tiny microscopic white wormy thins on inside of glass????

[mic_1011]

anyone know what these could be. I asked maximum reefs (big ups, great LFS) and they said it might be copepods?? so obviously i googled copepods and saw blown up pics of these organisms, so know im not sure. cleaned glass with a magfloat (before i saw these things moving) and noticed they came back quickly. at first i thought it was some sort of algae. i am running cupramine also, just added the cuprisorb today. i was told that a lot of things would not survive the copper?? can copepods survive? or could this be some sort of parasite?? white very small kinda worm like and they move around on the glass too small to take a pic

 

[LatinP]

Do they look like little white balls with antennas?

 

[mic_1011]

no they look like dust or a piece of thread, so small i can't really tell you how they look. just white, long or lengthy but thin. i guess it's like a microscopic thread look, cant tell if there is antannae or which is heads or tails

 

[KathyC]

Any chance of posting a pic?

Is this a reef tank?

 

[mic_1011]

impossible! (atleast with what i've got) i tried with different cameras. they don't pick them up

 

[mic_1011]

guy at the lfs thinks they might be copepods, buddy of mine thinks they might be a parasite. he has a freshwater with cichlids. something similar got into his tank and wiped it out. not saying this is the same thing, but i have no clue

 

[rookie07]

I recently found inch worm looking things on my glass as well. They were very thin, almost paper thin.

My clowns ate them so I do not think they were to bad.

Good Luck

 

[mic_1011]

ok feel a little better, so long as they're not parasites

 

[MatthewScars]

Why would parasites be chilling on the glass and not inside a host?

 

[jscarlata]

Are they straight and just clinging to the glass near some algae, or are they curled up in a spiral with a little featherlike antennae?

 

[Lunareclipse]

I had teeny tiny threadlike things on my glass and I got out my microscope and discovered they were tiny microscopic starfishes. Micro starfishes. Thousands of them. If you have a digital microscope that you can plug into your pc, you can take a pic and post it. They run about $50.00 at your local hobby shop. They don't even have a lens to look through. It plugs into your pc and you see the image on your computer screen. It has a button on top to take pics.

 

[mic_1011]

they're just straight. they might be chillin' on the glass in cycle mode getting ready to attach to their new host!

 

[AriMiko43]

Sounds like Copepods to me. I have a bunch of them in my tank. They spread quickly but are a great food source for fish. In the early stage they are a tiny white spec that is usually all over my glass then as they grow older they will be all over your rock. If you are unsure then wait a week or two and see if you see some adult Copepods on your rock. The best way I can described mine are a white teardrop looking spec that moves in circular motions on the glass. Hope this helps

 

[mic_1011]

that's what it sounds like, they move in a circular path, what do they look like grown up?

 

[AriMiko43]

Kinda like a bug with antennas

 

[LatinP]

Probably just copepods, when your tank matures to handle a decent colony on their own you can try getting a Mandrin.

 

[mic_1011]

been looking to get a mandarin. i was told that i would have to introduce some sort of pods for it to live. how would i know when it's matured. and if they are copepods, where did they come from? would a mandarin do ok with aggressive fish? ie blue throat, maroon clown, angels?

 

[AriMiko43]

My 156 gallon has been up for about 2 months now and I used all dry rock but took some rubble rock from my established 65 gallon to help with the cycle and I now got thousands of Copepods everywhere. They come in on live rock. As for the fish I wouldn't know if they would get along but I would guess no.

 

[LatinP]

been looking to get a mandarin. i was told that i would have to introduce some sort of pods for it to live. how would i know when it's matured. and if they are copepods, where did they come from? would a mandarin do ok with aggressive fish? ie blue throat, maroon clown, angels?

I'm not really a Mandarin expert nor do I currently have one, that said most people I've talked to who do have had their tanks up for at least a year and have a healthy population of small and large pods. Remember what you see on the glass is just a fraction of the real population that actually resides on and in the live rock. Pods can get in your tank in a number of ways true hitch hikers at heart they usually do best in a refugium but can be transferred after you get new live rock, macro algae or sand. You have some really aggressive fish but if your pod population hasn't suffered it probably means they don't really care about the pods as much as whatever your feeding them. Only fish on your list that I have is a Blue Throat and my male BT is the shyest thing in the world wouldn't harm a thing.