Small critters ID please

[Rowena]

Hi, after vacuuming the sandbed some white tiny critters settled on the glass. Prior to the vacuuming there was only copepods. 

 

The first one is slightly bigger than a copepod and is of a different shape. The second stringy one I think might be a spionid worm but not sure. Its about 2 mm  long

 

Any ideas? 

[mcarroll]

First one looks like a chunk of bristle worm or asterina starfish.

 

Not sure on the second one...your guess sounds good to me. 😉 

[Rowena]

3 hours ago, mcarroll said:

First one looks like a chunk of bristle worm or asterina starfish.

 

Not sure on the second one...your guess sounds good to me. 😉 

i actually think the first one might be flatworm….or hopefully its not bristle worms (i know they are good but i have mental problem with them

[mcarroll]

32 minutes ago, Rowena said:

i actually think the first one might be flatworm….or hopefully its not bristle worms (i know they are good but i have mental problem with them

Does it help just to think of bristleworms as fuzzy earthworms?   Cuz that's what they are.  🙂

 

Grr...I tried to take a photo of "partial" asterinas in my tank for comparison, but for some reason my phone's camera won't focus at all with the macro lens on.  Gotta love "high tech".  It's the greatest oxymoron going.  Camera phones seem to get worse and worse all the time in spite of all the hype they get....doesn't help that they take such absolute cr*p tank pics to begin with.  My regular Gen2 point-and-shoot digicam from the year 2000 was WAY better....wish it still worked, but it finally crapped out a few years ago.

 

So anyway...

 

Take my word for it (since I have no choice) and know there are some Asterina pieces in my tank that look A LOT like your first photo.  For what it's worth... 😉 

 

The sides/edges of whatever is in your first pic look "rough" or serrated – is that a photo artifact, or is that how it looks in person as well?  This is a pretty typical starfish feature, but would pretty strange for a flatworm.  

[Rowena]

33 minutes ago, mcarroll said:

Does it help just to think of bristleworms as fuzzy earthworms?   Cuz that's what they are.  🙂

 

Grr...I tried to take a photo of "partial" asterinas in my tank for comparison, but for some reason my phone's camera won't focus at all with the macro lens on.  Gotta love "high tech".  It's the greatest oxymoron going.  Camera phones seem to get worse and worse all the time in spite of all the hype they get....doesn't help that they take such absolute cr*p tank pics to begin with.  My regular Gen2 point-and-shoot digicam from the year 2000 was WAY better....wish it still worked, but it finally crapped out a few years ago.

 

So anyway...

 

Take my word for it (since I have no choice) and know there are some Asterina pieces in my tank that look A LOT like your first photo.  For what it's worth... 😉 

 

The sides/edges of whatever is in your first pic look "rough" or serrated – is that a photo artifact, or is that how it looks in person as well?  This is a pretty typical starfish feature, but would pretty strange for a flatworm.  

lolll anything resembles a worm would get me a heart attack and earth worm type of looking is among the worst for me. But yea i took pic of multiple and all are the same shape. but when i was taking the pictures, I saw the two sides kinda splash like “fly” gestures. not sure if that’s something a starfish would do

[mcarroll]

Hm....any chance you can capture this action in a video and post it?

[Rowena]

41 minutes ago, mcarroll said:

Hm....any chance you can capture this action in a video and post it?

i might try it again tonight. they aren’t moving atm and the shape feels different now 🤯

[Ohmegg]

2 hours ago, Rowena said:

lolll anything resembles a worm would get me a heart attack and earth worm type of looking is among the worst for me. But yea i took pic of multiple and all are the same shape. but when i was taking the pictures, I saw the two sides kinda splash like “fly” gestures. not sure if that’s something a starfish would do

Same here. I have strict "no worms" policy in my tank.