Weird Creatures In My Tank!!

[Billan]

I have recently noticed some new additions to my tank. I have a couple hundred of these small 1/8 to 1/4 inch in size shrimp-like things that are clear with a black stripe through them. They have 6 legs, 3 on each side, two tentacles from the head and two black eyes. They do not swim but they gather around my anenome and around any food that falls to the bottom. They are very quick and grow larger and larger by the day. They appear both at night and in full light. The only thing that I have added to my tank recently is some star polyps. I do have a cleaner shrimp and a flame shrimp in the tank but I do not think that they could be from them. Are these animals bad for my tank? What are they called? If they are bad what will eat them? Thanks for the info.

 

[DontYouJustWish]

^^ Anyone? ^^

 

[esmithiii]

Sounds like copepods to me. can you post a pic?

E

 

[stephtannen]

are they copepods?
on another note, I had an outbreak of marine "lice" once a few years ago, GROSS!

 

[Tanked]

I find that discovering the "little creatures" is the most interesting part of the hobby. My first tank was sent up with live rock and sand and was soon followed by a number of fish, hermits, and shrimp. Over time the little buggies disappeared.

I recently set up a 75 with a mixture of rock and sand from several sources. Some was aquacultured Caribbean that is amazing with the diversity of life. In this tank I am adding only corals and macroalgae to maintain the smaller creatures.

Get a couple of books and search boards like this. But you will probably not identify everything that shows up. Isn't that great?

 

[Billan]

These new little "creatures" seem to be bothering my anenome. They crawl all over the anenome and I have found that it is closing up into a little ball when they get all over it. They still try to get in the small hole at the top even when it is all closed up. They crawl on other things too but don't seem to bother them. I can not post a picture at this time because I do not have a digital camera yet. Will these things kill my anenome?? I checked the hitchhikers page and they do not match the description or picture of any of the things on there. Thanks for the help.