Little Anthropods. Friend Or Foe?

[simonero]

Hello y'all!
 
I am not really sure where they came from, but one of my tank has a lotttttt of little anthropods.  I noticed them during a water change a while back and haven't worried about it, and have been sharing them with my other tank for eco-diversity and for a food source.  This is based on the fact my roommate who is a marine biologist said that they are good and that my bumblebee goby will eat them.  However, it just occurred to me that I should check his intel with you guys!  Should I let them live in my tank/filters, will my goby and/or angels (or BGK, apple snails, or columbian shark cat) eat them, or should I eradicate them when I do water changes?  There are lotsa them.
 
Thanks!

 

[fm1978]

There's a few different kinds of things they could be...the ones I keep finding are copepods (cyclops) and I think they're very common. If they look like they have a large head end and small tail end that's probably what they are. 
 
And yes, you're biologist friend is right that they're harmless and will be eaten by any or all of your fish. If you don't like them in there you could try straining the water with some cloth until their numbers start to reduce and your fish pick off the rest.

 

[sawickib]

Hi a little unrelated but how big is the size of your tank?

 

[simonero]

There's a few different kinds of things they could be...the ones I keep finding are copepods (cyclops) and I think they're very common. If they look like they have a large head end and small tail end that's probably what they are. 
 
And yes, you're biologist friend is right that they're harmless and will be eaten by any or all of your fish. If you don't like them in there you could try straining the water with some cloth until their numbers start to reduce and your fish pick off the rest.

 
Mine are something different, but cool!  That's great to know.  I don't mind at all, and like the idea of biodiversity, just wanted to make sure it's good for my tank.  =)  I'll continue to share them with my bigger tank.
 
To the other person - the tank with the sudden explosion of anthropod population is a 10gal.  I have apple snails in there so I'm guessing there's a lot of literal crap for them to thrive off of..

 

[sawickib]

Sorry for the bad new but I hope you have a larger tank of about 129+ gallons for the BGK and as well as the catfish, both of these fish get 12+" long and the catfish requires brackish to full marine in adulthood making it not very suitable for your tank mates as BGK have very little salt tolerance. If you would like to just keep the catfish you could grow it up and get maybe a freshwater snowflake eel or two for it to live with and maybe some archer and pineapple fish would look really nice aswell you just need a big tank.