I have creatures!

[silverdollar]

I was doing a 50% water change on my 20 gallon tank today and when I looked in the bucket that the water was draining into I noticed dozens of things darting around. Upon closer observation there must have been at least a hundred or so of them in the water. They're greyish white in color and they dart through the water rather quickly. I caught one and it crawled and skipped around on my hand.

What the heck are these things?? They seem to be living in my gravel.

 

[crimsontsavo]

Daphnia?

 

[reg2k2]

Could be planaria...do they look like worms?

 

[Mogo]

When they dart around, does it look like their kind of hopping around? When they move, do the move in short spurts? How big are they? If this sounds like what you have they are probably copepods, free living crustaceans. They can range in size from microscopic up to 4mm in length. Most of them are quite transparent.

If what you have is a little larger and kind of looks like an insect, it is probably Asellus, another free living crustacean. They range in colour from a pale yellowish beige colour, or gray. Typical size for an adult is about 1cm.

Both are harmless to fish, they are not parasitic, but a large population can cause your water quality to deteriorate. Also large populations usually signify a high organic load, and you should probably cut back on feeding a bit, and make sure you are cleaning the gravel more thoroughly.

 

[silverdollar]

That sounds like what I have Mogo. They range in size from barely visible to almost half a centimeter and they shoot around in short spurts. I havn't cleaned the gravel for almost 4 months so I'm sure I have a large population of them.

 

[Feline]

May b they'll b a nick snack for ur fishies!!

 

[Mogo]

I would say you probably have copepods then. Time to give the gravel a good vacuuming. Here is a photo I took of one under the microscope. And as Feline said, most fish will snack on them, but if the population is large, you probably want to rectify it.

 

[AllusiveLife]

How do you get those in your tank, I want some. They look like the ghost shrimp I have in there right now.

 

[Feline]

The one Mogo has is small (n it's a shell), found it inside the goo in the filter. Probably u n me hav those as well, just that we dont see them with our naked eyes... but i think they look funny too!

Edit: or i shud say cute!

 

[silverdollar]

Thats what I have! Good pics! Yeah I thought they were some kind of shrimp or something.

I had a bunch of live plants in the tank a few months ago then my silver dollars ate them. They must have been intoduced into the tank from being on the plants.

Thanks a lot for the info Mogo.

 

[Mogo]

I would think most tanks have them. They get into our tanks via live foods, plants and sometimes they hang on to fish temporarily and are brought in on new fish. As Feline said, they usually like to hang out in the filter goo, as they feed on organic gunk and like areas where food is plentiful.

Oh by the way Feline, I'll get to that slide tomorrow, the past few days have just been kind of hectic, seems like there's always so much to do, and not enough time I think your diagnosis is correct from the quick peek I took, but I think it may be one of the last larval stages.

 

[Feline]

Hey Mogo! So they'll tranform into another shape later on? That's so cool! N take ur time on the slides! There's always not enough time for me as well, i need at least 48 hours a day! so that's y i always stay up so late!

 

[Mogo]

Yep, they change shape from the larval stages to the adult. The one above is the 2nd last adult stage.

I'm growing some algae on a piece of driftwood in my Nic tank, should make for a good sample. I'll give it a nice scrape tomorrow and see if I can get something new.

I think if we had 48 hour days, we would just find more things to do

No problem Silverdollar