What are this little rod-like things!?

[WendyWestfalia]

I'm doing a fish-less cycle for a new 6G planted freshwater tank. It's not fully cycled yet, ammonia is still through the roof and just starting to get nitrite & nitrate readings. Does have full spectrum lighting, airstone on sometimes, co2 injected very rarely b/c I don't have any measurement tools and don't wanna hurt my invertebrate buddies (5 shrimp & 1 small rabbit snail), has some plants, driftwood & controso freshwater aquarium substrate. Has been cycling for about 15 days & currently has a huge algae bloom going on...

BUT

these brown and beige rod-shaped..things.. have started just randomly appearing on my driftwood and some other decorations. They don't move... but there are more every few days. They aren't evenly distributed around the tank but mostly clustered on the rock and driftwood...

what are they!? (see attached)

 

[Aiken Drum]

It looks like fish poop, but you dont have any fish. Maybe shrimp/snail poop?

Could i ask how you are doing a fishless cycle without killing the shrimp and snails? What are you bringing the ammonia up to?

 

[WendyWestfalia]

Honestly, I'm fairly new to fish keeping and I preemptively added the shrimp/snail. They have made do with the current water conditions but I'm sure they're not comfortable. At this point there's not much for me to do though. I'm not sure I believe these things to be poop because they seem very concentrated in specific areas and not spread around the tank.

 

[Aiken Drum]

Poop will gather where the flow sends it.

Do you know what your ammonia is at? Your description of "off the roof" makes me think it could be at harmful levels and carrying on with a fishless cycle isnt the right thing to do.

 

[WendyWestfalia]

Please don't laugh at my enthusiastic note to myself about the bacteria

 

[WendyWestfalia]

The other reason I'm leaning away from poop is that in some areas the rods are beige in color (all the ones on the driftwood) but in other spots, it's uniformly brown (on the rock). If it were poop just collecting based on water flow I feel like I'd see a more even distribution of color in both areas?

 

[Aiken Drum]

Please don't laugh at my enthusiastic note to myself about the bacteria

Those water parameters are extremely harmful to the shrimp and snails living in there. You should really be doing big water changes to get them safe and switching to a fish in (or shrimp in) cycle.

 

[WendyWestfalia]

yes, I'm aware the parameters are harmful, I'm working on correcting them. I specifically am trying to get info on the particulates in the photos though.

 

[TUCCI]

I'm doing a fish-less cycle for a new 6G planted freshwater tank. It's not fully cycled yet, ammonia is still through the roof and just starting to get nitrite & nitrate readings. Does have full spectrum lighting, airstone on sometimes, co2 injected very rarely b/c I don't have any measurement tools and don't wanna hurt my invertebrate buddies (5 shrimp & 1 small rabbit snail), has some plants, driftwood & controso freshwater aquarium substrate. Has been cycling for about 15 days & currently has a huge algae bloom going on...

BUT

these brown and beige rod-shaped..things.. have started just randomly appearing on my driftwood and some other decorations. They don't move... but there are more every few days. They aren't evenly distributed around the tank but mostly clustered on the rock and driftwood...

what are they!? (see attached)

I’ve seen those before in my freshwater tanks, I think they were called Copapods….they never got on my Oscar but I really didn’t like them in my tank. What type of treatments have you used to eradicate them. Wonder if a dosage of copper would work? Perhaps a dose of Melafix? Would turning the heat up help with eradicating it? What’s the consensus?