What the heck is this!?

mepling · Mar 30, 2013

This is the second time in a month that this has happened. Can anyone identify this outbreak? My water parameters are great: Nitrate 20, Nitrite 0, PH 8.4, 29 gallon salinity 1.023. Please help. Tiny white shrimp looking things, please see video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuSPT99y1NI

canadian reefer · Mar 30, 2013

Copepods?

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sucker_fish · Mar 30, 2013

It's hard to tell exactly what the little white things are, the clown looks a little stressed though...

Liquid360 · Mar 30, 2013

canadian reefer said:
Copepods?

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That's what they look like to me also... curious that they're swimming like that though.

canadian reefer · Mar 30, 2013

Liquid360 said:
That's what they look like to me also... curious that they're swimming like that though.

I agree I would have thought there would be some on the glass

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fragmatic · Mar 30, 2013

PODs... your clown is most likely stuffed.... and looks fine to me. Is acting like a clown. You need another fish that eats PODs. This is a good thing!

Reefing Madness · Mar 30, 2013

fragmatic said:
PODs... your clown is most likely stuffed.... and looks fine to me. Is acting like a clown. You need another fish that eats PODs. This is a good thing!

Looks like a healthy tank. Some people get the POD bloom, some don't.

mepling · Mar 30, 2013

Thanks. They are still there today.

Also, everything in my tank is acting weird. I checked the temperature and for some reason it is up to 79.3 F. I normally keep it at 77 F. Could this be stressing the clown? I keep turning down the heater to remedy this but Im afraid to unknowingly turn it down too low.

Reefing Madness · Mar 30, 2013

Getting to be spring, tmeps come up inside the house, so does the tank temp. You'll have to gage where to keep it in the summer. I have to use fans across my tank to keep it cooler in the summer months.

ntime60 · Mar 30, 2013

Looks like amphipods to me
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amphipoda

That is a sign of a very healthy tank.

Time to introduce your amphipods to blenny's, gobies or some shrimp.

dcfluegel · Mar 30, 2013

looks a lot like copepods/ amphipods - might be time for a mandarin!

NanaReefer · Mar 30, 2013

Definitely not amphipods. Looks more like an assortment of Copepods.

mepling · Mar 31, 2013

Thanks everyone. While I was at work last night my skunk shrimp died. It was very young and Ive had him for like two months. All my parameters are great. would 79.3 F kill a scarlet skunk shrimp?

Reefing Madness · Mar 31, 2013

No, 79.3 degrees would not kill a Shrimp.

fragmatic · Mar 31, 2013

............but a nitrogen compound problem will.

Salty D · Mar 31, 2013

I would consider getting rid of the air stone. 90% of oxygen exchange happens on the surface. Plus the air pump can be putting household chemicals into the water too. If there is something like a glade plug in or cigarette smoke or high indoor CO2, any number of things, can be put into the water column through the air pump. Something to think about. How long have you had the clown? Breathing pretty fast....looks a bit stressed.

fragmatic · Mar 31, 2013

Salty D said:
I would consider getting rid of the air stone. 90% of oxygen exchange happens on the surface. Plus the air pump can be putting household chemicals into the water too. If there is something like a glade plug in or cigarette smoke or high indoor CO2, any number of things, can be put into the water column through the air pump. Something to think about. How long have you had the clown? Breathing pretty fast....looks a bit stressed.

This is true about the air. However, consider this. Our skimmers inject huge amounts of micro bubbles into our systems from the air in the room. Some skimmers use air stones to produce their bubbles. My rule is no smoking, fires, etc, or "Glade" in my tank room.

mepling · Mar 31, 2013

I removed the airstone about 1 day before it died. There isn't any smoking or anything in my house, no glade plugins or anything. For some reason my salinity was high. I just removed some water and added fresh water to bring it down a bit. Maybe that was the problem. My snails are doing better today, I only saw ONE upsidedown. Thank you all for commenting.