Zillions of white dots that move.

[The PITH Column]

Hey reef community!

So I went out for a few hours, and then came back to all these white dots all over, easy to see on the coraline, but there a bazillion of them, and they move! I'm thinking snails or hermits, but these things are fast.
I have 12 electric blue legs hermits, trocus snails, and an emerald crab. Not much for CUC.
Any ideas?

 

[Pistol]

probably copepods, a good thing, once you get some fish they will be gone

 

[The PITH Column]

probably copepods, a good thing, once you get some fish they will be gone

Where would they come from?

 

[Pistol]

Live rock

 

[Sasha T]

Any rock or coral skeleton from a marine system will have copepod eggs or adults on them. As Pistol said they're a good thing, free CUC since they eat micro algae, the smaller ones are eaten by coral, and most fish will eat them (mandarin gobies eat copepods exclusively unless they've been weened onto frozen food), and are part of a healthy system.

 

[The PITH Column]

Awesome! Thank you both. There are way less of them after the night, so hopefully they are able to hide away and breed a bit. I Mos def need some more biodiversity, so this makes me happy.