what was it???

[kmlong]

I was looking in my tank tonight just observing and i saw something that i did not put in there!!! It was about 5mm long and very thin. It didn't look anything like a fish. The last thing i put in was ghost shrimp and that was 2 days ago. Im assuming they lay eggs. Would that have been enough time to hatch? It was way too small to be a fish. Bacteria itself can't "hatch" anything can it? I cant even describe what it looked like. Maybe something like larvae but too developed. Anyone know what this was. i only saw one so far and it swam back into the gravel.

 

[millipede]

I'm not very good at figuring these things out, but I always love to read about them... There are so many things that could end up in a fish tank... anything from parasites to many differnt types of larva and nymphs... There are a few people here that are very good at identifying these types of things and I was hoping to have seen some sort of response by now... but in order to find out what it was, we'll probably need either a picture or at least a little more description... color, shape, how it swam or crawled... that sort of thing and any and every other detail you could come up with... was it smooth, did it have legs? Any details you could possibly think of would be extremely helpful... chances are it is something quite harmless but there is always the possibility of it being a parasite that could cause serious damage to your tank inhabitants... hiding in the gravel it may have been something like planera or something... those are harmless... let us know if there is anything you can think of and if you want to see it again I'd just sit and stare for a while... Depending on what it is there could be more of them and you may have to watch for a while but I'm sure you'll see it again... Oh yeah, just in case it is a parasite of some sort I'd watch the fins and gills and pretty much all over the fish to make sure there aren't any critters attached to them...

 

[youronlysin]

http://www.shrimpcrabsandcrayfish.co.uk/Shrimp.htm?GhostShrimp.htm~mainFrame

Ive had Ghost Shrimp lay eggs in the tank. I dont think they would be hatching in less than two days. Even if they did, the nauplii would be so small you would barely be able to see them, if at all.

The Pregnant females will display their eggs prominently....you can see them inside the shrimps opaque body. Most of the time the eggs or fry end up as food if you have other tank inhabitants. Once you notice a female with eggs, seperate her into another tank by herself, then remove her once she lays the eggs. thy nauplii will need to be fed extremely small foods in order to grow. Another possibility is that your ghost shrimp arent ghost shrimp at all, but another type of shrimp?? How big are the adults you have?

 

[TankGirl]

Definitely need more of a description - it could be some kind of insect larva. Did you see legs and a head?

 

[Endgame319]

I remeber someone here had a nematode thing in their ghost shrimp, and it had come out and was sitting on the bottom of the tank. Is the thing white? Then I would suspect a nematoad. If your sure its not eggs, it would be a good idea to remove it.

 

[TankGirl]

I had a very long (3.5" or so) white worm that came from a ghost shrimp, and madame_X has a famous picture of the worm still in the shrimp in her gallery.

This kind of thing gives me the creeps but from what I understand most gravel-dwelling non-fishy things are not really dangerous. I know I would not keep it in there!

 

[Lance M.]

It's not any ghost shrimp larvae. You can't hatch them in freshwater and the larvae will die even if you had added salt to the water, and 5mm would be too big. Everyone else is probably right about it being a parasite or something that hitchhiked into your tank. Anything seems to find a way into the tank.

 

[kmlong]

It was white, no legs that i could see, black eyes, swam very fast. It was kinda transparent. Looked like a very very small fish. But it was too small to be a fish i think. Only saw one and just that time. I've been staring ever since but im sure it's probly been sucked through the filter. The shrimp are ghost shrimp. I have six of them but think i should get more for a 20gal tank. Another quick question. Should i age my replacement water for water changes? I had a couple people tell me that they just add there water right to the tank from the faucet(city water at that) and then they dechlorinate it. When i do it, i siphon about 5 gals out into a bucket, try to get the water temp around the same with the new water, then dechlorinate it, then add it to the tank. thanks for the input

 

[Lance M.]

I have had 20 ghost shrimp in a ten gallon tank at times with no problems, so you can get plenty more for a 20 gallon. Remember they live a max of one year, that's y I have a catfish in my tank to eat the ones that die.

For water, It seems there are so many different opinions on how to do it that it's probably just your preference, just always have the dechlorinator.
I just get mine straight from the tap (my city's water quality is great for FW but has high phosphates so bad for SW corals) at a cooler temp than what's in my tank. It's never shocked my fish and it sort of helps stimulate them. And for all the fish I have, I always siphon 5 gallons out once a week. Haven't lost a fish in about a year. (just the shrimp)

 

[TankGirl]

There are tons of threads on water changes, and it is a hot topic for sure, but I will just say that it depends on the quality of your tap water as to whether you put it right in. I have water similar to Lance in that the quality is good in terms of heavy metals and low chlorine/chloramine but it has high phosphates so in my planted tank I use phosphate removing media in my filter, and still go ahead and use a python to fill all my tanks. In a perfect world aged water might be better, but I just don't have the time, space and muscle power to do that for all the tanks.

 

[kmlong]

Two questions. One, does anyone have anykind of pictures of the different things mentioned? Two, what is good to put in the tank besides shrimp. Will the shrimp or whatever other kind of "cleaning" animal i put in there add to the bioload like a fish does? As far as pictures, send them to kmdakota1@aol.com or post some links. thanks a ton. have not seen it since that night.

 

[kmlong]

It was definately not a nematode. I looked at pictures online of them and it is not that. I'm thinking more and more that this little critter might have been a baby danio. But it was soooooooo small!! I've got four leppard danios, 3 tetras, a gouramis, a beta. So it was colored like the danios. Are danio's live bearer's or do they lay eggs? Anyone got pictures of baby danios? I wish i would have taken it out of the tank when i saw it but he dissappeared and i have not seen it since. Poor guy!!