Floribraska
Community Member
While I had my microscope out to look at dinos, I took some photos/video of an odd critter I've noticed throughout my tank. Any help in ID would be appreciated!
Whitish in color and visible to the naked eye, they are still quite small. Larger than other Copepods I observe in the tank, but still requires close examination to see directly. I primarily see them clinging to the glass, or live rock surfaces. They seem to have a shell of some sorts with appendages almost like a flea. They are larger than other “real” pods I observe in the tank, and look quite different. They move almost like a crab or snail with a “crawling” movement pattern. Other “real” pods are more translucent, move with more flutter in their “swim”. When next to each other in the tank, it's pretty clear this probably isn't a pod. I presume my unknown critter can “Swim” too, but I have not directly observed this behavior yet. They have always been found crawling on hard surfaces thus far.
Images and video taken under 40x magnification.
Whitish in color and visible to the naked eye, they are still quite small. Larger than other Copepods I observe in the tank, but still requires close examination to see directly. I primarily see them clinging to the glass, or live rock surfaces. They seem to have a shell of some sorts with appendages almost like a flea. They are larger than other “real” pods I observe in the tank, and look quite different. They move almost like a crab or snail with a “crawling” movement pattern. Other “real” pods are more translucent, move with more flutter in their “swim”. When next to each other in the tank, it's pretty clear this probably isn't a pod. I presume my unknown critter can “Swim” too, but I have not directly observed this behavior yet. They have always been found crawling on hard surfaces thus far.
Images and video taken under 40x magnification.
