Teeny tiny red bugs in gravel. Yucky!

[kimbowee]

Hi all,

I just got back from vacation and was cleaning the tank when I noticed all of these little reddish colored bugs in the bucket after I vaccuumed the gravel. These guys are really tiny, almost hardly noticable. I have never noticed them during water changes before. We were only gone a week & I gravel vac'd right before we left.
I had a friend feeding the fish while I was gone and left the food in a pill box container so the right amounts would be fed all week. I've tested the water & all stats are good. Ammonia 0, nitrites 0, nitrates 40 and pH 7.2. There are 4 mollies, 4 guppies & 2 Oto's in a 20 gal. We lost an Oto a couple of weeks ago. He was trying to slurp on the filter grate and got stuck. I frred him but he died two days later.

Any ideas? I have checked the fish & can't see any of these little bugs on any of the them. I have tried to id the bugs but not having much luck. I don't have a magnifying glass to get a closer look at them.

Thanks bunches!

 

[WILDER]

Are they worms or do they have legs you will have to describe them more.

 

[kimbowee]

They are definitely not worms. I tried using my daughters magnifying glass last night but its for small kids & not very good. They are an reddish-orange in color & very tiny, smaller then a sharpened pencil lead. I can not tell if these bugs have 6 or 8 legs. They are not free floating in the water that I can see & I only saw them in the gravel. I spooned a couple out & they seem to die after being removed from the water and left to dry. I changed 25% of my water yesterday & another 25% today. Today I tried getting just water and could not find any bugs but when I started vac'ing the gravel then I did find some. I also did not find any in the filter or on the filter pad.

All fish look healthy and active. No heavy breathing, flicking or rubbing. No reddened gills. All the fish received for food last week was flakes & algae wafers. I did feed bloodworms about 3 days before I left but the tank was cleaned the day before I left and did not see anything. Am thinking maybe my friend was feeling sorry for the fish & decided to add a little extra chow but he says he did not. I checked my flakes & wafers & do not see anything there.

I am leaving again on Saturday for another week so I wanted to make sure if this is something I need to treat, it gets done. Not sure if this is some kind of parasite from the fish or that will harm the fish. There have been no new plants introduced lately either. The last fish introduced were the Oto's & that was about a month ago. They were quarantined for 2 weeks before adding tot the main tank.

Sorry this is so long but was trying to include as much info as possible. I have tried many searches without luck so was hoping someone else has had the same experience. This one has truly stumped me.

Thanks again!