Little bit of backstory: I have two 5g tanks, both planted, both with a betta and a few shrimp. I had spoken to my boyfriend a little while back about possibly getting a piece of driftwood for one of the tanks, but because that month had been crazy I forgot about it. Cue about two weeks ago when I come home from work to find a nice piece of driftwood in that tank... with everything outdoorsy still attached. Apparently when he went for a run around the lake he found it and thought of me. It was a nice thought, but... he didn't do anything to clean it up or sterilize it. I took it out as soon as I saw it and it's been sitting on the side until I can scrub it down and boil it. I didn't see anything adverse in the tank for about a week, but then we had a huge heat wave here in San Diego and one of my tanks had some serious algae. That's when I noticed these things showing up practically overnight.
Now I have a conundrum and I'm about at my wits end.
Does anyone have any idea what these are? They're very small. Are they juvenile zebra mussels? He said he got the wood from a nearby lake we frequent and I remember seeing a sign warning about them. I know they reproduce crazy fast, but these don't seem very bivalve. When I look at them on the side of the tank they even have tiny mouths like my snails. If not zebra mussels, what are they? I've searched the internet over a couple of days looking up different things pertaining to juvenile mussels or invertebrates but have drawn a blank. I'm wondering if I can salvage this or if I need to nuke the tank from orbit and restart from the ground up. Bleh. Anything would be appreciated. Thanks for reading.
Now I have a conundrum and I'm about at my wits end.
Does anyone have any idea what these are? They're very small. Are they juvenile zebra mussels? He said he got the wood from a nearby lake we frequent and I remember seeing a sign warning about them. I know they reproduce crazy fast, but these don't seem very bivalve. When I look at them on the side of the tank they even have tiny mouths like my snails. If not zebra mussels, what are they? I've searched the internet over a couple of days looking up different things pertaining to juvenile mussels or invertebrates but have drawn a blank. I'm wondering if I can salvage this or if I need to nuke the tank from orbit and restart from the ground up. Bleh. Anything would be appreciated. Thanks for reading.
