What spawned in my tank?

[jadethorne]

https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/photo/109891773421105706908/6407869694126828802?icm=false&authkey=CJSp2MewoZXB7AE" alt="" />

[ame=https://youtu.be/1MR_OXGQYxw]https://youtu.be/1MR_OXGQYxw[/ame]

If the photo isn't enough, the video should help. I hope.

Not pods, or not any pods I've ever seen. Free-swimming in a big cloud when I turned the lights on this morning. Disappeared after a few hours (rather, in the time between me leaving for a doctor's appointment and then returning home). Nothing crawling on the glass anywhere.

What's in the tank: [B]lots[/B] of corals, one midnight clown, nerite snails, astrea snails, nassarius snails, one sandsifting star, two feather dusters, two emerald crabs, blue legged hermits, and the horse shoe crab the roomie just [B]had[B] to have (*grumbles*). I feed frozen brine and mysis, plus Seachem's zooplankton and a soft freeze reef food I can't think of off the top of my head. Oh, tiny brittle stars and tiny bristle worms also. Maybe a peanut too. And tiny tube worms. And a black sea squirt.

 

[jadethorne]

Anyone? Bueller?

I'm seeing pods on the glass, but from the research I've done they don't swarm the top of the water like this. The numbers have grown since removing most of the coral (all but the SPS) to the bigger tank, and all of the livestock except 2-3 nassarius snails. Live rock is still in the tank.

I'm not finding anything that matches what I'm seeing.

 

[picoreefguy]

hard to tell from the vid. are they actually free swimming or is it something thats being blown around by the pumps

 

[danh]

I agree, the vid almost looks like it's something being blown around by the pumps. Like crystallized salt or something like that.

 

[dball711]

Turn off your pumps and see if ther is any movement. If it still moves it could be emerald crab larva? Google that and see if it looks the same as you see in your tank.

 

[jadethorne]

These are tiny free swimming white dots. When I turn the lights on in the morning, a swarm of them will go to the surface, then they slowly disappear. I'll still have a pretty good cloud of them swarming around on the surface, but it's smaller than within 10 minutes of lights on.

This is not something just getting blown around. And with the specks being white and so tiny, I don't think it's emerald crab larvae. This is pod sized, whatever it is.

 

[dball711]

Did you google emerald crab spawning, just trying to help.

 

[jadethorne]

Yes, I Googled emerald crab spawning and larvae. But the thing is, my emerald crabs have been in the big tank for a good week now. And these things are very obviously multiplying. I must have close to a thousand in my tank swimming around all over the place, occasionally going to the sand or the glass. When I first noticed them, it was *right* before I moved all the corals and the clean-up crew.

They move like baby brine shrimp. They are absolutely solid white tiny specks. I turned on the 10k (I have the old Oceanic Biocube, with the power compact T5s) just out of curiosity, and OMG. The top 6 inches of water in my tank is a cloud of these things.

 

[picoreefguy]

scoop em out and feed them to your fish lol

 

[enderg60]

Looks like when my cleaner shrimp spawned but smaller.

But that started a feeding frenzy in my tank.....

 

[jadethorne]

I can't figure out what this is. There is nothing left in this tank (in regards to crabs or shrimp or large snails - I have 2-3 nassarius I missed when I moved the clean-up crew), hasn't been anything in this tank for a week and two days now. And they're multiplying. All that's in there now is three clams (small ones), a red gorgonian, and seven pieces of SPS because the big tank needs to mature for 4-5 months before they can go in there. They aren't getting any bigger - they're just increasing in size.

Are there any types of pods that might do this? Does anyone have experience with this?

We don't have a net with fine enough mesh to scoop them out. I'm already considering putting a dragonet in this tank, because I do have copepods on the glass that are pretty numerous. Kinda thinking as small as they are, a dragonet would love them.

 

[jennm]

If it was pods it would start a feeding frenzy. Same if it was any kind of crustacean larvae. Have you been able to scoop any out and look at them under a microscope or magnifying glass? In a pinch, take a super-zoomed close-up against a contrasting background and you might be able to blow up the picture to see what they are.

Could be a number of things from some sort of spawn, to some sort of dust or flotsam in the water.

There's no telling.

Jenn

 

[jadethorne]

Hi Jenn. Funny, we were just in your store today.

There aren't any fish in this tank to feed on them. Just the SPS and the gorgonian, and as of today one cardinalfish, one blenny, and one mandarin dragonet (because I am seeing a ton of pods on the glass). The cardinal has been in since this morning, but is hiding some at the moment. I guess when I put the blenny and mandarin in (drip acclimating ATM), I'll find out.

Maybe it's pods. Maybe it's not. They're free-swimming in jerky motions. And the numbers have grown, without anything in the tank that could have possibly spawned them. It's weird. Like nothing I've seen before.

 

[jennm]

Ah well if there were no fish then yeah, it could very well be pods.

Jenn

 

[jadethorne]

I'm leaning toward pods, because the bicolor blenny I picked up is swimming around all over eating things in the water and off the rock.