I'm afraid I don't have a picture to show you guys (maybe this evening I can snap one) but one of my Otocinclus is being given a bit of a hard time by what I believe to be seed shrimp.
They've been in the tank for ages now, I've learnt to ignore them for the most part, but now a large group of them have attached themselves. I have 3 Otos in this tank and the others are fine, just this one is affected.
The fish itself doesn't look unwell, just seems stressed out by the attention of these bugs. Has anyone come across this before? I am aware that there is the possibility that these are not seed shrimp... :frown:
Regular water changes are carried out and this is a well established tank with no previous problems. Only other inhabitants are RCS.
They aren't scuds? They aren't afraid of fish that don't try to eat them, and I could imagine them picking at fish slime. A clearer picture might help identify them. Any other fish in the tank?
if they are clustering around objects, watch the spot they cluster at. i used to raise them for fish food by the millions, and every time i saw them cluster up, they would leave a little patch of eggs behind.
i have seen them cluster on fairy shrimp before, but not fish. i cant say that i could rule that out, however...
usually, when they clustered on a fairy shrimp, they ended up killing it. fairy shrimp are pretty delicate though...
i wasnt sure of the best way to culture them, so i set up a continuous culture while doing my normal batch cultures with the rest of them. in this video, you can see what the egg masses look like. at about 18 seconds, you can see a very large one on the front glass. the hornwort and the airstone is covered in them as well. http://s1242.photobucket.com/user/sjveck/media/IMG_0739.mp4.html
if you want to get rid of them, the only method i know of is biological control. a young nothobranchius killi will absolutely destroy them, but will also eat anything it can fit in its mouth...
i do not think it killed your fish. i dont think they are a problem, but if you want to get rid of them, i dont really know of any safe ways besides adding a fish that will eat them. not even high CO2 will kill them. i once even poured sparkling soda into their tank... they just went to the surface and waited it out.
i had plenty to experiment with...
i had a bunch of them in my tibee tank. I put one of my betta fry in there and all of them were gone in less than 24 hours. lol, he was soooooo full, i was afraid he was gonna get sick from being overfed, lol.
Hey auban, you have a lot of those seed shrimps haha. Mind sending me some?
Anyway, Duffmanj, sorry to see that your otto passed.. RIP to that little catfish.
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Related Threads
?
?
?
?
?
The Planted Tank Forum
3.5M posts
130.6K members
Since 2002
A forum community dedicated to Aquatic tank owners and enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about flora, fauna, health, housing, filters, care, classifieds, and more!