What could they be?

[Eileen]

Hope you can help me. I woke this morn. to find some tiny white buggers moving along my tank's glass. I can't give a pic but they're very tiny and are definitely moving. If they were under a microscope I'd say they were Obelia or Daphnea but would they be visible to the naked eye? Do you think they're something I have to be concerned with or just creatures starting to come out of the darkness after long naps inside the rock?

The tank's been set-up since 2/5 but only has cured live rock in it.


Temp.--78'
Salinity--1.021, (do you think I should tweek it up a bit?)
Ammonia--between 0 & .25ppm
Nitrate--10ppm
Nitrite--0ppm

I'm planning on adding live sand and a couple of the cleaning crew on the 20th.

[Eileen]

Looking closer it seems there are two separate creatures. One, that looks like the Obelia doesn't seem to be moving. The other does. :confused:

[mogurnda]

I would guess that the moving things are copepods. When you say obelia, do you mean the medusa or the polyp?

Have you see this writeup about hitchikers yet? http://www.reefs.org/hhfaq/index.html

[Eileen]

After looking with a magnifying glass, yes, the one are copepods. The other definitely look like Obelia. I have one rock in particular that's got alot of polys, (stationary), but the one's I've seen on the glass don't seem to move. So maybe they're also polys that have attached themselves. Although they seem flat where the ones on the rock have what looks like tiny "stems".

Thanx for the link!! I hadn't seen that before!:)