Small (30G) shrimp tank with about 10 red cherry shrimp. It is a fairly new setup.
At the first shrimp's release of eggs (not sure if just before or just after, they were hiding) I decided I had too course of a filter cover and replaced it. Four or five small shrimp eventually showed up, the rest may have gone out in the filter, or... anyway, four or five healthy babies.
Since then I think at least two releases of babies have occurred (I had originally 4 females and 1 male -- had two males, one died very early, I think from damage in transit).
Anyway... no more new shrimp. I know they aren't going into the filter, the only other thing in the tank are ramshorn snails (or so I thought), and those are all very tiny.
Yesterday I saw some very small creatures that look like planaria. Maybe. They are flat, fast crawling on the glass (very fast for their size). BUT they are very small, and seem to lack the arrow shaped head.
I've read that planaria are carnivorous, and variously that they can, and cannot harm shrimp.
Can anyone confirm what these are?
And if they might account for loss of babies RCS?
These are very high magnification. The snail in the first is a newly hatched ramshorn. As an estimate from the pixel dimensions I would say they are about 1.25mm long, and a quarter millimeter wide. Tiny.
Those are all the same creature by the way, in different degrees of stretched out. My size estimate was for the first, longest one. The bottom is probably half that length.
They are generally in one corner of the tank, a very unremarkable corner, and maybe half a dozen. I crushed a few before thinking that if really planaria I was making the situation worse.
I have seen none interacting with shrimp, seen none eating anything, but I hear that planaria can attack young shrimp and molting shrimp.
But lack of the arrow shaped head makes me wonder if these are something else?
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