Small bugs swarming in my tank

[Kangur]

Hi,

I have a small (6 Gal) freshwater tank with several tetras and guppies. Set it up about year ago. No problems.

Several weeks ago I have noticed appearance of very small bugs in my tank. They look like small beige-colored grains of sands, floating in the water, covering my shells and swarming in the gravel. I have no idea were they came from. I do not have plants or snails, just fish, gravel, some shells and plastic ornaments. Right now may aquarium is swarming with, almost clouds of these things - thousands, tiny, round. They do not seem to harm the fish and fish seems uninterested in them.

Several days ago I treated water with Coppersafe from Mardel. Suppose to kill bugs and parasites. The only change I noticed after the treatment is that these little guys are thriving and seem to be much more of them now.

Any ideas? What is this? How to kill it?

 

[Allivymar]

Not sure exactly what kind of bugs they might be without a pic. Could be dragonfly, mosquito, midge larvae but those usually don't hang out on the substrate; they tend to remain on the water surface.

Take a look here: http://userpages.umbc.edu/~rrhudy1/insect.htm and the links as well. Robyn lists a ton of diff bugs you might find in your tank. And if you can get us a closeup pic, someone here may be able to ID it.

 

[Kangur]

Allivymar,

Thanks for your reply.
I could not find my bugs in the pages you referred me to. I took a digital photo of these small bugs - attached. They are seen here on a shell with a paper staple in view so their tiny size can be appreciated.

They number in thousands in swarm in water, on shells and in the gravel.

How do I, safely for fish, kill them?

 

[Allivymar]

Wow. I'm at a loss here.

They LOOK like daphnia, at least from the distance of the pic. However, fish usually inhale daphnia, and I would guess coppersafe would have some effect.

Very strange. Hopefully someone else will jump in with some better ideas.

 

[Kangur]

Interesting thought on daphnia.
Of course I jumped on it and searched Web for more info. Unfortunately, it seems that it is not daphnia. First - daphnia has very characteristic antennae (at least on pictures) which I do not see on my bugs. Granted, my bugs are so tiny that it is difficult to see anything
But I also read that daphnia moves in a jerky fashion - kind of hops - hence it is sometimes called "water flea". My guys, on the other hand, move in a very smooth way - just scurry around.

Any other suggestions? Anybody?

 

[vega]

not sure wat is it but if is it ok with u to get another more 'hungry' comunity fish like ram?

 

[jviehweg]

Take a close look at the "bugs". They may in fact be small flat worms. I had an infestation of them once in my tank. They reproduced like mad in the gravel, were small and white but my fish loved eating them. I was never able to get rid of them. They's settle to the bottom in between cleanings and they only went away when I dumped out the tank and bleached it out. They didn't really do any harm though either.

 

[pecita25]

I have something like what you described in my tank and found your post on a search. Did you ever figure out what it was? I can't seem to figure out what is in my tank either. Any help appreciated.

 

[millipede]

Well, I might as well reply to this one as well... it's really too bad the original poster hasn't posted in sooooo long. Having fish and a decent camera(great pics is what I"m saying) it would have been nice to hear more from them... I had something similar, though I couldn't zoom in so nicely so I couldn't say for sure, andmine eventually just vanished from the tank. I never figured out for sure, though I am guessing some sort of pod something, what they were but they left my fish alone. They seemed to eat decaying plant matter and whatever other "stuff" they found in the gravel which is probably why they seemed more numerous in the original posters gravel as well... who knows for sure I guess...