Small Animals on the Glass

[Skrymir]

My tank is still cycling, right now it is going through a pretty nasty algae bloom. I was looking real close last night and there are little white animals all over the glass. They very, very small, like smaller than a pinhead and oval shaped. It seems like they may be eating the algae because the glass is clean in the areas where they are pretty dense.


Does anyone know what these little critters are and if they're good or bad?

(I don't have a pic of them, sorry)

-Skry

 

[jsmkmavity]

most tanks get them at some point and they seem to go away just as if it were part of the cycle. i cant remember their name but they are like very tiny feather dusters, if you look close you will see the feeding feathers. i dont know of any harm they can do and they remove a small amount of nutrients from the tank which cant be bad but it is an insignificant amount.

 

[tike]

This is it! I get them too every once in awhile..they come and go. Never any harm done!

willie

 

[NaH2O]

skry - if they are not spiral shaped like the spirorbid polychaete pictured above, then they are likely copepods, and good to have in a tank.

Here's an article where you can see what copepods look like: Pods Delicious and Nutritious

 

[Skrymir]

Thanks for the replies.

I'd say this is a prefect description

"Harpacticoids are "epibenthic", meaning that they spend part of their life cycle or time during the day on the bottom or clinging to a surface. Their antennae are much shorter than their body length and they look like little torpedoes. "

 

[4251cpd]

And more importantly, pods go better with horseradish sauce and a grape Nehi pop.