Just another type of copepod?

[megtrax17]

Can anyone ID this thing? I was FaceTiming my husband and propped the camera up and realized it picks up such the tiniest little critters compared to what I can see! Thousands of copepods, amphipods, bristle worms, ect in my Refugium. I’m so mesmerized haha!!!

Pic of Refugium for reference of size.

 

[megtrax17]

I figured it out! It’s plankton, cool. Can’t figure out what the glob is though

 

[JoJosReef]

@vetteguy53081 are those little flatworms? Acoel or something?

 

[EricR]

I figured it out! It’s plankton, cool. Can’t figure out what the glob is though

First one looks like a copepod. Second two look like flatworms (to me).

 

[AKReefing]

IMG_7834 is a copepod. The glob in the last two pics is a flatworm.

 

[AKReefing]

First one looks like a copepod. Second two look like flatworms (to me).

Agree on both

 

[megtrax17]

Here’s a short video but I think it can only be viewed on desktop. If it is flatworm should I be worried? I do have a very active malnurus wrasse. It kind of swirls around

 

[vetteguy53081]

I figured it out! It’s plankton, cool. Can’t figure out what the glob is though

Top left - amphipod..... Top right and bottom - Planaria flatworm. Pods are free food for fish and coral and feed off algaes
For flatworm - While they are not harmful as their relative red planaria, they in numbers can smother bases of coral and block the needed light for production of zooxanthellae which is their energy source.
Removal can be accomplished by siphoning them with a 3/8" tubing into a nylon stocking and discard
OR
Add a wrasse such as Yellow coris, 6 line, lunare or malanurus OR even a springieri damsel which will eat them

With the number you have, for the next 2 weeks you will have to look for eggs and scrape off as there is likely some and would be future acoels. Eggs are really tiny

 

[megtrax17]

Top left - amphipod..... Top right and bottom - Planaria flatworm. Pods are free food for fish and coral and feed off algaes
For flatworm - While they are not harmful as their relative red planaria, they in numbers can smother bases of coral and block the needed light for production of zooxanthellae which is their energy source.
Removal can be accomplished by siphoning them with a 3/8" tubing into a nylon stocking and discard
OR
Add a wrasse such as Yellow coris, 6 line, lunare or malanurus OR even a springieri damsel which will eat them

With the number you have, for the next 2 weeks you will have to look for eggs and scrape off as there is likely some and would be future acoels. Eggs are really tiny

Thanks for the advice! This guy was too small to even really see without the microscope. Just looked like a little white speck so maybe he’s a baby? I have a malnurus wrasse in my display but this is my Refugium. So as long as numbers are controlled I should be ok? I do have corals!

 

[vetteguy53081]

Thanks for the advice! This guy was too small to even really see without the microscope. Just looked like a little white speck so maybe he’s a baby? I have a malnurus wrasse in my display but this is my Refugium. So as long as numbers are controlled I should be ok? I do have corals!

Remove as you see them asap before they get a chance to reproduce

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

I figured it out! It’s plankton, cool. Can’t figure out what the glob is though

The first photo is an isopod.

 

[CBonito]

Top left - amphipod..... Top right and bottom - Planaria flatworm. Pods are free food for fish and coral and feed off algaes
For flatworm - While they are not harmful as their relative red planaria, they in numbers can smother bases of coral and block the needed light for production of zooxanthellae which is their energy source.
Removal can be accomplished by siphoning them with a 3/8" tubing into a nylon stocking and discard
OR
Add a wrasse such as Yellow coris, 6 line, lunare or malanurus OR even a springieri damsel which will eat them

With the number you have, for the next 2 weeks you will have to look for eggs and scrape off as there is likely some and would be future acoels. Eggs are really tiny

Truth. Melanurus are awesome for this. Mine is always checking all the coral bases....even though I feed the heck out of him.

 

[AKReefing]

Truth. Melanurus are awesome for this. Mine is always checking all the coral bases....even though I feed the heck out of him.

I had one a while back. He ate every snail, crab, shrimp in the tank, as well as the bad stuff.

 

[AKReefing]

This guy was too small to even really see without the microscope. Just looked like a little white speck so maybe he’s a baby?

Never a safe assumption. And I've never seen a flatworm I'd call reef safe. You never know. My sump/fuge is a source of pods and aiptasia. Everything there is protected from predators.

 

[CBonito]

I had one a while back. He ate every snail, crab, shrimp in the tank, as well as the bad stuff.

Yeah hahaha the first time I put snails in my new tank...they were trochus snails and I just dumped them right in.
When they hit the bottom they were all wiggling trying to right themselves and my Melanurus lost his mind and killed like 2 of them immediately. It was only a preview of things to come.

 

[megtrax17]

Never a safe assumption. And I've never seen a flatworm I'd call reef safe. You never know. My sump/fuge is a source of pods and aiptasia. Everything there is protected from predators.

this thing was way too small to see with the naked eye. I didn’t even know it was there till I was looking at the copepod under a microscope. It was maybe the size of a grain of sugar if that

 

[vetteguy53081]

this thing was way too small to see with the naked eye. I didn’t even know it was there till I was looking at the copepod under a microscope. It was maybe the size of a grain of sugar if that

Oh yeah. They can be real tiny to the size of a small cricket (often amphipod or even) a relative - gammarid