What is this on my glass?

[gy960]

As the title states, what is the white translucent things on my glass? They are soft, sways with the current. When I scrubbed them off, they return again. Eeeek!

[NWA-Planted]

How often are you doing water changes?

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

[gy960]

25% Weekly.

[longbeach]

Looks like Cyclops....I get them from feeding cyclopeeze foods!!!.... the eggs hatch!!!

[bpb]

I used to get those too! When I tore my tank down and moved they didn't come back. Sorry. No help.

[speerwashere]

Looking thru a magnifying glass do they look like snails? I had them once and forgot what they were called, but got them after I feed my frogs some raw hamburger. If they do look like snails I'll find some old posts of mine on a group I'm in and let you know. Mine went away on their own.

[Psionic]

I can actually help you answer this. I had them in my discus grow out tank and couldn't find out what they were! After about a week of online research and asking around, I found out that they're a type of freshwater Bryozoa.

There are tons of different kinds and in aquariums we don't get those huge solidified colonies like they form in the wild (at least I hope no one does - yuck). Their life cycle is about 5-6 weeks and they like oxygenated, food rich, well flowing, well lit area. They can come in on water, plants, fish, anything. Imagine them to be like BBA. They aren't harmful to your fish or anything. They don't sting like hydra either.

I believe mine came in with my discus. Feeding them varied foods 6-8 times a day, sponge and hob filter, large water changes everyday, it was a good breeding ground for them in that tank. After I moved the fish, I bleached the tank and filter, got new media and restarted the tank. They showed up again. Snails don't eat them, neither do plecos, I haven't tried shrimp. I tried dewormer like one does with hydra, no effect. There's nothing living in the tank now, but they'll still send out their eggs/spores into the water. So it's not from lack of water changes or over feeding. That's all I ever came up with *shrug* I hope it helps. Maybe someone else can add any info to it. I posted about it in the "bug" sticky when I saw them.


-Val

[@marko@]

if they arent harmful, why go through so much trouble to remove them?

i love all the critters that show up in my tanks. my shrimp tank has the shrimp, 2 kinds of snails, planarians, long burrowing white worms, and shorter sometimes swimming worms. they dont hurt anyone, they clean up uneaten food, and look interesting.

[speerwashere]

This is what I had but never got this big http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJhOOePHMg0

[gy960]

Nope, not them. I think it may perhaps be a type of bryozoa as what Psionic had said.

[Psionic]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIyKeZGGyqE
A shot I had taken to show to people what I was talking about. Not great quality in the video, but every surface in the tank becomes covered in them. They'll cover your glass to the point where it looks like its covered in hard water stains or frosted. They also attract other stuff into your tank. Some people like that, others don't. Just like some people love algae and others want to burn it from the face of the earth.


-Val

[hydrophyte]

It's hard to tell from the pictures, but they look like copepods to me.

So long as they aren't hydra they are probably harmless. Aquarium microfauna like this have a way of multiplying in new fish tanks, and then they usually decline again whenever they exhaust whatever they are eating.

Microfauna are beneficial in your aquarium. They help to eat extra waste food.

[Chlorophile]

Originally Posted by hydrophyte

It's hard to tell from the pictures, but they look like copepods to me.

So long as they aren't hydra they are probably harmless. Aquarium microfauna like this have a way of multiplying in new fish tanks, and then they usually decline again whenever they exhaust whatever they are eating.

Microfauna are beneficial in your aquarium. They help to eat extra waste food.

Are copepods that small?
If so I NEED THEM NAO!!