unidentified life in my tank

Hello, I have a 55 gallon with around 30 lbs of live rock that I have been running without fish for the last six months. It has gone through it's nitrogen and algae cycles and I have recently noticed some wierd life in and around the rock.

The first are small white spots that I see crawling around on the glass near the rocks. At any given time there are well over 200 of them on the front and side alone, and when I clean the glass they all reappear with a day.

The second is a wormlike critter that I have seen in my live rock. It is brownish-white and the only thing I've seen it do is stretch a portion of it's body outside the rock and nip off chunks of coral algae. I've never seen it leave the rock so I assume it lives in it. Also every morning there are several 3-4 inch pieces of worm-shaped poop(?) on the sand near the rocks.

Any ideas?

Jason

 

Hey Jason, those bugs are a good sign...

The white little guys are probably 'pods' - amphipods, copepods, etc..

They are not harmful and are actually a good food source for a lot of things.

The worm like thing sounds like a bristle worm. I don't know my worms that well, but I do know that poop is from the worm. I will look up some more and get back to you...

 

yep your first one i agree must be some type of pods great detrivores and make good live fish food some could be fortiminferins also

pods

foraminiferins


but the worms your talking about sound more like peanut worms bristle worms kinda look like a mean lookin centipede the peanut worms telescope in and out to grab food off the lr they can get quite big but are harmless and very good for the tank ive seen one in my tank maby about 10" long every once in a while i catch em out at night

peanut worm

 

It's not a brittle worm, in fact it looks just like that peanut worm. And I'm guessing there's a combination of pods and foraminiferins on the glass. I also just noted a small white spiral-shaped thing growing on the glass in several places. They're about 2-3mm wide. Any ideas?

Thanks for the help!

Jason

 

I had those spiral things all over the inside of my overflow after a while. I don't know the name of those things but if I recall right, I think some of them were similar to feather dusters. Harmless.

Sounds like you have quite a bit of life brewing in there. Sweet!

 

if you take a good look at the pod pic i posted there are small spirally things there (look close) they are another type of filter feeder/worm not sure of exact name but i got them all over my q tank. i jus leav em there gives me sometin to look at in an empty tank. i dont have as many in my main tank because my scooter climbs the glass and cleans em off. also the fortiminiferin i posted i get them in groups then they dissapear then they come back again my scooter climbs the glass for those also.