What Are These?

[theotheragentm]

I would take a picture, but I think it would do no good. What I am seeing in this tank is absolutely small. Imagine a white speck, the size of the eye of a newborn Platy fry.

It does have a shape, I think. It's long with two dots on one end, maybe like eyes?

They are on the glass. They might be in the substrate, but I can't see as well on the substrate. They move around like fleas, crawling and then jumping to different points on the glass.

If I had to guess, I'd say there are about twenty of them, but I have. I had Ghost Shrimp in this tank and I suspect it might be the offspring, but I don't know what their offspring look like. I don't know what else it could be.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

[zenkatydid]

i have had those before - i thought they looks like some sort of water flea.

 

[theotheragentm]

Yes, that's how I would describe them I suppose. Is there any positive identification for these?

 

[Devilishturtles]

Have you recently added any live plants? If so, likely some sort of insect larvae that hitched a ride. Never had them in my tank before, but to the best of my knowledge they are not parasitic and will die off soon. A gravel vac should help suck some of them out.

HTH

 

[theotheragentm]

I have some bamboo in there, and it's been there a while. I think they've always been there, but I've never seen them. If they're another food source for fry, I can live with that.

 

[DocOc]

I'm thinking they might be larval snails. I saw these a while back right before my pond snail population exploded.

 

[theotheragentm]

I'm thinking they might be larval snails. I saw these a while back right before my pond snail population exploded.

These things actually jump though. That makes me thing it's some sort of water bug or shrimp.

 

[Devilishturtles]

Okay, what about these?

http://www.aqualandpetsplus.com/Live Foods, Glass Worms.htm

Midge fly larvae

 

[theotheragentm]

Nope. They are completely white. These are longer than the things I am seeing.

 

[Devilishturtles]

Hmm. They are definitley some sort of insect larvae I would guess. Midge fly larvae are the most common.

 

[Fruitbat]

Well...considering the behavior and description I seriously doubt that you've got any sort of insect larva. Sounds to me that you're describing a population of very small crustaceans (similar to Daphnia, the water flea) called cladocerans. These are common in established aquariums but most people never notice them unless there is a population explosion and then they become very obvious. This usually occurs when there is a build-up of uneaten food in the substrate.

Fortunately, cladocerans are harmless to your fish and, though you'll never completely eliminate them (nor do you want to), you can knock the population back to a civilized level by doing a couple of good vacuumings of your substrate and cutting back on the level of feeding a bit.

-Joe

 

[Devilishturtles]

Thanks for your expertise Joe. Perhaps I shoud just stick to the sw side of things.