parasites? mites?

[docbree]

I have a 40 gallon mature tank with an albino bristlenose pleco, cories and guppies. Two weeks ago I purchased a tube of 3 "parasite and pest-free" aquatic plants from PetCo. I noticed the water was getting cloudy, and saw some strange, circular missing areas in the light algae film on one of the decorations (not like what I'm used to seeing from the pleco).

On closer inspection, the tank is infested with almost microscopic white "bugs" that are present in the thousands on every horizontal surface in the tank. They move slowly in an almost circular pattern, and some just stay still. It appears they can swim - there are several dozen doing that very quickly. Unfortunately, the fish do not seem interested in eating them.

What are these things? Are they harmful? How can I get rid of them. Never buying plants again

Please help

 

[himdie]

I believe those are just lil crustacean things like seed shrimp and etc they appear in all tanks honestly just some more than others they're harmless

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[mattcham]

Sorry to hear about your problem. Those petco PetSmart plants in gel substrate are grown using tissue culture in a laboratory environment and should not have any hitch hikers. Is there any other way those mites got into your tank?

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[docbree]

Sorry to hear about your problem. Those petco PetSmart plants in gel substrate are grown using tissue culture in a laboratory environment and should not have any hitch hikers. Is there any other way those mites got into your tank?

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That's a good point, mattcham. Now that I think about it, the same day I bought the plants, I also purchased a container of Omega One freeze dried brine shrimp. Think that could be the culprit?

 

[Fishperson]

Nope. Freeze dried things generally don't survive or reproduce. It must be something else. Almost sounds like ich! I'm sure it's not though.

 

[mattcham]

No, freeze dried cannot have hitchhikers either.

Ich does not crawl or swim in a visible manner.

It is possible you had the bugs 2 or 3 months ago but they didn't multiply to large quantities until now. If the fish are not sick maybe its OK to leave them alone. Not all bugs are parasites.

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[KimAnnKitz]

I have something like that in two of my tanks. If I touch them I find that they are in a shell or something because they crunch. I think I see some sort of tiny critter in the white shells and they do swim/crawl. I have been wondering what in the world they are and I did freak out when I first noticed them. They come out mostly and night and hide during the day. I took a couple of pictures but they are pretty hard to see. I have had them for months and the seem to be doing no harm. I would post the pics but I have to get the URL first. I will try to post them later. I would love to know what they are.

 

[Fresh2o]

Based on the description of movement, they sound like seed shrimp as himdie mentioned. I have them in my shrimp tank. They may have arrived with either fish or live plants. Though they are harmless, the large numbers may suggest an imbalance in the tank (akin to an explosion of a snail population in response to excessive feeding).

 

[Brookster123]

I like mysteries! Is it possible that you could have disturbed a colony under the substrate while planting your new plants?

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[KimAnnKitz]

This is a very close up picture of the critters that I have in my tank. It's probably the best pic that I have of them. I have other in my photo albums on here. They are very tiny. Not sure if the biggest of them is even an eighth of a inch long. Idk if we have the same infestation or not!

 

[Fresh2o]

This is a very close up picture of the critters that I have in my tank. It's probably the best pic that I have of them. I have other in my photo albums on here. They are very tiny. Not sure if the biggest of them is even an eighth of a inch long. Idk if we have the same infestation or not!

Those are freshwater limpets. Similar to snails in diet and behavior.

 

[KimAnnKitz]

Those are freshwater limpets. Similar to snails in diet and behavior.

Wow! Thank you so much for identifying them! I had not clue where to begin a search since I had no idea what they might even be I rinsed a lot of them off of some Java fern one day and greatly reduced their numbers. They aren't too bad now.