnids and Sphaeromatids are harmless/beneficial little critters that add biodiversity and interest to a system (not to mention a livestock food source!>

 

[Fluff]

awesome. That is a great site for information and very reliable.

 

[Tommy Gun]

That is awesome!

 

[Mighty]

I have seen this in my tank over the last few days, but was able to catch him this morning. I tore it in half when I tried to capture it-- it's suction is pretty fierce. Has anyone seen one of these in their tank before? The two eyes make me think it's one of the bad isopods.