Hello From Pennsylvania

[kittycook]

Hi, I'm new here but I've been keeping fish for years as a hobby.  One of the main reasons that I joined here was after all my searching online, I can't find a way to get rid of Ostracods from my freshwater tropical aquarium.....they won't stop multiplying and my neon tetras, cory catfish and beta won't eat them. I don't overfeed them, I keep live plants in my tank, the water is clear and healthy, and I'm out of ideas. 
 
Any help would really be appreciated.
 
Thanks

 

[ncguppy830]

welcome to the forum!
as for your problem are you sure your water is clear, they usally only appear when theres high ammonia.

 

[EllieJellyEllie]

Welcome!

 

[kittycook]

NCguppy, I just tested the ammonia levels just now since you mentioned it and the reading from my master kit is 0.50 ppm.  Do you suggest that perhaps I should do a 20% water change?

 

[ncguppy830]

well water changes cant hurt so i dont see why not.

 

[Blondielovesfish]

Welcome to the forum.

With 0.5ppm, do a bigger waterchange to try and get it down to 0ppm. This should hopefully help with the Ostracods.

 

[kittycook]

I will start off with doing a 25% water change on Monday.  I just bought a few swordtails two hours ago as I saw online that they might eat them and so far, they have been eating them like candy.    I didn't want to risk doing a partial water change tonight because I didn't want to stress the new fish. 

 

[MrsEspoNYC7]

Hi and welcome to the forum. I'm happy your swordtails are helping. Pics? We love pics here lol

 

[kittycook]

I will definely posts pics tonight.  I pulled out my camera and the batteries died so I am recharging them right now.  So hopefully in an hour I post pics of the aquarium that has the ostracod proplem and then I'll post pics of my 29 gal tank with my yellow African Cichlid.......he's too mean to have other cichilds in there with him but ironically he gets along fine with my bala shark and two rosey barbs.  I've had him for two years now.
 
Tomorrow I have to set up my 20 gal long tank in my son's room because since I added the swordtails to my tank that is in my bedroom just to get rid of the ostracods, I am over my one tropical fish per gallon rule by six fish.  I'm very strict with this rule.  The tank in my room is 15 gallons, my neons and beta loves it. 
 
So I will set up this 20 gal long tank tomorrow and after I let it cycle for two weeks, I can move the swordtails there because they love to swim in long tanks.  A happy fish is a healthy fish. 

 

[kittycook]

Here are the pics I took of my 15 gallon tank with the ostracod problem.  These are all live plants. 
 
 

 

 

 
 

 

[MrsEspoNYC7]

Ooh really nice. Looks great. I'm trying to sneak a tank in my bedroom but the hubby isn't on board with the idea...

 

[kittycook]

LOL  I can completely understand!  I have a spare 20 g long with hood and all I need is sand, (since I learned it's not only cheaper but much better....$3. 68) and I'm going to set it up in my son's room.  Right now, my LFS is selling live plants for $1 a piece.  The only thing that is going to bother me is that my son's tank is going to look better than mine ROFLMAO  My hubby still can't under stand that I already have all the bells and whistles for the tank, he thinks it's gonna cost him a fortune....it's only going to cost him $4.....but if I add plants, add another five or eight dollars.  I have a lot of plastic plants but I really don't want to use those anymore.
 
I'm 37 and I've been setting up fish tanks as a hobby since I was 14...........WOW, that's 23 years........ugh, I'm getting old.  He should be grateful, I'm seriously considering saltwater and I have researching the heck out of it! 

 

[MrsEspoNYC7]

Haha. My dad just got his first ever tank and its saltwater 55 gallons. 3 weeks later my mom calls me to say he just got a 180 gallon. It's so funny cause when I lived there he was always getting on my back about the little 36 gallon bow I had Asa kid lol