what are these bugs?

[exhumed07]

just noticed a bunch of these things on one of my zoo rocks, they are transparent white in color and about 1/16 to an 1/8 of an inch long and look similair to a centipeed or some kinda lice. I would take pics but there is no way my camera can get pics of them. so anyone have any idea what this is and if they are harmful?

 

[Newman]

not harmful. they are arthropods, or pods for short and they are simple detritivores and algae eaters. they are harmless. you may notice green ones among the transparent ones, those are just as harmless.

 

[exhumed07]

it's odd how they just suddenly popped up. I have done nothing with this tank for about 2 months and I closly examine the tank looking for new starfish every day and never seen them.

 

[Lotus]

It's fairly common to get "blooms" of all types of stuff in a tank. The population explodes, then tapers off.

 

[exhumed07]

this just seems to swing more rapidly then freshwater so it's catching me by suprise around every corner

 

[Newman]

lol yes you'll get TONs of surprises in SW. how many types of polychaetes have you discovered in your tank so far? I bet there are more than you think Some are very crazy looking so be on the lookout, especially at night (moonlight helps here)
there are so many phyla of invertebrates represented in a SW tank (most arriving on coral frags and live rock) that it's not even a laughing matter. some will be amazing, some will be harmful so watching the tank is always exciting haha.

 

[exhumed07]

I bought a featherduster worm but thats it. the live rock that was in the tank was pretty well dead. had no coraline algae or anything like that. they were just grey. everything that is in my tank right now are from hitch hikers on my corals I bought.