What the hell is this ?

mandy111

Active Member
Watching TV last night. Hubby looks over to tank. & I hear "wtf". I look over and this is what we see. Was not there 5 mins ago. Cleared up about an hour later. Could any one please help I really was a little concerned. !
 

bang guy

Moderator
With the camera moving around so much it was difficult to tell. I think it's either newly hatched Shrimp larvae (some type of cleaner shrimp?) or epitokes (Bristleworm reproduction). Either way it's nothing to be concerned about.
 

mandy111

Active Member
With the camera moving around so much it was difficult to tell. I think it's either newly hatched Shrimp larvae (some type of cleaner shrimp?) or epitokes (Bristleworm reproduction). Either way it's nothing to be concerned about.
Bristle worms. Thousands. ! I am now worried. !
 

pegasus

Well-Known Member
I have those swarms occasionally, but it's usually after lights out. I can take a flashlight and shine it through one end of the tank, and they're everywhere! I'm able to recognize shrimp, because they tend to bounce off the glass in front of the flashlight, but there are literally thousands of smaller critters flowing in the current, but every once in a while they'll dart around. I just consider it zooplankton, and think about how well my corals are going to eat that night...
 

mandy111

Active Member
I've just been told that here in Aussie corals will spawn once a year 5-7 days after a full moon in March/April. Last full moon here was the 4th March. So may well have been. This is such a fascinating hobby. !!! :)
 

bang guy

Moderator
I've just been told that here in Aussie corals will spawn once a year 5-7 days after a full moon in March/April. Last full moon here was the 4th March. So may well have been. This is such a fascinating hobby. !!! :)
It doesn't look like coral spawn tme. Those just look like small eggs floating around the water column or "smoke", usually both...

The animals in your video appear to be swimming. Epitokes will swim by wiggling, other larvae will swim by flicking their tails. Hermit Crab larvae look smilar to that too. If I had a single guess I would say epitokes but lik I said, it's difficult to see.
 
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mandy111

Active Member
Those things weren't swimming, I run two 150w gyers that I had turned up because I had no idea what had invaded my tank and they were being flung around by the flow with me panicking and trying to get them over the overflow. lol I have shown the video to a super experienced reefer also studying marine biology (knows my tank) and he suggests that it was one of my torch corals.I suppose we will never now, will be interesting to see if it happens again in a year I suppose that will be the only way of knowing. What ever it was it was amazing to see, these little ecosystems we run always have little surprises for us don't they ?
 
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