What is this weird growth in my tanks ?

[cavnoe]

I recently noticed some small amobea like growth in my tanks. They look like little microscopic , very pale sun corals.

I have no idea of what they are , if they are bad or even how they got in my tank. I suspect they may have come off of a plant that I purchased by mail order but I am not sure.

If any one knows what it is please help!

I am including lots of photos.

 

[bobc4d]

don't know what they are. is this a salt water tank or fresh?

 

[cavnoe]

It's a freshwater tank.

 

[Wyomingite]

Confused me for a minute with the pic of the corals, but then I realized it was for a comparison. They're hydra, freshwater relatives of anemones. They can come in on live plants. They feed on small critters and food particles in the water; larger ones will eat fish fry. Feed less to start. I know gouramis will eat 'em. I've never had an infestation, so not sure what else to do to get rid of 'em.

WYite

 

[Rivercats]

Three spot gourami, paradise fish, and mollies all eat hydra. I've never had them so have never tested the above. If there is only a few try cutting the leaves off that have them off. Honestly your best bet is trying the fish but you can't feed the fish or if you do only a tiny touch so they are hungry and will want to eat them.

 

[cavnoe]

Thanks everyone, I spoke to a friend about it and he said I can get rid of them by taking the fish and shrimp out of the tank . Then treating the whole tank with a penny. He said just put one in the water let it kill them off then take it out and do a water change. Let the tank cycle a week or two then put the fish and shrimp back. He has a ton of shrimp and fish so I will give it a try.

 

[Rivercats]

That is not a good idea because you will be releasing copper and who knows what other metals into the water. Copper can kill plants as well. And copper won't just dissapate out of water by doing a WC and letting it cycle for a week or two after removing. He was lucky and maybe you will be too but then you could be causing yourself a bigger headache.

 

[CatfishLoachZealot]

Don't go the penny route. Using copper should be one of the last resorts, as it has the potential to cause an awful lot of collateral damage. I'd go with the gouramis and lessen the food load, and/or trim the offenders off the plants (if they haven't reached epidemic proportions).

 

[cavnoe]

I have removed all the fish , I brought new plants and treated them before I put them in the new tank. I found an article with an alum recipe wash for the plants. I also washed the rocks with this . I then rinsed and cleaned every thing with plain water. All of the fish in the new tank are fine so far.

I have dropped a penny into the old tank. So far it doesn't seem that any thing has died yet. I want to make sure it kills them. Then I will just clean it , dry it out and get rid of most of the plants in that tank .

 

[kdpuffer]

Copper is good to use to kill pretty much everything, problem is once its in the tank it takes a very long time if at all to remove. It can soak into silicone Decore and anything else in there.

 

[Rutrag]

I think it's also going to depend on the age of the penny. Since 1982, pennies are mostly zinc. I found this on the US Mint website:

The composition was pure copper from 1793 to 1837.
From 1837 to 1857, the cent was made of bronze (95 percent copper, and five percent tin and zinc).
From 1857, the cent was 88 percent copper and 12 percent nickel, giving the coin a whitish appearance.
The cent was again bronze (95 percent copper, and five percent tin and zinc) from 1864 to 1962.
(Note: In 1943, the coin's composition was changed to zinc-coated steel. This change was only for the year 1943 and was due to the critical use of copper for the war effort. However, a limited number of copper pennies were minted that year. You can read more about the rare, collectible 1943 copper penny in "What's So Special about the 1943 Copper Penny.") In 1962, the cent's tin content, which was quite small, was removed. That made the metal composition of the cent 95 percent copper and 5 percent zinc.
The alloy remained 95 percent copper and 5 percent zinc until 1982, when the composition was changed to 97.5 percent zinc and 2.5 percent copper (copper-plated zinc). Cents of both compositions appeared in that year.

 

[cavnoe]

That is awesome. I do have some really old pennies. I go back and ad another based on the information you just gave me.