little flecks of sand/ air bubbles SWIMMING!

[wwinters]

OK, I went to feed my tank this evening and turned off all the power heads, skimmer etc. while I was waiting for the hermits to finish up I noticed a lot of little air bubbles/ specks of dust moving to top of the tank. when I looked closer they were actually swimming but what could the be?

They are white about the size of a grain of sand and swimming. There are a few hundred of them, and the other animals don't seem to care to eat them.

.

The animals in the tank
7 or so snails
8 or so hermit crabs
pair of perc. clowns
1 goby
1 urchin
3 bristle worms
button polyps
mushroom rock
a few sponges
1 peppermint shrimp
Thanks
Wendy

[ November 07, 2001: Message edited by: wwinters ]</p>

 

[wwinters]

Unfortunately they are too small for me to get a picture of and by this morning most of them were gone.

I am more curious about what is spawning in my tank than worried that they may harm it.

I do also have 1 peppermint shrimp

Could they be from my clown fish?

I thought that with such a short list of posible parents in the tank that someone might be able to tell me who is having babies.
My 5 yr. old wants to know who the proud parents are.

Thanks

 

[wwinters]

sorry I some how posted twice

[ November 07, 2001: Message edited by: wwinters ]</p>

 

[Super Len]

Although you have a short list of species you've purposely introduced, there are several hundred species of flora and fauna in your tank. That's why it's impossible to ascertain what those floating organisms were. Could be your A.perculas (although you should've noticed a unmistakable and closely guarded egg deposit prior). Could be the pelegic meroplankton of worms reproducing. Could be copepods, amphipods, isopods, mysis, etc. Snails, hermits, et al ... they're all possibilities. I think you can appreciate how difficult it is to ID undescript plankton

I'm not sure what to tell your son. You probably don't want to tell him all those babies are probably in someone else's belly at this point.

You're a mother; I'm sure you can think of something

[ November 07, 2001: Message edited by: Leonard v2.01b ]</p>

 

[Super Len]

Hard to say. Could literally be one of a thousand species (ranging from permanent zooplankton to meroplankton). The only way to ID (and it most likely just be an approximation) these critters is if you had pix of them.

Personally, I wouldn't worry about them if all the other inhabitants look healthy.