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Hydra? Or... Not hydra? (SOLVED: Freshwater Colonial Bryozoan)


QueenCanAbyss

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Hey sorry it’s my first post here. If this isn’t in the right place please just move it for me. 

We’ve had an Orange Cherry Shrimp tank setup for a few months now and it’s been going extremely well so far. The only new thing that we introduced to the tank was some Drift Wood and Java Moss about two months ago and a brand new Indian Almond Leaf a month ago. So we’re not sure how this could’ve gotten introduced into the tank as we have a bunch of baby shrimplets right now that spend all day inside of the Java moss and Drift wood, and are completely fine. Whereas if that was where they originated from we would have expected that, that would be where most of them were and the Shrimplets have been going fine and the numbers haven’t been decreasing whatsoever. In the past week we’ve noticed these new things in our tank. They kind of look like Hydra but there are a few things about them that are kind of confusing to us. While they look like they have the same base as a Hydra, it doesn’t look like they have the same tentacles that we see in 90% of the Hydra we see online. It more so, looks as though they have feathery feelers. Secondly, like we said earlier, none of our baby shrimp (that are around 1-2mm each) have been dying and seem to be growing healthily and fast. We actually often see them hanging around this part of the tank and while never actually right in it or next to what we’ve found, they obviously, so far haven’t been hurt by it. And thirdly, probably the most confusing thing to us, is that we saw one of the adult cherry shrimp stand on it like it was nothing and proceed to start eating them, followed several seconds later by another adult and then they swam off. During this time, these things didn’t seem to lash out, they seemed to retract their feathery things back inside their tube/ stem/ base which is attached to the gravel. Their “tendrils” reminds us of Riffile shrimp more than anything else, and aside from the fact that we have no idea how they could’ve gotten here, this whole ordeal is very confusing for us as we are relatively new to keeping freshwater shrimp (also lastly if it helps, they all seem to be coming out of a singular root or something? That  is spread across and attached to 2-3 pieces of gravel). So what should we do in this situation? should we observe closely, treat or some other course of action? Thanks in advance. We really appreciate any advice you could give us. 

(Will attach photo very soon, just have to finish some things up before I can get to a computer.)

Edited by QueenCanAbyss
Grammatical Errors, and extra info
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Never seen a hydra with feathery tentacles. A picture would probably help us.

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So sorry it took so long for me to get around to this, and sorry that this is the best my camera could pick up, it's an old phone and it's a bit further back into my tank.
(I did have a top down view to upload too but sadly it won't let me)

feathery stuff.PNG

Edited by QueenCanAbyss
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A little update, I just saw a baby shrimplet walk next to them and brush up against them, they retracted their feathery tentacles back into their bodies, and the shrimplet didn't move away or even flinch. Starting to think it might not be hydra.

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Hi sorry for blipping on to your thread but I saw something similar on this forum in another thread the other day. yours remind me of these ones .... could be totally wrong and probably am .....  but look highly similar in shape.

 

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24 minutes ago, DizzyBlue said:

Hi sorry for blipping on to your thread but I saw something similar on this forum in another thread the other day. yours remind me of these ones .... could be totally wrong and probably am .....  but look highly similar in shape.

 

You're an absolute legend. Definitely. Slightly different in base colour as the root-colony thing is brown on mine, causing me to initially mistake it for an old/rotting dwarf hair grass root, and it's root is attatched to the gravel all the way across rather than free floating. But they're definitely at least the same kind of creature. Thank you so much, I was beginning to think I would never find an answer.I'm going to try propagating them into my guppy and endler fry tanks then to clean up any leftover particulate as I feed powder food. Thank you so much.

I just did some reading up and I didn't know freshwater ones would be so rare, let alone for mine and grub's to be completely different.

Edited by QueenCanAbyss
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I'm a newbie please get one of the experienced peeps on here to confirm or find the exact species It was just the shape formation that looked so very very similar to me having been reading the other post and thinking ooo they look way cool! I would hate it if you did the wrong thing and risked any of your "pets" just because I thought something looked similar.  

Edited by DizzyBlue
missing word - fat fingers!!
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I've seen a lot of other pictures online and there are a few that are pretty much exact matches par coloration. I don't think it'd be possible to find the EXACT species from what I'm seeing online. There are many. and probably many undocumented ones too.

I think it's safe to say that's definitely what it is, but I'll check with my shrimp breeder who's been in the hobby for a very long time (who is also a judge at competitions) to see if he can get a positive ID for me/see if he's encountered it before. I think if anyone here knew what it was they would have already said so. (Unless they hadn't seen the thread of course)
So I'll check to put you at ease, but That's definitely it.

Edited by QueenCanAbyss
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Cristatella mucedo? they have brown stems look like a likely candidate? 

I originally debated keeping a coral tank and then thought about clams and ended up with a shrimp tank .... hence looking at so many different things and going oooo errrr hmmm all the time!  ? if I had a brain cell I WOULD be dangerous! ?

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Look exactly the same but once again one small difference, a completely different growing pattern. Perplexing. 
Unless mine just haven't developed enough to establish enough of a proper pattern yet.
I'll feed with some powdered fry food tonight and see how it ends up growing over the next few days. But it's definitely already grown overnight without me trying to feed them, so hopefully this can speed up the process for a better look. 

Edit: I think they might actually be in the genus Fredericella as they don't have the U shaped lophophore. and that is the only known genus of freshwater with a circular lophophore.

Edited by QueenCanAbyss
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Need to now go read up on these too. They look fascinating.

I am way too impulsive and I would want to grow a tank of them if I could and attach one of those sheets that you can get errr not entirely sure what they call them but they are like a square magnifying glass but in plastic sheet format on the side of the tank - my step-dad he's 80 and has one for map reading. I have borrowed it once or twice to view some of my smaller members of my tank. 

 

If you narrow it down or figure out how you came by it please do let me know :)

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