Small "broom-like" things ahnging on glass??????

[bgraber]

Yes, these tiny organisms seemed to have populated my 20gal. setup. They look like they are attached to the glass with a TINY stalk-like thing and then the tops look lie a broom waving in the current. They could also be likened to a dandelion seed. THe ones that blow in the wind when they mature. SOme people call them "wishes". What are these things? I just noticed my nitrite lvl was a tad high.. Did a 45% water change and added a little aquarium salt.. Help!
*edit: 2 of my loaches have a little ich too so I turned the tank up to bout 80 degrees and added 1 tbl spoon of salt per 5 gallons as the box told me too..

 

[Mogo]

Sounds to me like you have hydra's or a peritrichia colony (peritrichia is a sessile stalked ciliate). I would probably guess hydra as you probably wouldn't be able to see the peritrichia with the naked eye, unless you have a HUGE colony, and then I still don't know if that's possible. Salt at the solution you have won't do anything for ridding them. I would check the organic load and maybe reduce feeding, as both of these things thrive under these conditions, and since you say the nitrites we're high.

 

[bgraber]

Yeah I was definitely overfeeding.. "but the bottle says..." yeah. Yeah i was gonna say Hydra after some investigation, but I dont really see too many "tentacles". It looks more like the peritrichia bu I can definitely see em on the glass.. THat seems to be the only place they are.. I think they look like Tube worms with no stalk(cant see it) and a pretty complete top.. Are hydras definitely "tentacle" looking and lager in size? Do they cling to the glass? And i dont think these things are big enough to eat any live food like fry or anything else.
http/images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=hom...-8%26oe%3DUTF-8
This is pretty much what they look like only I can't see the stalks and they look white-ish.. Some a little jagged *Almost to look like tentacles but...

 

[Mogo]

Hmmm...the only thing is the maximum size of peritrichs is 2-3mm. At that size I would doubt that you would be able to see much detail with the naked eye. Hydra's can be very small (not visible to the naked eye) or large. Another possibility is a rotifer, they have a ciliated corona and have little toes that they use to attach to substrate, rocks, glass etc., only problem is they rarely reach more than 1mm in length. I do have photos of a couple of different rotifers posted up:

Rotifer pics

What is the size of these things? I'll pull out my textbooks this afternoon and see if I can come up with anything else.

 

[bgraber]

Not rotifers.. I'm thinking the peritrichs. They aren't any bigger than a mm or so.. I have very good vision so I can see them pretty well.. Still like I said I can't see any stalks but they are definitely attached to the glass by something and just waving in the current.. I can't see them attached to anything else. http/images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=hom...-8%26oe%3DUTF-8
is basically what they look like. I can't tell the magnification on that image but what I have are just barely visible..

*edit P.S, I appreciate the help here.. The guy at the LFS said they were some kind of worm(didn't know name) and were most likely a result of my overfeeding.. How big are Hydra?

 

[bgraber]

*bump

 

[Mogo]

I don't have any images of my own of hydra's, but they can be anywhere from just under 1mm up to about 2cm. I do have a couple images of peritrichia, these are under 400x magnification, but appear just slightly larger than they would under that magnification as I used the zoom on my camera to get a better image. You would have to have super power eyes if you could make out the ciliature around the top of the bell, as it's pretty much invisible under a 50x magnification.

Vorticella

 

[bgraber]

Well I think thats what they are. They definitely have the bell-like thingy on the top and I cant really see the ciliate on the top but some of the bells may look frayed. These aren't harmful right? I don't see any on the fish. Yeah i can't even see the stalk let alone the ciliate.. It just looks like a bunch of the bells attached to the glass and "blowing in the wind"...

 

[Lateral Line]

>>>
The guy at the LFS said they were some kind of worm(didn't know name) and were most likely a result of my overfeeding..
<<<

He probably means Planarian Worms, which are a flat worm and completely unlike what you are describing.

 

[bgraber]

peritrichs are technically worms too tho right?