friend or foe?

[Sharkie]

my little sister caught this today while cleaning up some salt creep that was on the top of my tank... i'm not sure if its good or bad or what.

it looks like an anemone to me?

my sis thought they were jellyfish because of the tentacles and the way they were pulsing... i had just fed my eel so i think maybe they smelt the food? not sure what they are but they are all over the heater area

 

[yote]

That IS a jelly.
I doubt it would live very long in your tank though.It'll end up goping through one of your powerheads.
You might see they would tank at the aquarium where you work.

 

[Sharkie]

That IS a jelly.
I doubt it would live very long in your tank though.It'll end up goping through one of your powerheads.
You might see they would tank at the aquarium where you work.

ewwww so could that be what was killing my fish? theres a whole bunch of them! D= is my eel safe? and all my corals?

oh no no no... I do NOT want jellies! altho they are pretty... i dont want those in my tank D:

 

[XxKnuckleheadxX]

do they stick to the walls of your tank? or do they float around?

 

[Sharkie]

do they stick to the walls of your tank? or do they float around?

some are stuck and some are floaty, should i start sucking them out?

 

[yote]

I would.
And yeah,that could be whats been killing your fish.
Jelly stings are pretty strong.Strong enough to kill humans,so you know their hard on fish.

 

[Sharkie]

ugh yea.... dangit! i guess i know what i'm doing today.... lol

 

[daugherty]

look like hydroid jellies

 

[yote]

Look at the top pic James.It looks more like the bigger jellies.:D

 

[parrotchute]

wow, crazy! How are they surviving without getting picked up by the skimmer or powerhead? I know they can be pretty strong breeders if the right conditions are there...

 

[dcantucson]

Interesting... how did it get in there? Never seen or heard of that. Wow!

 

[Sharkie]

I have no clue how they got in there... i haven't added ANYTHING into the tank D:

I've found more and more of them, just coming out of my SAND! D: its gross... i had to move all my critters out... i know they are prolly safe but still, i want my eel and damsel ALIVE lol... stupid jellies... jellies are cool... just not in my tank.


I don't have a skimmer on the tank so thats why they are getting sucked up by that, i do however have my HOB and my powerheads that they are swimming buy and just swim out of... i tried taping them but they don't show up on the camera that way :l

 

[daugherty]

they hitch hike on the lr rock when you buy it. as yote he has got three mantis shrimp in his rock

 

[Sharkie]

i haven't bought rocks in months... :(

 

[dcantucson]

Well everyone seems stumped. You said you have more coming out of you sand? How many have you found total now? Have you added any new sand lately?

 

[tankedchemist]

I just read about the jellyfish lifecycle, and it seems to me that the polyp stage can survive and look a whole lot like corals for quite a long time (this site says weeks). So, I suppose it's possible that something you added weeks ago-- rock or whatever-- might have been housing some jellies in polyp form.

were you able to siphon/scrape most of them out? It will probably keep happening for a while because of their multi-stage life cycle... the larvae and polyps are probably really hard to see. :(

Incidentally, are you feeding small brine shrimp to your fish? This site states that's what they eat, so maybe moving to larger particles of food could help?
http://www.dnr.sc.gov/marine/pub/seascience/jellyfi.html

 

[yote]

Thats an interesting article Tanked.

 

[Sharkie]

yea i'm feedin' my tank mysis... i've got out most of the jellies i can see and am gonna do more water changes today...


i haven't added any new sand, or rocks, but i've sucked out 100 of the lil turdbuckets.


everyone seems fine though, in fact my corals are looking amazing... strangely. lol... i'll have to post pics..

 

[tankedchemist]

maybe your corals are eating the jelly larvae. interesting.

 

[yote]

+1 Tanked.