Ummm please help...good or bad I dont know

[Lemonsong]

Hey everyone out there...

I added a bunch of live rock not to long ago and a couple days later I see a bunch of these tiny things on the top of my water. They look like tiny spiders that glide on top of the water and they move around REALLY FAST! I cant get a clear picture and I cant identify them PLEASE HELP!

 

[TCTFish]

Are you sure they aren't baby spiders that may have gotten caught up when the live rock was packaged??? LOL. Just a thought. They would be zipping around pretty fast in saltwater. They don't swim well and the salt burns.

Copepods are another possibility. These are critters that live in the rocks and among algae and feed a horde of different animals.

Another possibility is perhaps they are baby shrimp. They do look like spiders with really thin thread looking legs. In fact they don't look like they have much of a body, but as of them floating to the top that's unusual.

It is hard to get a clear picture of something floating on the surface of the water. The glare from the light alone makes it a photographer's nightmare. Without a photo, positive ID is impossible. We can only speculate. Try taking a shot without an active flash. If you can't inactivate the flash, cover it and just use the aquarium lighting as the source of light. It may come out dark, but if you have a decent little photo graphic software, it can be manipulated for observation.

 

[Lemonsong]

Yeah the camera at any stand point and any setting cant catch them. Thank you for the huge explanation...one the best I have gotten from this site for weeks on end -_-'. But yeah I am trying to narrow it down for you as best as I can. As far as I can tell I think that I found some of the eggs. They are brown and have black strips on them...they also float. I figure these cant be spiders or all the spiders would be dead from the salt water and seeing how well these things adapt to wizzing around on the water surface...yeah im pretty sure there not spiders. Here is my identification they are small, white, spider lookign creature. They have a peanut shaped body, float on the surface, and looks to have 6 small white legs (2 in the very front look like antenna,2 in the mid section and 2 on the bottom). I even took one out of the water and I cant get a good picture there to small to pick up. But I will keep you posted and there is a ton of them...they might be under the water I cant tell.

 

[TCTFish]

Sounds interesting whatever they are. May be some sort of shrimp. What a bonus that would be...unless they're all mantis shrimp...LOL. Though anything that small would most likely end up being gobbled up by all sorts of fish. Do you have any fish in the tank? Doesn't sound like it, but if you do have they tried to snack on these things?

 

[seaham358]

catch one and put it on a white paper towel and snap a pic... on top of the water?? that sounds like FW water stirders..... Never heard of this before... We need a pic... this is interesting..

 

[Lemonsong]

In the tank right now I have a yellow tang...thats it thats all. But I dont know it is a very very very wierd thing. It is quite provoking because I think that they might be on top of the water cuz they are dieing. I see alot of them on the top of the water not moving (some standing still some actually dead). But I cant see any underwater. I took one out snapped a picture of it on paper towel and on a sheet of white paper. My digital camera cant detect it. I hope its copepods...or at least something not deadly. My guess is something bad because they move to fast for a mandarin to catch. I will try my girlfriends camera tomorow...

 

[TCTFish]

Try taking a snap shot with it on a dark background being these things are white. You could also try netting them out and putting them into a clear container for closer examination. Has the tang picked on any??? Copepods look more like little fleas than what you had discribed. My first thought from that description was ants, but ants aren't white.

What kind of camera do you have? Girlfriend's camera? Do either have a macro mode?

 

[Lemonsong]

Well I cant get a picture of it what so ever...the cameras are pretty *whicky whicky whicky* old school! So its not helping. But I dont want these things to ruin my aquarium...I tried scooping them out and it does not work...they constently multiply and doesnt stop. The tang doesnt touch them so I dont know. I will actually draw one out in microscopic mode and see if that helps. But as far as I know...this is scaring me a little bit. This is my first reef and I want to get off to a good start X.X

 

[TCTFish]

If they haven't killed anything yet, they probably won't. Thought they were dying off. What happened??? Don't panic. This should be an exciting moment of discovery

Just draw it out. Doesn't need to be exact size.

 

[reefrunner69]

Take a look at this page, bout the second or third down, see if it helps...
http://www.ronshimek.com/Animal Groups 3 Cnidarians.htm

 

[Lemonsong]

WOW...I think you hit that nail dead on the head. Acording to the site they should be "crawling hrdroid jellyfish" :S. The picture of what they look like is the first picture under the Hydrozoan Jellyfish category. But they describe them as "slow moving,soft spiders"...there not slow! They also say they have a red dot on the end of the tenticles and that is not the case. Personally I think they are "Cladonema jellyfish"...But I dont see how they are reproducing this quick? I have no copepods to eat I think :S Unless they are starting to multiply in my new system. BUt keep me posted guys...and thanks a million for everything so far.

 

[canyon15]

They do that in a new system quite well. Should die off.

 

[Lemonsong]

Well should is different than will...So in hopes of a successful reef tank I hope they die off.