little white critters w/whiskers help

[randolph]

i was gone for a week and returned today to find my tank
over run with little white critters crawling on the glass of
my tank. they are from very tiny to almost 3/16 of an inch
long. tenticales on the front and many legs 8 or 10 not sure.
why am i thinking this is not a good thing, my luck these are
not the great food supply from sea heaven, right. please tell me if i need to nuke them with some wild cure, or melt down the whole tank, filters, pump.................etc. thanks

 

[db]

my guess is they are some type of pod. If that is the case then they are benificial to our tank. Is your tank pretty new? Have you added some new live rock recently?

 

[sistrmary]

About a hundred people on this board wish they had this problem Like DB said they sound like pods, they're a good thing...especially that many of them.

 

[iechy]

It could be Wilford Brimley. Oh no nevermind he's a big white guy with whiskers. My fault!

 

[nm reef]

Do they look anything like these?

If so then you've got copepods/amphipods and thats a good thing.If not then you may have flatworms and they can be a pest....is it possible for you to post a pic of your invaders?

 

[randolph]

no way to post pictures yet, these guys were crawling all over the glass with the lights on full tilt 193 watts 55gal. if they are flatworms what would be a good fish to eat them. i have no fish in this tank at this time, i want to make it a reef tank with a few small fish. just bought another 55 gal of ---- with triggers and some other fish. now i have the reef and the fish only, cool

 

[jonthefb]

if you can visibly see legs and antennae, then they are not flatworms. they are most likely isopods that do no harm in a tank. they are actually micrograzers that feed on algae, and are a great source of food for fish. i had a huge colony of these things in my 7 gallon after i removed all the fish. it was like a population explosion. they were everywhere, but were definately not harmful
congrats, and good luck
jon

 

[randolph]

after looking with a 10x looking glass i have found the flat worms
will something eat them and are they good or bad, maybe a nice long nose hawk?

 

[sistrmary]

Sixline wrasse But I don't care for hawkfish. Pretty, but mean. Shrimp and small fish eaters. I'm not sure that they eat flatworms anyway...