Flatworms (?) invading copepod culture.

[KonradTO]

Hi all. I found these bugs in my pods vessel. Any suggestion for starting over? I was thinking about some product against planarians..would that kill copepods too?anyone had this before?

 

[KonradTO]

Ok I looked better under microscope and it looks like I have some kind of Ciliata infestation in my pods vessels. Anyone experienced this before?

Hi all. I found these bugs in my pods vessel. Any suggestion for starting over? I was thinking about some product against planarians..would that kill copepods too?anyone had this before?

 

[KonradTO]

I think I got at least the Order right.

Trichototaxis marina n. sp. (Ciliophora, Urostylida)​

This one looks quite similar

Morphology, morphogenesis and molecular phylogeny of a new marine ciliate, Trichototaxis marina n. sp. (Ciliophora, Urostylida)

The live morphology, infraciliature and morphogenesis of a new urostylid ciliate, Trichototaxis marina n. sp., collected from coastal water in Qingdao…

www.sciencedirect.com

 

[fryman]

I often see rotifers and ciliates. Once I had hydroids (I think). But I've never seen that particular organism.

I would try and isolate enough copepods to restart the culture. It looks rather large, perhaps you could filter it out?

Sometimes it's easier (and cheaper) just to bleach everything and buy a new starter.

 

[KonradTO]

I often see rotifers and ciliates. Once I had hydroids (I think). But I've never seen that particular organism.

I would try and isolate enough copepods to restart the culture. It looks rather large, perhaps you could filter it out?

Sometimes it's easier (and cheaper) just to bleach everything and buy a new starter.

I fortunately have another batch of pods which do not seem affected, which I can use for starting back. The source of contamination was probably the water from WCs I used.
I cannot think how to separate them from each other, as they have rather a similar size. Probably I will just move them to another container and keep for observation... Maybe we find out they are a good live food or something.. i know they use paramecium as food for shrimp larvae

 

[fryman]

I fortunately have another batch of pods which do not seem affected, which I can use for starting back. The source of contamination was probably the water from WCs I used.
I cannot think how to separate them from each other, as they have rather a similar size. Probably I will just move them to another container and keep for observation... Maybe we find out they are a good live food or something.. i know they use paramecium as food for shrimp larvae

Great, it's best to have multiple cultures going just in case something like this happens. I doubt there's much risk feeding them to your reef. We have all sorts of micro-organisms in our tanks.

I understand if you want to keep some for experimentation, but beware...keeping them around means you have a potential vector for contamination. I keep rotifers and copepods, and so I regularly find rotifers in my copepod cultures, which hurts yield.