What's that bug? How to recognize them

[diwu13]

Originally Posted by niedogg

Hey everyone, I'm new here but have consulted this forum many times. Recently I have had a 5.5 gallon tank with CRS, plants, and a piece of driftwood. The shrimp have slowly died off and now I've noticed these small, white bugs. They crawl around on the substrate. They resemble a shrimp when they swim.

Anybody know what these creepy things are? Are they harmful?

Surprised no one got back to you yet. Might be too late but those are scuds. Generally harmless, but some species have larger claws and may prey on shrimp. Chances are, they out competed the shrimp for food, which killed them off.

[FlyingShawn]

Just bought some Hornwort at the local mega-LFS (TFP in Lancaster) and did a Potassium Permanganate dip to try to kill the snails that came along with it (I don't mind the tiny ramshorns, but I don't ever want to have MTS again!).

After removing the hornwort for rinsing (it's not in my tanks yet), I saved some of the water at the bottom of the bottle to observe the snails for a few hours and make sure they're actually dead before I move the hornwort into my tanks. After letting it sit for a while, I came back to see if any of them had moved (not yet) and discovered a critter I'd never seen before swimming around! I looked through this thread, but I haven't seen anything quite like it.

At first glance, you'd never be able to tell them from the other hornwort needles that fell off in the container: they're no more than 1/4" long, very slightly thicker than a hornwort needle, brownish-green, and their bodies stay perfectly straight when they swim (propelled by tiny, invisible legs). I tried to take a picture, but they're so small there's no visible detail. They are the two top-most "needles" in this picture below. Any ideas what they could be?



Oh, and BTW, finally made it to 100 posts!!

[KGsPFT]

Dang, been dosing No-Planaria for 3 days with no luck. I think this is what I have, but tough to tell with my cheap magnifying glass. Any ideas on how to kill?!?!

Originally Posted by ravensgate

I wanted to bring up another bug. I had a huge infestation of these things in my last tank and no matter how I described it everyone kept saying 'planaria' even though I KNEW it wasn't planaria. I search for a couple of months and couldn't find anything and wound up breaking down the tank and starting a new one. AFTER I did that, I was looking up another bug and FINALLY found what I had had in the last tank. It's called Rhabdocoela. I did a search in this thread and didn't find any matches so I'm going to guess it hadn't been brought up. These are flat, white worms but they lack the triangle head or eyes planaria has. They climb up the tank walls, go through the substrate, etc. So for those folks who have flat white worms and know they aren't planaria but don't know what they are, they could be these Here's a photo. If you do a Google search you'll hit a good thread on Shrimpnow that goes through the differences between them and planaria.

http://www.crustahunter.com/sites/de...jpg?1304201527

[diwu13]

Originally Posted by KGsPFT

Dang, been dosing No-Planaria for 3 days with no luck. I think this is what I have, but tough to tell with my cheap magnifying glass. Any ideas on how to kill?!?!

I believe these are a type of nemotodes as no-planaria/fenbendazole does not kill them. I have had these in my tank as well at one point, and I also dosed fenbendazole. Didn't work either. I just sucked a few out a day with a fine tipped syringe. The population eventually just went away.

[KGsPFT]

Originally Posted by diwu13

I believe these are a type of nemotodes as no-planaria/fenbendazole does not kill them. I have had these in my tank as well at one point, and I also dosed fenbendazole. Didn't work either. I just sucked a few out a day with a fine tipped syringe. The population eventually just went away.

Hmmm. The only thing I have in the tank are Oto's and plants. Tossed in an algae wafer before a 4 day trip and came back to this mess.

Have been planning to add a school of habrosus, but thought I'd wait until the outbreak cleared. Should I instead add the fish and hope they clear the outbreak, or is there something else I might try before adding fish. I'd rather not wait for them to go away on their own!

[Aquarist_Fist]

Can someone identify the critters in this picture? Note that there seem to be two species - the brown guys and the grey ones in the lower right part of the image.

They are very slow moving. Some kind of aphids? I have them on my floaters.

[Aquarist_Fist]

*cough*

[Boznia76]

I've been finding these small bugs in the buttom of my bucket after hoovering the gravel on my tropical fish tank, their really small so I've never been able to identify them before and found this thread a while back and just presumed they where copepods or daphnia, seed shrimp etc.... and didn't really worry but have just got a small microscope and managed to get a photo, it doesn't really look like anything I've seen in this post to me, I would appreciate any advice on what they are and how I get rid of them if I can...?

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

[trueblu8]

Originally Posted by spypet

here is an underwater picture of ianmason's dragonfly larva/pupa.
they probably come from aquatic plants grown outdoors.
you can manually remove or hope the fish will eat them.

Holy cow. So that's what I found in my Daphnia culture. It ate all of them.
Must've dropped in from a plant that was just above the water.
It really freaked me out. I didn't know what it was.
So what should I do now? Feed it?
I'm a little scared. Lol.

[iris]

Can this be made into a sticky?
I like referencing this occasionally.

[lotzodomo]

Are these nemotodes? I just set up a brand new 5 gallon tank with new aqua soil, new filter and new heater. I've put a few plants in there and have been letting the tank run without any fish or shrimp in it. After a few days though I noticed these worms wriggling around in the water, I've caught at least 20 of them by now. I'm almost positive they came from the plants, and I've contacted the seller/website where I bought the plants but they claim all their plants are worm-free... =( I thought these worms were only supposed to appear if there was an excess amount of food left in the substrate?

http://youtu.be/g1J45R1pgG8

[trueblu8]

Apparently you should just be able to add some guppy fry to take care of them. I noticed that you're in Chicago and I've got some if you need them.

There's also a thread about it here that might help you out.

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/sh...d.php?t=176935

[Wasserpest]

Originally Posted by Aquarist_Fist

Can someone identify the critters in this picture? Note that there seem to be two species - the brown guys and the grey ones in the lower right part of the image.

They are very slow moving. Some kind of aphids? I have them on my floaters.

Yes, these are aphids. Very variable in color, size, winged or not, etc. Good fish food, not good for plants.

Originally Posted by Aquarist_Fist

*cough*

Better now? Sorry for the delay.

Originally Posted by Boznia76

I've been finding these small bugs in the buttom of my bucket after hoovering the gravel on my tropical fish tank, their really small so I've never been able to identify them before and found this thread a while back and just presumed they where copepods or daphnia, seed shrimp etc.... and didn't really worry but have just got a small microscope and managed to get a photo, it doesn't really look like anything I've seen in this post to me, I would appreciate any advice on what they are and how I get rid of them if I can...?

Yes, they are seed shrimp/Ostracods. Really harmless.

Originally Posted by iris

Can this be made into a sticky?
I like referencing this occasionally.

This is part of the collective sticky in the Shrimp/Other forum: http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/sh...d.php?t=184517 Rather than having 12 stickies clogging up the forum, we collected them all into one super-sticky.

[whyviet]

This thread is super disgusting. It makes my worm and copepod infestation bearable.

[trueblu8]

Copepods are cool.