Bugs in the fuge...

So, I was feeling a lot better yesterday after my new friends at 3Reef helped me ID the polyps growing on my LR. Then, as I was lying on the floor late last night peering into my refugium with a flashlight, I noticed some movement on a rock out of the corner of my eye...just a flash. I refocused on that area and stared...for a long time. And then, there it was again...scurrying across a rock...some little cockroach looking thing. And the more I stared the more of them I saw...some almost microscopic, some about 5mm long. They are bug-like...with what appear to be segmented bodies and multiple sets of limbs...with what look like antennae coming from the "head". I would almost describe them as centipede-like, but much shorter...not long enough to form the wavy bodies of a centipede, but of that ilk. I tried to get a pic and/or video last night but no luck so far...they are fast-movers. I showed my wife this morning and she said amphipods but I'm open to suggestions. They don't swim...just crawl around on the live rock in the fuge.

The rock in the fuge is not the same rock that's in the main tank...so I'm pretty sure whatever it is was either on that rock or in the Chaeto we purchased from a local LFS. I haven't seen any of these in the main tank.

Any guesses? Thanks for all your help...great to find such an active forum.

;D

 

Google copepod or amphipod.

Congrats! It's a good sign!

 

I was just scoping out the fuge again with my flashlight and two of the larger little suckers were having a territorial dispute...which gave me the opportunity to see them better. I'm convinced now that they are amphipods. They seem to have a larger back end than front and resemble one of the species I found on Wiki when I googled "amphipod".

Thanks again!!!