Little white creatures!!!!!!

Reef Aquarium & Tank Building Forum

Help Support Reef Aquarium & Tank Building Forum:

Looks like a hydroid. I had one once, went away on its own. I've heard they can become a plague. They're sort of like aiptasia in that they'll sting everything that touches them.
 
I would agree that it looks like it has legs, which could be a Hydyoid. If it is it is not good. Usually you can have a outbreak of these floating aptasia especially when feeding live foods. Maybe nastier than aptasia because they float and stick to creatures. One other thing it could be is a brittle starfish. These usually are white in color and as they get bigger thier legs will develope stripes.
 
awhile back you showed this pic. What are these? My other tank is full of them.

How long has your tank been running? I'm never did get a solid answer on what they were. But after reading vinny's response I'm inclined to think they might have been tiny brittle starfish. They appeared when the tank was very young (weeks old), and I've never seen them since. I've never seen any signs of my other inhabitants being stung or irritated, and the tank is currently riddled with brittle stars...at night the arms are everywhere. The tank is about 14 months old now
 
I usually find them near the bottom of the tank or around the top rim. I think they are after a little of the premium algae that grows around the water line. I have occasionally seen larger ones climbing around on the wall. If you watch you tank when the lights firs come on you can sometimes catch one a little to adventurous at getting away from a rock. They will float through the current until the find a rock to hide in. Most of the time you will only see their legs exposed from crevice's in the rock trying to catch food,
 
That looks like a hydroid to me. How old is your tank? It is natural to have a bloom of those things while it is just a few months old. I had tons, but after a week or 2 they subsided. I still see a couple on the glass, but not many.

When they were bad my chromis liked to pick them off the glass...

rob
 
How long has your tank been running? I'm never did get a solid answer on what they were. But after reading vinny's response I'm inclined to think they might have been tiny brittle starfish. They appeared when the tank was very young (weeks old), and I've never seen them since. I've never seen any signs of my other inhabitants being stung or irritated, and the tank is currently riddled with brittle stars...at night the arms are everywhere. The tank is about 14 months old now

I recently upgraded from 100g to 180g. So i am sure this is where these came from. I thought they were copepods at first. Then i noticec the legs and what looks like a tail. (just like the pic) i am just curious if these are dangerous. You almost have to have a magnifying glass to see them.

The original question in this post I came to find, were nerrite snail eggs. Once i removed the snails in question the spots stopped.
 
I recently upgraded from 100g to 180g. So i am sure this is where these came from. I thought they were copepods at first. Then i noticec the legs and what looks like a tail. (just like the pic) i am just curious if these are dangerous. You almost have to have a magnifying glass to see them.

The original question in this post I came to find, were nerrite snail eggs. Once i removed the snails in question the spots stopped.

Man...I wish I could be more help. I took that picture with a really nice macros lense, 'cause like you pointed out, they are really, really small. At the time, my LFS didn't know what they were...and i wasn't a member here (or any forum for that matter). They just disappeared one day, after only being around for a week or three.
 
I don't believe he is talking about hydroids at all. I'm pretty sure he is talking about very hard creatures the size of a pinhead that are non mobile, they have an almost calcareous skeleton. I have tons of them in my 10 gallon and had them all over the back of my 20 gallon long, they are very hard to scrape off too.

Here is a older pic of my fireshrimp in my 20 Gallon Long, if you look at the koralia base and back of tank i believe this is what the thread author is refering to. They are actually very tiny featherduster like creatures, very small spiral shaped shell.

shrimp2.jpg


Harmless but somewhat annoying :)
 
Just to clear things up. I first started this because i had some white "dots" on my tank, walls, rocks and everywhere. Come to find out they were being produced by some overactive Neritte snails.
At some point somebody posted the pic of the hydroids.
After changing my tank over i found thousands of these things (Hydroids i believe now) all over the glass. I have never seen these things in any of my tanks.
So I hope this clears up any confusion that might be out there and i do appreciate all the input.
 
several times I have had some tiny snail eggs and end up with only one or 2 very small snails but they never make it to adult size
 

Latest posts

Back
Top