🌟 Exclusive Amazon Black Friday Deals 2024 🌟

Don’t miss out on the best deals of the season! Shop now 🎁

Sudden explosion of tiny bugs in aquarium

conorod

New Member
Joined
Mar 14, 2019
Messages
24
Reaction score
1
Not sure if this is the correct forum, apologies if not.
I was doing my weekly water change etc. today after a few days of not really doing much with the tank. When I took out the first jug of water from gravel vacuuming, I saw loads of tiny white/clear bugs (maybe a mm or so)?
After going back to the tank and looking I started to see lots of them - mainly on the dwarf sag, with a few on the glass. They are very small, relatively fast-moving and mostly on the plants and (it seems) the gravel - since lots of them came up when gravel vaccing too.

I assume they came in on the plants as the dwarf sag was planted recently and I did have a small few pest snails after that (But not an explosion of them). I'm not sure if it's relevant/related, but over the last 2-3 days the water did go slightly cloudy (like a mild bacterial bloom) and was crystal clear again today.

My main concern is whether they pose any risk to the other inhabitants of the tank (nerite snails, amano shrimp, neon tetra, plants), and then whether there is anything I can get to kill them that won't harm the fish/shrimp/snails? Or any other good way to get rid of them?

Due to their small size (and the fact I didn't think of it before the water change) it was hard to get a video/photo of any so I could only get one video which isn't great - you can see it for a few seconds scurrying off to the side. It's about halfway up between the nerite snail and the eggs above it. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oqZzc1W33oK9zG1OShg2ZxYJq7l0e3pN/view?usp=sharing
 
Ehmmmm i had the same and actually indeed are ostracod aka seed shrimps, i am very new as aquarist in fact is my very first...as the gentleman above said is nothing to worry about ...but only few informations is good to know...is index that the aquarium is clean...fishes are fine with them ...but behind this there are some scary parts...they reproduce sexually or asexually...adult stage between 3-10 days...every adult can leave 50-80 eggs...if the eggs are dried that means are out of the aquarium they hatch even after 20 years when they find the right condition !!!! the adults are radioactivity resistant and if the fishes are eating them they do have around 17% chances to come out from the rear still alive!!!! ...sorry i was reading some articles from some Universities and i hope that i remember everything , also even if you dismantle your aquarium and you start again from the beginning...there are chances that some eggs are attached to the seal...so they will be back. Some people think are sweet to watch as they are inoffensive however I didn't like them at all and i think are creepy creatures. They eat algae and debris ...and they like very much the filtration system...the one pictured in white colour are the adults...but you will be surprised when you clean the filter at the very bottom with a powerful torch if you see with a very attentive eye or magnifier as i did... very very tiny in black colour moving in a circular movement...those are the babies. Someone will think that i am mad which probably I am :) but what i did after reading that article and to avoid an infestation which will not take long trust me i did every single day water changing for around a month...cleaning the substrate on daily basis paying attention where the unwelcome guest was and with a syphon suck them out...i did clean only the bottom of the internal filter everyday getting rid of the babies and adults as much i could...possibly is also due to overfeeding the fishes...i also introduced 6 dwarf chain loaches which 2 of them i suddenly lost the very next day :( ...they look like shy fishes but they are very aggressive and very good scavengers...in 2 days i didn't have anymore snails!!! And to be honest i don't know why they call Bettas "fighting fish" when very often one of them is chasing the male Betta.... and i also introduced also 2 corydoras as dwellers...so...my advice is less feeding...getting rid of adults and babies...it sounds cruel i know...and cleaning...i was cleaning also the seals around and all over the aquarium one day one side the following day the other side and so on...now i can say that are still there...but in a very very low number...as soon my eyes don't see them flying around the water or on plants i am happy...also they don't like the lights on...as soon you turn them on...they tend to hide under the substrate...this was and is my experience with ostracods aka seed shrimps...hope it helps a bit...but again some people like them...
 

Most reactions

Back
Top