Jellyfish in my Pico!

ameares8

www.mearesdesign.com
I walked into my office this morning and checked on my pico as usual. I do not have anything in it except for rock and a few weed corals that sprouted up out of nowhere. I have not done a water change on this tank just to see what would happen if I do not touch it. It does not evaporate water and the levels are all fine, so no need to touch it. Anyway, I found something swimming around so I removed the glass top. Come to find out that it is a jellyfish 1/8" x 1/8" or so big. It also has two tiny babys that swim along with it. I have seen TONS of pods and white stars in this tank, but never these jellies. I will try to get a pic later.
 
They are called hydroids. Often times overlooked but can be a pest for some people, especially when they become bigger and free floating. They're especially problematic with dwarf seahorse owners as they can sting.
 
I have never know a Hydroid to get to this size. I am not debating if you are right, just that i have never seen or heard of them being this large. Interesting to say the least. Oh, and I have no clue why it does not evaporate. This tank acts strange.
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LOL, Animal City in the boro has them too, maybe they would be interested. They always have weird stuff.
 
I have never know a Hydroid to get to this size. I am not debating if you are right, just that i have never seen or heard of them being this large. Interesting to say the least.

Yeah, they are pretty cool looking. There are a lot of different kinds of hydroids and individual types can also look different depending on which stage they are in. Medusa-like stages often occur when there are planktonic-prey items. Back when I was breeding/keeping clowns and dwarf seahorse, I use to feed a lot of bbs. I would see a lot of free-floating hydroids that look like miniature moon jellys that were about the size of a dime or nickel. They were very neat looking and would probably be awesome to try to isolate and keep them sometime.
 
I am in the process of breeding clowns and was told to watch out for hydroids. The brood pairs are on a different system without LR, so I have no worries of seeing hydroids pop up randomly.
 
Hydroids shouldn't be a problem with your broodstock. They are more problematic with larvae. But even then, there were times when there were rather large hydroids with smaller larval clowns. IIRC, of all of the clowns we produced, we've never really had a problem with hydroids.
 
Check out the wiki article on hydroids, the forms that they can take is pretty cool, especially the colonial "plant" stage.
 
HOW COOOOOOOOOOL!!!~ Are pico tanks only one gallon? Sorry...I'm a newbieee :) I would love to have one of those at work.. Are they very expensive and difficult to maintain?
 
Bubbles, picos are usually 5 gallons or less. They are more difficult to maintain, since you have less room for error. It is easier to get a 12 gallon nano and maintain it as opposed to a pico. Just my two cents.
 
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