Mini water bugs????

[ShawnKC]

In my 40 gal. breeder tank which houses a pair of Blue crayfish I recently noticed tons of miniscule "things" swarming around. They are too small to see exactly what they are. They remind me of those flying gnats you see clustered above the grass in the summer time. The only thing I feed the crays is algae wafers, frozen beef heart and frozen blood worms. There are hundreds of these things "swimming' in clusters above the gravel but nowhere near the two filter intakes. I have a HOB filter on the right rated for 70 gallons and a Duetto 100 on the left and they stay well between the two. I haven't noticed the crays even acknowledging their presence but I don't know what the hell they are an I am concerned they may be harmful in some way. BTW, my pair has mated twice in the past month but no eggs have been seen yet. Any ideas, opinions or suggestions are welcome and appreciated.

 

[GodFan]

In my 40 gal. breeder tank which houses a pair of Blue crayfish I recently noticed tons of miniscule "things" swarming around. They are too small to see exactly what they are. They remind me of those flying gnats you see clustered above the grass in the summer time. The only thing I feed the crays is algae wafers, frozen beef heart and frozen blood worms. There are hundreds of these things "swimming' in clusters above the gravel but nowhere near the two filter intakes. I have a HOB filter on the right rated for 70 gallons and a Duetto 100 on the left and they stay well between the two. I haven't noticed the crays even acknowledging their presence but I don't know what the hell they are an I am concerned they may be harmful in some way. BTW, my pair has mated twice in the past month but no eggs have been seen yet. Any ideas, opinions or suggestions are welcome and appreciated.

Most likely just an almost microscopic invert of some kind.

 

[Hholly]

Do Crays have a larval stage? Babies maybe?

 

[ShawnKC]

I can't imagine where they may have come from, I haven't introduced anything new besides the food items I mentioned. These have just shown up within the past week or so and I have been using these same food items for months.They are definitely not cray babies, they don't crawl or land on plants or driftwood, they are swimming around in clusters, mainly close to the gravel bed. Some swim around closer to the top but I am stumped as to what they may be. I am thinking of adding a few tuffy feeder fish to see if they will eat them.

 

[GodFan]

I can't imagine where they may have come from, I haven't introduced anything new besides the food items I mentioned. These have just shown up within the past week or so and I have been using these same food items for months.They are definitely not cray babies, they don't crawl or land on plants or driftwood, they are swimming around in clusters, mainly close to the gravel bed. Some swim around closer to the top but I am stumped as to what they may be. I am thinking of adding a few tuffy feeder fish to see if they will eat them.

They do that. They just suddenly appear.

 

[ShawnKC]

Thanks for the info, should I be concerned? Now that I have had the pair mate twice I would hate to have to strip down the tank and restart, especially since the female has seemed to sequester herself and build herself a new cave that she hardly ever ventures from. She shows no signs of being berried yet, but if there is a chance that these things could be detrimental to the cray's health I will do what is needed to rectify the situation.

 

[Fresh2o]

Can you tell if they are round? Are they swimming in a smooth continuous pattern or is it jerky? I'm thinking seed shrimp (ostracods) or water fleas (daphnia), respectively. Perhaps they've been in the tank for a while and conditions were prime for a "bloom".

A baby brine shrimp net and microscope would be handy now.

 

[GodFan]

Thanks for the info, should I be concerned? Now that I have had the pair mate twice I would hate to have to strip down the tank and restart, especially since the female has seemed to sequester herself and build herself a new cave that she hardly ever ventures from. She shows no signs of being berried yet, but if there is a chance that these things could be detrimental to the cray's health I will do what is needed to rectify the situation.

No threat whatsoever. Try adding a feeder guppy. Will clean them out fast.

 

[ShawnKC]

They are barely visible I can't tell what particular shape they are. The just seem to be swimming around in a group. They don't swim like brine shrimp do, they seem to just float around. I wish I had access to a microscope.

 

[ShawnKC]

I've wanted to add a few feeder fish ever since my larger blue cray (in a separate tank) eventually ate the zebra danio that he shared his tank with for months.
He used to swim into the cray's cave with no sign of aggression and then one day he was in pieces and being gorged upon. I will pick up some feeder guppies this weekend. Thanks.

 

[GodFan]

I've wanted to add a few feeder fish ever since my larger blue cray (in a separate tank) eventually ate the zebra danio that he shared his tank with for months.
He used to swim into the cray's cave with no sign of aggression and then one day he was in pieces and being gorged upon. I will pick up some feeder guppies this weekend. Thanks.

No problem!