Feather Duster?

So my tank is up and running for about 2 months. There are a lot of these white insects(assuming they are Amphipod or copepods) crawing for my rocks,glass, and even my snails.... Now this morning I just realized that I have two tiny feather duster on my rock? Where do they come from? Everything I bought was all dry materials (Rock+Sand). Should I keep them or remove them?

 

This link will be of assist when you can not get an image:

Live Rock Hitch Hikers

 

The little dusters are fine, and what you have on your tank panels are more than likely either copepods or Munnid isopods. Amphipods are usually found on the substrate or on the rockwork.

Copepod



Ostracod



Munnid isopod (male)



Gammarid amphipod

 

Cool!

Reef on!

 

Probably hitch hiked in on some live rock.

 

that's interesting that you have them when you started with everything dry. Congrats on some having some good life in the tank!

 

You didn't seed with any live sand or rock? I am pretty sure I didn't have any pods in my tank until after I had added live sand, now those little buggers are everywhere. I could be wrong though, but the live rock I seeded with was in my tank a lot longer than anything else and didn't see much until lately.

 

Isnt Nature AMAZING???? You think that everything in your tank is DEAD, then all of the sudden, there is life!!!!

 

I have learned over the years to appreciate nature and its reziliance. Yes you can let Aptasia, etc. take over, but I just bleached everything in my tank at the first of the year, and re-started my tank with no new adds that could bring in hitchhikers, yet, I have had diatoms, and now GHA. Where did it come from? Crazy, if you look at it that way.