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Unknown Hitchhiker In My Tank

jack1

jack1

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Hi, having problems with a hitchhiker in my tank - been trying Sterazin over the last 6 days but not working sofar - recommended by my LFS but they where unable to identify the little critters from the photo below
 
 
Still confused as to what these are but the numbers are growing in my tank again - goes down when I do my weekly water change and clean
 
They are oval shaped - white see through
Any advice would be much appreciated
Thanks
Jack
 
121.jpg
 
Sorry a few questions to assist...
Do they move?
Has anything changed in the tank recently e.g. new plants or fish?
Do you have any snails?
What fish do you have?
What did your LFS think it was to recommend Sterazin?
 
Thanks - no probs
 
 
RCA said:
Sorry a few questions to assist...
Do they move? - they look like small see through leeches - yes they move
 
Has anything changed in the tank recently e.g. new plants or fish? no new fish or plants
 
Do you have any snails? - no snails
 
What fish do you have? - only various tetras and 2 pearl gouramis
 
What did your LFS think it was to recommend Sterazin? - they were unable to identify hitchhiker and recommended trying this
 
they also come out more at night and seem high in numbers then their number reduces when the light comes on
Click to expand...
Thanks
 
Thanks for your answers.

The hardest part is identifying them...

I used to have something similar in one of my tanks and spent ages looking at them with a magnifying glass to try and see what they were.
As I have Assassin Snails I wondered if they were newly hatched Assassin Snails?
I also have live plants so wondered if something came in on them?
I also thought it may have been a form of algae?
I found they eventually went away, they may have grown into Assassin Snails, or the Assassin Snails ate whatever they were?  
I do now however now have a blue-green algae on a piece of bogwood, which is not really an alage but a form of bacteria called Cyanobacteria.

This is a good article to assist http://www.planetinverts.com/what_is_that_bug_in_my_aquarium.html

Possibly...

Acroloxus lacustris - Freshwater Limpet?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMr09BPI5zk
I believe Assassin Snails would eat these.

Other questions:
How long has your tank been running?
How long have the plants been in there?
How often do you feed?
You do weekly water changes, how much?
 
They will be feeding on something so feed less, clean more, can sometimes help.

Anyone else any ideas?
 
Can't really see any detail but my guess would be a freshwater limpet. I get heaps of them in my tanks until I add fish, then they seem to disappear. Harmless little critter that could've been lurking in the tank for a while. 
 
That's iit - freshwater limpet - many thanks for helping me out
smile.png

 
RCA said:
Thanks for your answers.

The hardest part is identifying them...

I used to have something similar in one of my tanks and spent ages looking at them with a magnifying glass to try and see what they were.
As I have Assassin Snails I wondered if they were newly hatched Assassin Snails?
I also have live plants so wondered if something came in on them?
I also thought it may have been a form of algae?
I found they eventually went away, they may have grown into Assassin Snails, or the Assassin Snails ate whatever they were?  
I do now however now have a blue-green algae on a piece of bogwood, which is not really an alage but a form of bacteria called Cyanobacteria.

This is a good article to assist http://www.planetinverts.com/what_is_that_bug_in_my_aquarium.html

Possibly...

Acroloxus lacustris - Freshwater Limpet?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMr09BPI5zk
I believe Assassin Snails would eat these.

Other questions:
How long has your tank been running? - since December 2012
How long have the plants been in there? - December
How often do you feed? small amount twice a day
You do weekly water changes, how much? - 20% per week
 
They will be feeding on something so feed less, clean more, can sometimes help. cheers for the advice
smile.png


Anyone else any ideas?
Click to expand...

That's the little critters - limpet - any solutions available to buy on how to get rid of them completly?
 
Great now we know what we are dealing with.  Your tank is still fairly new and if I remember rightly mine was a fairly new aquarium when I first saw these.  As I said previously mine eventually disappeared.  I have Assassin Snails and they were breeding (slowly I might add, as they do) at the time and I understand that baby assassin snails eat limpets.  I believe they will eventually go away on their own accord and do not do any damage, in fact it appears the opposite.  I would stop the treatment your LFS recommended to you, if you are happy with Assassin Snails get a couple, then be prepared for little Assassins in time.
 
Thanks for the advice - much appreciated
 
Not really a fan of snails - would there be any other method of removal or another fish that would like to eat them - read that maybe yo yo loach will feast on them
 
Cheers
Jack
 
Interesting to find this thread - I think I am suffering with a plague of these fresh water limpets at the moment! And I mean a plague.....I think they came in on a plant from a LFS a while back.
 
I have 6 assassin snails who aren't touching them. They appear all over my glass, and tend to commune on a leaf of a anubias nana plant, and I believe these little shelled creatures are also anialating my thinner leaved plants.
 
How can I get rid of them? I have had them for ages and their numbers are just getting larger and larger. I can't use any snail treatment as I have shrimp in my tank and glass cat fish.
 
They are tiny and don't look like classic snail shells (kind of more domed shells with a little black dot in them), but they do move quite a lot I have noticed.
 
I am going to *try* and get a image of one tomorrow using a microscope at work.....
 
Sorry to hear you've got the same problem - I hope I can find a solution to this problem because they are spreading in my tank like wildfire :)

 
Interesting to find this thread - I think I am suffering with a plague of these fresh water limpets at the moment! And I mean a plague.....I think they came in on a plant from a LFS a while back.
 
I have 6 assassin snails who aren't touching them. They appear all over my glass, and tend to commune on a leaf of a anubias nana plant, and I believe these little shelled creatures are also anialating my thinner leaved plants.
 
How can I get rid of them? I have had them for ages and their numbers are just getting larger and larger. I can't use any snail treatment as I have shrimp in my tank and glass cat fish.
 
They are tiny and don't look like classic snail shells (kind of more domed shells with a little black dot in them), but they do move quite a lot I have noticed.
 
I am going to *try* and get a image of one tomorrow using a microscope at work.....
 
I tried attracting them with Lettuce last night (as they like to stick to my thicker leaved plants). They didn't fall for it.
 
I now want to use napalm :(
 
I am seriously looking at setting up a temp second tank so that I can treat the first tank chemically (literally a last resort). I can't even physically remove the buggers because they are that small.
 
But, am going to stick some of them under a microscope this morning to confirm they are limpets (am 99% certain they are).
 
Balraj - fancy loaning me a loach?!
 
Sorry to hear your resorting to those desperate measures - I'm considering buying a few yo yo loaches to deal with these critters
 
Confirmed limpets!
 
I thought these images  might interest you guys - unfortunately I couldn't use the microscope attached to a computer, so I had to use the crude method of taking a picture down the eyepiece with a phone camera lol
 
The images are of the same limpet, one with a light background and one with a dark background - I looked at 5 limpets in total and they were all similar in appearance.
 
I've ordered some "no planaria" to treat my tank with  - others have said this works and won't harm my shrimp (but I'll have to remove my good snails temporarily)
 
limpet dark.jpglimpet ligh.jpg
 
Looks like limpet - same as me - will look at the no planaria solution as well - where are you buying it?
 
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