Critters on live rock?

rob28

New member
I bought a few peices of live rock at the LFS to cycle my tank,im pretty sure the cycles almost done.Amonia 0,nitrite .1,nitrate 50,phoshate .25.But these critters kinda look like tiny Crickets,Almost clear or real light beigh colour...Im sure there good things?Food for fish once i add fish?
Supposed to get 50 lbs of rock this week...:)
I cycled with 2 cocktail shrimp..All my levels did spike..
 
Have a pic? It's most likely some form of copepod. They're pretty common, a good source of fish food, and a sign of things progressing well.
 
Yup...THat they are...Thanks..LFS comfirmed it...Showed me them in his tanks...There so small i would have never noticed them at the LFS but at home i sit looking at these 2 lonely rocks...LOL
This weekend 50- 60Lbs of rock comming.... :) :rollface:
 
yeah its amazing what you see when you watch for a long time, every once and a while i see a pink nudi, no one beleives me tho because they havent seen it :D
 
Yah, I have worms of some sort in the tank. I can always find their paths they dig next to the glass, but I never see the worm itself.
 
The little "crickets" that crawl around are amphipods. As stated, small crustaceans that scavenge for detritus. THey are related to the isopods you find under old logs in the woods. Copepods are microscopic swimming crustaceans. Sometimes you will see them swimming in a swarm in the corners of a well established tank, but as they are plankton you will have to look hard.
 
To find the worms, find a flashlight and put a blue or red film on it so the light doesnt scare them. But use it at night a couple hours after the lights go out.

You will see a whole different tank at night than in the daytime.
 
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