What is this

there appears to tiny dots everywhere in my aquarium, despite my efforts of water changes they won't go away, you can barley see them but they are little white specks everywhere in my tank

Tyler_Fishman said:

there appears to tiny dots everywhere in my aquarium, despite my efforts of water changes they won't go away, you can barley see them but they are little white specks everywhere in my tank

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Picture

My guess is they are fresh water limpet. They are more or less like tiny little snails that move very slowly and are perfectly harmless.

If your talking about the dot on the glass, that wasn't it it's the tiny particles all around the sword leaves. The tetras seem to be eating them, I have no idea what they are

Pic is a little too blurry for me to make these out but I would hazard a guess at two possible suspects -

Do these little dots move, circular and looks like has tiny wings on back and flicks about rather quickly?

If so, then it sounds like could be copepods, basically tiny little crustaceans. Fish will happy snack on these, pretty harmless really.

OR if they are like tiny little whitish worms, moves/wriggles fairly slowly?

Then likely to be a planarian type worms. Mostly harmless but there are some species that do a bit more harm than good to snails and shrimps. But again, most fish will happily eat these.

Ch4rlie said:

Pic is a little too blurry for me to make these out but I would hazard a guess at two possible suspects -

Do these little dots move, circular and looks like has tiny wings on back and flicks about rather quickly?

If so, then it sounds like could be copepods, basically tiny little crustaceans. Fish will happy snack on these, pretty harmless really.

OR if they are like tiny little whitish worms, moves/wriggles fairly slowly?

Then likely to be a planarian type worms. Mostly harmless but there are some species that do a bit more harm than good to snails and shrimps. But again, most fish will happily eat these.

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I've spotted planaria in my aquarium that's probably what the tetras are eating, the so called little copepods just seem to move around in circles not dash, they are so small I cannot describe them

Yes I certainly found planaria, most likely they hitched a ride on the ocelot sword I bought or the new sand, I should cut down on feeding

After some further research the planaria are harmless flatworms, however the small particles seem to be Protozoa, they are in fact living

Just to make a small point, restating what Ch4lie said. Not all Planaria are harmless. I know this from experience. And it's not just shrimp and snails that can be harmed. I had fish die as well. These things came in on floating plants. Now, it is possible there was another parasite to go with them....But I never had many problems until these things showed up. (I ended up putting my fish down because I hated seeing them die one by one. And I couldn't cope with them due to health problems at the time. I still have a two tanks up that have not been fed for over a month(barely any water in there, but needed it for a few plants.) And these things are STILL crawling all over the glass.

So..Just keep an eye on the fish. I wish you well with these things.