Little Aquarium Critters! What Are They?

Thommo · Jan 19, 2009

Hi all,

Did a complete water change today as I'm currently fishless cycling and just keeping it going until I can get my fish and the PH crashed :sad:

I have now learnt that it is normal thanks to this great forum :good:

After I finished the water change, I noticed what I thought was some snails as I have a bit of an infestation at the moment :shout:

(Another Story) But on closer inspection they was swimming around all over the place. They about the size of a large pin head, I think it has a shell and is greyish in colour. Their pretty small but I think that they have 2 little flapper things that help them swim.

There are heaps :huh:

of them but they are mostly running around on the gravel.

Not really concerned as I guess they will make great fish food for the clown loaches when they get in. I'm just really curious.

Are they any worse than snails?

Night61 · Jan 19, 2009

not all snails are created equal and i will say until i am blue in the face there are good snails.
but you don't seem to have a snail, i hope someone will come up with a better answer but maybe its a water flea
here are some pics i got from google
http

/images.google.com/images?hl=en&...+flea&gbv=2
from what i have gathered about these little buggers any fish might enjoy them is snacks.

as for your other problem with the pest snails there is a sticky posted in the inverbrates section on how to get rid of them, sounds like you already have one peice of the puzzle with a clown loach. anyways good luck

Thommo · Jan 19, 2009

sailornight6 said:
not all snails are created equal and i will say until i am blue in the face there are good snails.
but you don't seem to have a snail, i hope someone will come up with a better answer but maybe its a water flea
here are some pics i got from google
[URL="http/images.google.com/images?hl=en&...+flea&gbv=2"]http/images.google.com/images?hl=en&...+flea&gbv=2[/URL]
from what i have gathered about these little buggers any fish might enjoy them is snacks.

as for your other problem with the pest snails there is a sticky posted in the inverbrates section on how to get rid of them, sounds like you already have one peice of the puzzle with a clown loach. anyways good luck

Thanks sailornight6,

You got it first go, that is exactly what they look like. Winner, Winner, Winner :lol:

Wonder where they came from? Do you know if they are bad for anything. e.g. fish, plants?

I quess my fishies(when I get them) will have a feast! :nod:

Thanks

Thommo · Jan 19, 2009

Cool, The internet is so great, Just looked at Wikipedia and looks like I'll have some cheep fish food for a little while. :hey:

Wonder how they got in there though? :unsure:

james morrisontoxic2 · Jan 19, 2009

them fleas look horrid mate

iankent · Jan 19, 2009

couldn't tell you for definite how they got there, but a few months back I did a small experiment and left a tank of water standing for about 2 months. no water changes, no heater, no filter and nothing added to the tank

after a couple of days green algae started to grow (oh yeah, I left the tank on the windowsill - in direct sunlight!), and shortly after the green algae appeared I noticed a small collection of worms and fleas (tiny little white/translucent worms that sort of danced around at the surface, and fleas that could move around 30cm/sec), and some greenfly that came in through the window and made it their home. over the 2 month period the tank went through a few cycles - the algae bloomed nearly filling the tank, the worm and flea population exploded, the algae disappeared and the worms/fleas died off - and then it started over again! it did this a few times until the smell got too much and it had to be thrown lol...

as it was a recently bleached tank, there shouldn't have been any traces of the previous aquarium left in there - the only sources I can think of are the air and the water supply! either way, though the water looked disgusting, it was an interesting experiment that's fun to watch!

Thommo · Jan 19, 2009

iankent said:
couldn't tell you for definite how they got there, but a few months back I did a small experiment and left a tank of water standing for about 2 months. no water changes, no heater, no filter and nothing added to the tank

after a couple of days green algae started to grow (oh yeah, I left the tank on the windowsill - in direct sunlight!), and shortly after the green algae appeared I noticed a small collection of worms and fleas (tiny little white/translucent worms that sort of danced around at the surface, and fleas that could move around 30cm/sec), and some greenfly that came in through the window and made it their home. over the 2 month period the tank went through a few cycles - the algae bloomed nearly filling the tank, the worm and flea population exploded, the algae disappeared and the worms/fleas died off - and then it started over again! it did this a few times until the smell got too much and it had to be thrown lol...

as it was a recently bleached tank, there shouldn't have been any traces of the previous aquarium left in there - the only sources I can think of are the air and the water supply! either way, though the water looked disgusting, it was an interesting experiment that's fun to watch!

Well there you go.

Hmmm, I do remember saying to the Wife, Look at these little white wiggly things! I guess it is either the water or the air. I really really hope it is from the air beacuse it is the same water that I drink :sick:

My aquarium is pretty clean at the MO except for the furry algae on all the plants but its not that bad. Waiting on the fish to do a bit of a clean-up when they get in there.

CHEERS