20 Gallon Tank Strange and unwanted creatures in new tank

[mothskip]

I set up a new 20 gallon about a month ago, and it's currently without any living creatures. Or, it was supposed to be, but today I realized that I have somehow collected some strange things.

First, there are these weird looking whiteish blobs on the side of the tank. My tank isn't that dirty, sure, maybe a scrub on the outside wouldn't hurt, but these are INSIDE the tank. They look unsightly, and I'm not sure what they are/if they're dangerous.

Next, and forgive me for this description, but there are these tiny, white shaped creatures that move around in a sort of jittery way. Not sure if my phone camera could properly pick them up.

There are also even smaller, white tadpole-looking creatures that move in the same way.

And finally, although I don't think my camera could pick them up at all, there are a bunch of white worm things on the sides of the tank as well. They're short and about the thinness of a strand of hair, maybe even smaller.

Some insight on this would be great, as I was planning on beginning to stock this tank in the next few weeks. I really don't want to dismantle everything but I will if I have to.

Are these harmless? How do I remove them? Will a pleco or snail eat them?

Thanks!

 

[BigManAquatics]

Look a lot like seed shrimp or something similar. Maybe a tad unsightly, but my fish do seem to like to chase and eat them sometines, haven't caused any issues in my tanks.

 

[mattgirl]

It is normal for new tanks to go through lots of small life living in them even though we haven't put them in there. Since this tank has been running for a month there has been lots of time to start seeing this tiny life. Most of it is perfectly harmless and will run their course and then will be gone.

There is no need at all to tear the tank down and start over. I suspect if you did so they would just show up again. Let them run their course. Fish and snails may enjoy the the live food.

 

[SotaAquatics]

Out of curiosity, have you put Bacter AE in your tank at all?

If I get a little heavy handed with Bacter AE on my shrimp tanks, I find a flourishing community of little micro organisms like you currently have. They are getting some sort of fine particulate food into the water column from some source.

 

[StarGirl]

They sound a lot like copepods. The bouncies and worms. They come and go. They are totally harmless. Do some extra cleaning and dont feed a lot and they will eventually go away. They wont hurt a thing.

The white blobs may be zoothamnium.

 

[Lekstil]

I agree with everyone else: nothing to worry about.

But just to try to identify them for fun:

"whiteish blobs on the side of the tank" - No idea. Maybe some sort of colonies of something like bacteria or a mold?

"white shaped creatures that move around in a sort of jittery way" - That sounds a lot like daphnia, even though I couldn't see them in any of your pictures. I don't think any of them are seed shrimps (what BigManAquatics said). Seed shrimps don't move in a jittery way.

"even smaller, white tadpole-looking creatures" (a lot of them are on your second picture) - definitely copepods! The tadpole shaped thing is the actual animals, the two balls that are hanging off of it are it's egg sacs.

"white worm things on the sides of the tank as well" - Are they really on the glas, or are they swimming? If they're really on the glas and also moving on the glas, that would probably be planaria, but from your pictures it doesn't look like that. I have a lot of these tiny white worms in my aquarium that are hovering mid-water most of the time, that I think are nematodes.