Baby Bugs?

[Lorraine1983]

My mollys just given birth yesterday and are kept in a BIO tank. I found these ladybird like creatures in the tank. Two counted so far. When I caame on here i notice you have fish lice etc and panicing now!

I had a nasty large cat fish and i took the fish out the tank cos of his agression towards the other fish.. for 24 hours he was kept in the bio tank so I am wondering whether its eggs he laid in there, which has hatched? Maybe that would of explained the agression.

Or

I recently bought live plants for the bio tank... Could ths be sme sort of plant eating creature. I have taken pictures but you cant make anything out from them - sorry! I can give you a terrible description though lol It is the size of a small ladybird; on the glass it looks like a snail (permantly stuck to the glass an moving around) with antlers and a tail, sort of browny colour; the shell/coating on its back is a sort of see through colour but looks a bit spotty - black.

I am new to tropical fish, so could this be fish lice, baby cat fish or a plant eating bug? Or ANYTHING ELSE

 

[WILDER]

Fish lice will look disc shaped with legs.



Argulus (a.k.a. Fish Lice)



Symptoms:

Infected fish will have flattened, disc-shaped crustaceans measuring between 0.4 and 1.2 cm in diameter. These parasites may be visible anywhere on the body of the fish, including the eyes, gills and fins.



Cause:

The parasitic crustacean Argulus (a.k.a. Fish Lice). Argulus adhere to the flesh by means of sucker-type discs. Once attached, the parasite pierces the flesh using stinger mouthparts and will suck the blood of the fish. Argulus inject a toxin that will kill smaller fish and leaves reddened, inflamed lesions on larger fish. This lesion often becomes infected. The intense irritation brought on by the Argulus parasite causes fish to rub or scrape against objects in the aquarium. Your fish may even try to jump out of the aquarium. Once the parasite has finished feeding it will swim freely in search of a new host and can survive for up to 3 weeks without a host.



Treatment:

Visible Lice should first be killed by dabbing them with Potassium Permanganate or an anti-parasitic medication. Then, they should be carefully removed from the fish using tweezers. It is paramount that you kill the parasite before attempting to remove it from the fish. It will make it easier to remove and less stressful to the fish. It is a good idea to then dab Methylene Blue on the lesions to prevent secondary infections. It is recommended that you feed your fish medicated food to prevent a bacterial infection from occurring. The whole aquarium will need to be treated to kill any unseen, free-swimming juvenile parasites. Fluke Tabs, Clout, Paragon, and Trifon work great.

 

[Lorraine1983]

Fish lice will look disc shaped with legs.



Argulus (a.k.a. Fish Lice)



Symptoms:

Infected fish will have flattened, disc-shaped crustaceans measuring between 0.4 and 1.2 cm in diameter. These parasites may be visible anywhere on the body of the fish, including the eyes, gills and fins.



Cause:

The parasitic crustacean Argulus (a.k.a. Fish Lice). Argulus adhere to the flesh by means of sucker-type discs. Once attached, the parasite pierces the flesh using stinger mouthparts and will suck the blood of the fish. Argulus inject a toxin that will kill smaller fish and leaves reddened, inflamed lesions on larger fish. This lesion often becomes infected. The intense irritation brought on by the Argulus parasite causes fish to rub or scrape against objects in the aquarium. Your fish may even try to jump out of the aquarium. Once the parasite has finished feeding it will swim freely in search of a new host and can survive for up to 3 weeks without a host.



Treatment:

Visible Lice should first be killed by dabbing them with Potassium Permanganate or an anti-parasitic medication. Then, they should be carefully removed from the fish using tweezers. It is paramount that you kill the parasite before attempting to remove it from the fish. It will make it easier to remove and less stressful to the fish. It is a good idea to then dab Methylene Blue on the lesions to prevent secondary infections. It is recommended that you feed your fish medicated food to prevent a bacterial infection from occurring. The whole aquarium will need to be treated to kill any unseen, free-swimming juvenile parasites. Fluke Tabs, Clout, Paragon, and Trifon work great.

this is definitely not fish lice then as the bug thing is stuck to the glass.. And has no lice but thats great for future knowledge..

 

[Mr Spoon]

Sounds like a small snail to me. If it is, nothing to worry about, is it slow moving?

 

[Lorraine1983]

Sounds like a small snail to me. If it is, nothing to worry about, is it slow moving?

yeah it moves quite slow.. dont understand how it got there unless its from the plants? They were bought from pets @ home after all lol Is it harmful to the fish if it is?

 

[loraxchick]

sounds like snails. totally not harmful at all and actually do a nice job of keeping your glass and plants clean. they are very frequent hitchhikers.

 

[KieranP]

Definatley Common Snails from that description, you generally get them when you buy live plants from anywhere. their completely harmless and get rid of loads of algae, although they do reproduce so quick you'll have loads soon. but as people have said they are harmless and if anything generally beneficial for your tank.