small "bugs?"

[tedrux96]

so i looked into my tank tonight with the tank lights off and i see a ton of these tiny little bug looking things (not pods) swimming around real fast pretty much around the rocks. i wont be able to get a pic i know my camera wont pick them up. this is a bad description but its the best way i can describe it, just want to know if this is bad or good. hope somone knows what im talking about.

thanks, ben

 

[TomD]

bugs

Are you sure they are not pods. They are many kinds of pods. Just wanted to check so you dont get worked up for nothing.

What color, any features you were able to make out?

 

[Bobbofin]

Probably ampipods, I have them, they are good. Ghost shrimp

 

[tedrux96]

they are basically clear kind of look like mosquitos with no wings or legs but so small you can hardly see them, and they are just swimming around

 

[tedrux96]

well after looking around they look a lot like there mysis pods just did an image search and the seem to fit the description. what do you guys think?

 

[TomD]

pods

mysis can look like that, they can be hard to see but not bad. Fish will eat um up.

As far as amphinods I have them and they look like minature shrimp.

I think you have nothing to worry about and it is just signs of a maturing healthy tank.

Told you it was pods...

 

[DanStL]

Sounds like mysid shrimp to me, they nervously "swim" and dart around in groups. Amphipods are almost always on something, acting alone, and move much more deliberately(at night).

Mysids are awesome, consider your self lucky if you have them

 

[Greg Hiller]

I also have pocket of what I believe are a form of copepod in some of my tanks. They kind of swarm like little knats almost. I would sweat it. Good life, good diversity.

 

[~Flighty~]

I looked at the gnat swarms in my refugium with a magnifying glass and they seem to be baby mysids. They form little clouds near the base of rocks and in depressions in the sand. They swill really fast and switch direction frequently. You can often see some adult mysids hanging out with them.

 

[tedrux96]

great! im glad nothing is wrong with my tank. thanks a lot

 

[OceanGuy]

I would guess they are brine shrimp naupillae which look a bit like the early stages of mosquito larvae and are the early stage of the mysis brine shrimp. If so they are very beneficial and a sign that your tank is healthy. Free fish food and some will grow a bit bigger and be bigger food. Enjoy watching them while you can, they'll be gone in a few days.

 

[Greg Hiller]

Tom,

I hate to disagree with you, but unless you have directly added brine shrimp eggs or newly hatched brine shrimp recently to your tank, you will not have any in your tank. Brine shrimp are an organism with essentially no means of avoiding predation. In the wild they typically can only exist in environments that almost nothing else larger than themselves can live. Usually these environments are very high salinity. They are filter feeders, and unless you are dumping a ton of microalgae into your tank, then would never survive for lack of a nutrient source.