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what creature?

1K views 11 replies 5 participants last post by  Daisy Mae 
#1 · (Edited)
What is this? I could try to get a better picture, although it is hard.
The thing is very small ~2mm, looks like a shrimp, grey colored.
Have no idea how it got into my tank, probably with some plants.
thanks
 
#2 ·
Kind of hard to tell from the picture, but it looks like a scud (Grammus shrimp). Unless you have fish that will eat them you may have troubles. They eat moss and plants... And some types will even go after other shrimp. If you have fish to eat them and they aren't devouring your plants then they can be benificial.
 
#3 ·
Typically most of them won't eat your plants as they prefer easier meals.
The living plants are much harder for them to eat than dead parts of plants and any
trash on the bottom of the tank contains lots of it and any other substances they might
like. In a heavilly planted tank they can establish a colony fairly easy. Fish do pretty well
picking them off in tanks/w lesser amounts of plants/hide spaces.
They prefer dark over light so the fish usually miss them in the heavily plants tanks.
When a colony first gets estabilshed they tend to overpopulate at first because there was no other "things" eating what they now have for food and it built up.
Once that overpopulation happens and they consume the majority of the easily obtained food supply, then they will die off in numbers till the number of them which is left can sustain off of the regular amount of the food supply which becomes available daily. It's during that overpopulation time that they are likely to attack plants which
are doing poorly to begin/w. The poor health of a plant causes it to be softer so easier
for them to eat.
 
#4 · (Edited)
@Wilderman204 and @Raymond S.
thanks both for the answers. It is 5gl, low-tech tank, with guppies only, mostly fry and one adult pair. I must admit they look funny.
Looks like, I should not worry for now (?)
 
#8 ·
Yeah that really looks like a scud. They may start eating your plants, or just eat detritus and be benificial. Scuds are opportunistic, and eat almost anything organic. They will eat detritus, plants, shrimp, small fish, other scuds. There are many species that all look similar to the naked eye. Some are more voracious than others.
Unless you see signs of overpopulation or plants being eaten you should not worry.
Nice tank BTW!
 
#9 ·
@Wilderman204 thanks for confirming. I will let them stay for a while and see where we go from there. Before i had adult guppies in tank, and could not see many of these creatures (scuds), now, i keep only fry and a couple of very young guppies, and overfeed them, so scuds starting to appear more. Hope to keep them under control, and my plants will not get affected. It is a small 5 gl tank, so i can tear it down in no time if needed.
 
#11 ·
@Daisy Mae thanks. Started it as quarantine tank, converted to planted, with no fertilizers, just water changes about once a week. 1 ml of excel in the morning, while feeding. Things of course go much, much slower than in my high-tech (from the signature), but there is a beauty in that too.
 
#12 ·
I don't mind slow, it gets there eventually and usually with less hiccups.

It's like that four-second driving distance vs two seconds! More time to apply the brakes or any other corrective maneuver lol.
 
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