Tiny surface jumping bugs on floating plants

[klc43]

There are some tiny bugs hanging out on my floating plants - mostly my red root floaters. When I move the plants, the jump off onto the surface of the water then jump back. They've been there probably a month. I had hoped they would go away, but they are multiplying. My pearl gourami do not appear to be eating them. How do I get rid of them?

Thoughts:
1. Leave the lights off for a week? They seem to bask in the light. But not good for my plants.
2. Get rid of my floating plants. I really don't want to.

Photo attached

Tank info:
40 gal
Planted (rooted, rhizome, floating)
Pearl gourami
Ember tetra
Hillstream loach
Pygmy Cory
Water parameters good

 

[Colin_T]

ignore them they are harmless

 

[klc43]

ignore them they are harmless

Thanks - Good to know! But still annoying.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Yep. Tiny mystery inverts are one of the charms (or curses, depending on how you look at it) of a semi-natural ecosystem. Sounds like some springtails hitchhiked in on your plants. I rather enjoyed them in one of my old tank, and keep wishing that a few would find their way into my newer tank.

 

[JuiceBox52]

I've got them too in one tank, they make great fish food!

 

[Sgooosh]

I've got them too in one tank, they make great fish food!

they are cool critters.
guppies love em

 

[Sgooosh]

Wow! How big are they?

like very tiny like the tip of a needle

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Almost microscopic, if it's the same critters I've had. They look like specks of dust. Except they jump around.

 

[GaryE]

I always figure that creatures like that mean the tank is a good environment. I gave some plants to a friend recently and she noticed I'd sent over these guys too - I don't even notice them anymore. Harmless, but I think a sign of health in the environment - they would be there in nature too.

 

[GaryE]

I've always assumed there would be more species of creatures like that than we could ever name. I'd be content with a Genus name, or any name other than "hopping things".

Tank fairies?

 

[JuiceBox52]

@GaryE I'm definitely calling them tank fairies now

 

[FishHobby99]

is your opinion widely held or even somewhat, Gary? Except in unexplored regions like deep in the Amazon jungles, I’ve never heard of unidentified organisms

 

[GaryE]

is your opinion widely held or even somewhat, Gary? Except in unexplored regions like deep in the Amazon jungles, I’ve never heard of unidentified organisms

It's the small stuff that tends to be the least studied. If we can't eat it and it can't kill us, who pays for research into it?
There are probably unidentified organisms on you now. There are more unidentified bacterial species (the most important form of life by weight and numbers out there) than we can stretch our heads around.
Bugs and beetles? The general consensus is there could be millions unknown to science.
Even in our tanks - I can walk into the next room and watch three species that have no official names or species description - one rainbowfish, one killifish and one Cichlid.
I figure over the years, I have probably kept 50 or more undescribed fish in my tanks. I used to work with a fish importer, and we regularly saw things that had no scientific name.
Just Corydoras alone could keep people busy for a very long time. There is an incredible amount of diversity there we haven't sorted out, and a lot of species that will be gone before we even knew they were there.
In 2016, 18,000 new plant or animal species were described.
The more we look at it, the less we know we know....
Fun times!

 

[FishHobby99]

Are your fish the products of breeding inside your tanks & not found in their natural habitats?

 

[StevenF]

floating plants can be fully submerged for over a week without any harm to them. So I would suggest taking a few of the best plants and putting them in a container filled with tank water and them putting something like a wire screen over the plants and suing that to keep them submerged. Then in the main tank remove all the floating plants. hopefully with no floating plants the bugs will die off. And hopefully any on the submierged plants will also die. Once you are sure all the bugs are gone put the submerged plants back in the main thank.