# What are these creatures breeding in my tank?



## Matts_Cichlids (Jul 29, 2007)

Hi,

I've just noticed this big patch of brown stuff laying on the bottom of my Cichlid tank and on closer inspection I could see hundreds of tiny creatures crawling around on the sand and the rocks. They are too small to get a clear close up photo of them but I took a couple pics to show you what I'm talking about.

Can anyone tell me what they are and how to get rid of them? More importantly are they harmful to my fish and do I need to remove the fish from the tank?

Its a 6x2 tank which is home to only one Venustus, a Pseudotropheus, 3 Red Jewels and 2 algae eaters. They're all adults and no new fish have been introduced to the tank in the last 2 years.

Any advice will be much appreciated.

Cheers

Matt


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## SEAN420 (Nov 24, 2011)

What do you feed your fish? I have no expert experience in this.. but if you feed them anything live like ghost shrimps or anything of the sorts.. could be offspring? no idea.. other than that.. i wish u the best of luck on it... and if u notice its only in that area.. maybe u can scroop them out some how...maybe suck them out with a hose n syphon approach.. best of luck


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## Matts_Cichlids (Jul 29, 2007)

Thanks for the reply. From the research I've done I think they might be Ostracoda or seed shrimp because that's what they look like from what I can see. I occasionally feed brine shrimp but other than that I mainly feed flakes and pellets. 
My lfs is sending someone out to have a look and they will also do a tank clean and tell me what else I will need to do. I'll post up more info after I've spoken to them.

Cheers


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## skurj (Oct 30, 2011)

it shouldn't but this thread givin me the willies.....


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## Matts_Cichlids (Jul 29, 2007)

skurj said:


> it shouldn't but this thread givin me the willies.....


Your not the only one and upon closer inspection it's even worse than I thought :?. Regardless of weather these things are harmless or not I'm going to place my fish in another tank and then drain out my main tank and clean everything because these little creatures creep me out.

I got a better camera and I also got a magnifying glass to see these things better. It was very interesting to look at the tank through the magnifying glass, I saw other things that I couldn't see normally and it looks like the water is infested with a few different creatures. One looks like Daphnia or something similar and is attached to the glass and the other some tiny worm thing. Don't worry I got some half decent pics of everything to show you all just in case your not creeped out enough yet lol.

First off is some closeups of what I think are seed shrimp? Hopefully someone can confirm that from these pics. Click on the pic to see them in full size.




























I think you can see its eye in this pic










Congregating on the rocks


















This is the thing attached to the glass










This is some worm like creature (Planaria, flatworms maybe?)



















This one was the best shot I could get of a very thin white worm that could hardly be seen by the naked eye. I only saw one of these.










I guess this is what happens when you let someone else look after your tank and you only see it once a month. Now I better go get started on setting up the other tank  .


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## SEAN420 (Nov 24, 2011)

ill tell you one thing, if u have big enough fish.. switch to ghost shrimp if anything.. brine are so tiny... second... seems u have sand bottom.. so i dont know how going about cleaning that works. but what is your water levels at? nitrate ammonia etc.. hope you get it fixed


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## 13razorbackfan (Sep 28, 2011)

opcorn:


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## BelieveInBlue (Jul 17, 2011)

Those things are probably some kind of freshwater copepod or amphipod; they're crustaceans, and are most likely harmless. The white thing could be hydra, which again are harmless, although they could harm fry. The flat worm could be a planarian, or it could be something else all together. However, if it hasn't latched onto your fish by now, it's probably harmless. Same goes with the roundworm (nematode). All those things are probably a sign of overfeeding. Stick to a good staple pellet like Hikari or NLS, and supplement with some fresh veggies (zucchini, cucumber, romain lettuce, etc). Most of those fish are herbivorous, and though they'll readily accept meats, it's not the best for them. The pellets will contain all the protein and carbs they'll need, so supplementing with frozen/live foods is excessive, and most likely pointless. I don't think you need to tear down the tank; just feed a good pellet food and some veggies, and don't over feed, and those inverts should disappear on their own.

PS: unless you're breeding your own, NEVER feed live fish/shrimp; they're a great way to give your fish a nasty parasite.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

BelieveInBlue said:


> I don't think you need to tear down the tank; just feed a good pellet food and some veggies, and don't over feed, and those inverts should disappear on their own.


And vacuum to get rid of most of them initially. :thumb:


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## lucid_eye (Apr 12, 2009)

if they aren't attacking the fish, and aren''t fouling the water..... I don't know if I would be too worried about getting rid of them, again just my opinion, not a scientific opinion in any way.


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## Matts_Cichlids (Jul 29, 2007)

Thanks for the replies, I was worried they would harm my fish but your comments helped reassure me that I didn't need to go to the extreme of tearing down the tank. I haven't fed the fish for a few days and it looks like they're doing a good job hunting them all down because I couldn't see many of them left. When I went over to check the tank today it looked like the fish have been very busy moving all of the sand around and clearing it away from around the rocks. In some areas they've completely cleared all the sand away exposing the glass at the bottom.

LOL I might be starting to like having these uninvited guests in there because the tank has become much more active again with the fish sifting though the sand and moving it around everywhere. There hasn't been this much digging or sand moving since I had my old Johanni in there. He was constantly redecorating the tank and it was interesting to come home and see all the work he'd done during the day. I swear that fish had OCD :lol:.

Thanks again to those who replied :thumb:. I'll post an update in a week or so but hopefully it continues to improve.

I'd searched google and found this link which helped me to identify what they were. I thought I'd post it up in case anyone else is ever needing to identify aquarium bugs - *Bugs you might encounter in your aquarium*


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## lucid_eye (Apr 12, 2009)

cool thanks for the link I actually want some of these in my tank as food/interesting critter. Especially the Bryozoa, moss animals.


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## aquariam (Feb 11, 2010)

None of this is harmful to the fish you seem to have an explosion of a small crustacean which I believe I too have had. Having reasonable numbers of these is actually good as they will handle micro particles. I had this same animal you have in lesser numbers about 8 years ago. For about a year. Nothing bad happened. They died out eventually for reasons un known.. Gradually eaten away by corys perhaps. I don't know where it came from. Eggs in frozen food? A rock? A plant? I don't know. You have the biggest explosion of them I've ever seen. Thin them out with a vaccuum. They're good food if you have a bare tank of growouts or something. You will not 100% eliminate them but I wouldn't want to . The other stuff is microworms etc. Again, just nature at work. None of this will hurt your fish. Biodiversity is your friend if it is benign. I like things like microworms and algae and those little critters. No danger. Thin em out and move on with life :thumb: :thumb:


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## Totalimmortal363 (Jan 10, 2008)

Leave em.

In the reef world we live for this stuff, new things just popping up out of nowhere.


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## Sparrk (Oct 11, 2010)

well that topic was quite interesting I've learned a lot!!


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## londonloco (Mar 31, 2011)

"This thing attached to the glass" looks like a freshwater limpet to me.....


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## suds1421 (Jan 4, 2011)

If you were in the US I'd be asking you if you would send them to me for the cost of shipping. I don't think I want them all the way from Australia 

I regularly seed a separate 10 gallon tank with various creatures I find in friends tanks. Whenever I do I wait 6 weeks to make sure any nasties die out.

Its a 10 gallon that I throw old fish food in, algae samples from other's tanks and any neat life I can find. I feed the algae to some of my algae loving fish and I always throw some in my fry keepers for them to hide in and pick the microscopic life out of...


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