Bugs from driftwood...aahhh

[Todd2]

Now what....I got these little bugs, 1/2 a cm long with pinchers on there dark brown head. They have a light brown body and "twitch" to move. I pulled the wood from the creek in back of my house. I boiled it than soaked it in a bucked outside for 3 weeks. Guess I should of boiled it after I soaked it. I'm wondering how to get these things out. Should I just do a massive water change? I'm going to remove the driftwood so nothing bad happens again. I don't know if they eat plants or not. Can anybody ID these?

 

[RogerMcAllen]

Can you get any pictures?

 

[Todd2]

sorry no pictures Do you know if aquatic bugs are harmful to the tank or will they eat my plants. I removed 6 with my net but I saw 5 more.

 

[Billsgate]

I would boil your piece of wood again if i were you, and let it boil for a while just to be sure! I think this would be the most foul-proof solution! Boil the suckers to death....

Good luck!

 

[Todd2]

I think I'm just going to get a whole new piece of wood. I have to get a new heater (going to order it from TFP) so I mine as well get some new wood. The pieces at the LFS aren't that great. I'm just a little concerned about the bugs.

 

[fishmonger]

Won't the fish eat the bugs?

 

[amphibianboy528]

Where do you live..it depends on which place you live to identify the bugs.And also fishmonger it mainly depends on the species of bug.Some bug species are carnivorous and eat fish ect.

 

[millipede]

I wouldn't neccesarily get rid of the wood. If you introduced anything harmful, the harm has been done. It wouldn't hurt to take it out and boil it again but I wouldn't replace it.
I'm curious, 1/2 cm? Wouldn't it be hard to see pichers on something that small? It really is going to be hard to id something without a picture. I'm just guessing by that twitching motion that it's simply some sort of larva like from misquitos or something similar. It probably wasn't so much the woods fault. If the wood soaked in a bucket 'Outside' for three weeks then I'm guessing that's when these critters were introduced.
I wouldn't worry about them unless you either see them harming something in the tank or they seem to start multiplying. For now if they bother you just catch the ones you can. Hopefully someone else will chime in. I think Fruitbat and a few others are good at this kind of topic.