[Little Soprano]

So my little thin white worms were eaten, but I dropped in shrimp pellets yesterday again, in order to keep the tank cycled, and I looked on my tank wall and there are copepods on the wall of the tank. A good amount of them, and I just did a water change two days ago too. Where on earth do they keep coming from?

I haven't added any plants in 3 weeks, but there are tiny little white dots, with a tiny tail and two little antennae just like the pictures. Is there anyway they were in the Eco Complete water when I bought the bag? I just don't get where they are coming from lol. I think these are SAFE, but there are tons of them :helpo I need to worry about these little things?

This tank has been getting 50% water changes, weekly, when the fish was in the tank I only fed once every other day 3 pieces of Koi food and that was it. For cycling I've just been adding 1-2 shrimp pellets and when they dissolve, I add in another.

 

[sbarbee54]

They lay eggs and reproduce easy. Before you put shrimp in throw a few tiger barbs in and dont feed them. they will decimate anything that moves in the tank

 

[Julianzh]

What so you do with the tiger barb afterward???

 

[Little Soprano]

I guess return them but I always hate doing that lol. I've been reading through the one thread and I don't think I had planaria. I have one rather thick worm but it doesn't have a triangle head or eyes, and then there are these worms that are about "__" long, and about that thin and thinner, and then copepods (which I don't really care about). The really thin worms and the thicker one (about twice the thickness of the __) is a bit quicker.

Would throwing in any sort of fish help? I have Black Skirt Tetras, Neons, and Danios I could put in..

 

[52149]

The Copepods if they look like tiny tiny air bubbles scattering around on the glad means a good biological bacteria system is going. If they are Copepods which I believe they are harmless to your new shrimp. The shrimp will actually eat the dead bodies because the Copepods life span is real short. Need not worry about them lil guys.

 

[Little Soprano]

The Copepods if they look like tiny tiny air bubbles scattering around on the glad means a good biological bacteria system is going. If they are Copepods which I believe they are harmless to your new shrimp. The shrimp will actually eat the dead bodies because the Copepods life span is real short. Need not worry about them lil guys.

I can see the little egg sack lines on some of them, if I put my finger on the glass they jump off, and most of the time I see the filter take them right in :hihi: I don't mind those guys for the most part.

 

[sbarbee54]

The bigger one sounds like a leech they are pinkish white and squiggle swim and can dig through the substrate like no other

Yes just return the tiger barb. I go buy 3 every tank I start, but I just throw them in my 90g tank when done. I like having tiger barbs they will eat anything let over and all little unwanted critters in the tank

 

[cjstl]

You'll probably never get rid of all the critters. Fish will eat them down to a level where you can't see them, but they can lay eggs on plants and in the substrate too. That's how they survive cold weather, dry periods, etc. Copepods, daphnia, seed shrimp all do it. So do planaria and nematodes. I've come to accept them as a fact of life in shrimp tanks. But I'll wait until my shrimplets are big enough to not get eaten and put a few guppy or endler fry in the tanks for a few days and let them reduce the numbers. I kind of like having one or two tanks with a heavy population because it keeps a good live food supply going.

I'm watching the nematodes squiggle around in my new 5G jar right now, thinking how delicious my endlers will find them in a few days

 

[sbarbee54]

No you leave some tiger barbs in there for a month and don't feed it for the first three weeks. Nothing will be in there and by that time all the adults that payed eggs will have bestroyed and the eggs will have hatched and been eatin up

 

[Little Soprano]

No you leave some tiger barbs in there for a month and don't feed it for the first three weeks. Nothing will be in there and by that time all the adults that payed eggs will have bestroyed and the eggs will have hatched and been eatin up

Yeah maybe I will just go for it. I caught the larger white thing and threw it in the big tank and it was devoured. I don't mind the copepods but the microscopic white worms although according to the one thread, are harmless too, they look ugly lol. Maybe I'll throw a zebra or three in and see if they don't eat the copepods and little worms.

 

[Betta132]

Put something in that should be easy to get out. I'd go with a danio.. They're thin enough to fit into a bottle trap no problem.

 

[randpost]

I use a catch pen to catch seed shrimp in my shrimp tank twice a week to feed my community fish tank. I like having them around and the catch pen keeps their population in check. Endless live food supply.