Biodiversity...Just What I wanted to Talk About

[demodiki]

So last night my wife and I were peering in to the tank when she noticed an abundance of "critters" all over the place!

There were these teeny-tiny "slug" things crawling all over the glass! (baby snails?) Then there were these little "bugs" crawling all over the rocks...they were fast!

There were also some swirly looking things higher on the glass in the back. How is a guy supposed to use his magnet cleaner?!

LOL Just thought I would post and share my amazement at finding things in the tank that I didn't know were there. Here is to hoping that none of them eventually eat my fish.

[::pete::]

I hear you on the magnet deal!!

Do you know what all the critters are?

[demodiki]

(Wife here)

We have no idea what any of them are! This is our first tank, so we've never seen the little stuff that starts to grow after a while before.

Does anyone know how snails reproduce? Or what baby snails look like? I was watching one of my snails crawl around the glass last night, giggling at how his mouth looks like a dog licking at the glass, when I saw this teeny thin go sliding past. It was maybe half a centimeter long and clear, but it had some little brown specks inside. It was sucking at the glass like the snail was, and in the back it was kind of forked, like it had two little legs trailing out. That's not a great description... but anyway, my best guess what that it's a baby snail because of the way it was moving and sucking.

Then I saw some other little things on the rock. They are also about half a centimeter long, but they were long and skinny and brown, and they scooted around the rock so fast! They moved like little cockroaches! haha... I have absolutely no idea what those are.

Then on the glass in a lot of places are these little curly-q things. I haven't seen one move, but they are these teensy little spirals. Some other type of baby snail?

Pretty neat seeing all of this new life, but it comes with some apprehension. Like my hubby said - hope these critters don't grow up to chow down my fish!

[::pete::]

Ill dig up some pictures for you.

Amphipods

http://www.soc.soton.ac.uk/GDD/BP/pictures/pardalisca.jpg

Copepods

http://bioweb.uwlax.edu/zoolab/Table_of_Contents/Lab-7a/Arthropod-Copepods/Lab_7a-16a.jpg

Mysid Shrimp

http://www.calacademy.org/research/izg/SFBay2K/Mysid%2061932%20lat%20c%20Montage.jpg

Stomatella Snail

http://www.saltreef.com/images/galleries/snails/Stomatella1.jpg

These are a few of what it sounds like you were looking at and I will dig up a couple links that will show more.

[manny]

half a centimeter long and clear, but it had some little brown specks inside. It was sucking at the glass like the snail was, and in the back it was kind of forked, like it had two little legs trailing out
Flatworm maybe?

[demodiki]

That is definitely it - the flatworm. Looks just like that. Oh dear... is that bad???

[manny]

Nah, the clear ones you don't have to worry about. Here's a website (http://www.seahorse-nw.com/Predators.html) with some info. They're cool to watch

[demodiki]

Woohoo pods are great! Now I can go out and buy that dozen or so Mandarins!
/ducks

[manny]

The cockroach things sound like amphipods. They kinda look like silverfish, if you've ever seen one?

[manny]

Here's a site on snail eggs. http://www.wetwebmedia.com/snailreprofaqs.htm
Probly what your qurly-q things are

[demodiki]

Okay, I'm fairly sure the cockroach things are indeed amphipods. They did act like silverfish, and it's the only one of the above pics that they kinda look like. I think the only remaining mystery is my little curly-q things. I'm not sure if they're baby snails, because it looks like snail eggs come in strands - These things are just kind of haphazardly stuck on the glass. They're a little smaller than the flatworms and amphipods and are white. I tried to take pictures of them last night, but I don't think they came out. Too little.

[bprewit]

I have hundreds of the little white curly things on my glass that are some type of tiny feather duster. If I look close I can see a tiny red plume on the end. Maybe this is what you have?

[manny]

Here's a really good website (http://www.reefs.org/hhfaq/pages/main_pages/faq_rock1.htm) for hitchhiker indentification. Also, bprewit had a good guess too about your white curly-q things. Do they look like the things in this picture?

[demodiki]

Hey! That looks like them!