Unknown Bugs

[Sorachi]

Hello. Today when I fed my fish flakes, I noticed there were black spots on them after dropping them on the water surface. I did not think much of it, but I picked out the flakes just in case. There were no longer any black spots on the flakes.

There were also a lot of these black spots on my breeder trap too, so I took it out to clean it, but then all the black spots were gone. On closer inspection, there are actually bugs? They crawl and jump, but they stay out of the water. They are probably eating some of the uneaten food getting stuck on the sides of the breeder. They are not very attractive. They're really tiny, 1mm or less in size.

I thought they were baby snails until they jumped.
Does anybody know what they could be, if they are bad or how I can get rid of them?

 

[Caprichoso]

They sound like springtails(except where you describe them as looking black in color). Mine are white and they like to sit on the leaves out of the water and will jump around. Totally harmless and fish will eat them. There are several harmless copepods that live in tank water. Cyclops(sounds scary, I know), springtails, water fleas, different micro worms, etc. Most are harmless and are a positive sign. Sometimes we will see more of these "bugs" when there is an over abundance of nutrients for them. Don't worry about getting rid of them as they won't harm your fish. Now if you ever see planaria or hydra, well that is a different story. Either of them aren't great for shrimplets and fry fish and can harm them.

 

[The chilly dipper]

whoa how long as your setup been running?

 

[Sorachi]

Oh, really? That's a relief. I'll compare some of the species you just gave me to the things in my tank.

I've had my tank going for about three months -- the first month was cycling the tank.

 

[The chilly dipper]

do these sneak in from outside does anyone know ???

 

[OldMan47]

Many of the microscopic life in our tanks has come in with a plant or from nearby in an outdoors watery location as simple as a bucket that has not been kept dry. I bring in mosquito larvae regularly from wet places outside my home as food for my fish. I figure the fish love them, they are a good source of live food and every one that my fish eat is one less that will exist to bite me. We all win by this use. It is better yet to prevent the accumulation of water where mosquitoes can breed, but if it cannot be prevented, at least you can use them as fish food. I will soon be setting up my summer pond, really an animal watering trough, which will give the fish I place outdoors the chance to catch whatever happens by their pond. By the end of summer, those will be the healthiest of all of my fish. There is something about the natural variety of foods that they get that is better than anything I can buy at any store.

 

[The chilly dipper]

Many of the microscopic life in our tanks has come in with a plant or from nearby in an outdoors watery location as simple as a bucket that has not been kept dry. I bring in mosquito larvae regularly from wet places outside my home as food for my fish. I figure the fish love them, they are a good source of live food and every one that my fish eat is one less that will exist to bite me. We all win by this use. It is better yet to prevent the accumulation of water where mosquitoes can breed, but if it cannot be prevented, at least you can use them as fish food. I will soon be setting up my summer pond, really an animal watering trough, which will give the fish I place outdoors the chance to catch whatever happens by their pond. By the end of summer, those will be the healthiest of all of my fish. There is something about the natural variety of foods that they get that is better than anything I can buy at any store.

i agree with you on that one old man, but is there any risk of illness from doing this ? i know you wouldnt take the risk but its worth asking

although it upsets me a little seeing live mice shredded by pirahna or arowana, i know they dont take dead food but its natural i guess.

dont want to get into a animal cruelty argument on this , the more mozzies gone- the better..

but the mice ... well i couldnt do it.

 

[fluttermoth]

i agree with you on that one old man, but is there any risk of illness from doing this ? i know you wouldnt take the risk but its worth asking

As long as you know the water source it's perfectly safe. My kids spend literally hours fishing for mosquito larvae in my water butt with an old tea strainer in the summer!

although it upsets me a little seeing live mice shredded by pirahna or arowana, i know they dont take dead food but its natural i guess.

dont want to get into a animal cruelty argument on this , the more mozzies gone- the better..

but the mice ... well i couldnt do it.

Actually most of those fish can be weaned onto dead food, and live mice (or goldfish for that matter) is never an appropriate diet, even for those very rare fish that can't be persuaded to take dead. I'm afraid there will always be some people who think it's cool or clever to have 'hard' fish

 

[The chilly dipper]

i agree with you on that one old man, but is there any risk of illness from doing this ? i know you wouldnt take the risk but its worth asking

As long as you know the water source it's perfectly safe. My kids spend literally hours fishing for mosquito larvae in my water butt with an old tea strainer in the summer!

although it upsets me a little seeing live mice shredded by pirahna or arowana, i know they dont take dead food but its natural i guess.

dont want to get into a animal cruelty argument on this , the more mozzies gone- the better..

but the mice ... well i couldnt do it.

Actually most of those fish can be weaned onto dead food, and live mice (or goldfish for that matter) is never an appropriate diet, even for those very rare fish that can't be persuaded to take dead. I'm afraid there will always be some people who think it's cool or clever to have 'hard' fish

http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsovPqaN1Rc

this is disgusting to me that poor, beautifull koi had no chance
hard fish lol that notion humours me. fish who eat meat should be given dead end of in my opinion.

 

[OldMan47]

Actually we have a fish veterinarian who is a member of our fish club. He raises arowanas from rather small fry size to adult size of a couple of feet long by feeding them on a strictly dry food diet. He has made the statements to us that people who insist on using live food with them are simply misguided. He raises glorious fish and never uses any live foods for fish reputed to be exclusively carnivorous. A hungry fish will eat what it finds and it will quickly learn that the dry food in its tank keeps it healthy and thriving.
On the subject of mosquito safety, I never have any problem using them and all my fish consider them a treat. My sources are things that tend to accumulate rain water so I need no worry much about contaminants in their water being passed on.

 

[Baccus]

I too give my fish treats of mozzie wrigglers they all go nuts over them, infact it's always sad when I run out of wrigglers and have to wait for more eggs to hatch. I have discovered that even putting the floating egg rafts in the tank don't survive to hatching as the fish even scoff these. Sometimes if I am really lucky I will even stumble acorss some blood woms living in the water with the mozzie wrigglers and of course the fish get these special little treats as well. Since these live foods are coming from my own yard out of conatainers that I have allowed normal tap water to stagnat in I figure there is less harm of introducing any nasties unlike if I set out to deliberately capture pond life from wild/ park land situations. One of my local waterways (it's actually some ponds built on a natural flood way/ marsh system) has a really bad infestation of red mites, so I never take anything from there as I don't need those freaky little critters taking over my tanks or ponds.

Something else I have discovered my piranha like guppies like to eat is young dragonfly. damsel fly nymphs. I had a couple of hitch hickers get in one of my tank somehow (I suspect as eggs on some new weed) and when I discovered them I caught them and chucked them in with the guppies. Those poor old nymphs didn't last a minute, and the guppies had a nice little snack.

 

[The chilly dipper]

Actually we have a fish veterinarian who is a member of our fish club. He raises arowanas from rather small fry size to adult size of a couple of feet long by feeding them on a strictly dry food diet. He has made the statements to us that people who insist on using live food with them are simply misguided. He raises glorious fish and never uses any live foods for fish reputed to be exclusively carnivorous. A hungry fish will eat what it finds and it will quickly learn that the dry food in its tank keeps it healthy and thriving.
On the subject of mosquito safety, I never have any problem using them and all my fish consider them a treat. My sources are things that tend to accumulate rain water so I need no worry much about contaminants in their water being passed on.

hmm i wish i knew now i had some wriggelers in a bucket outside i got rid of it though , if id have known, i would have given them to the fish lol.

awww sweet i wish there were fish clubs around here, but there is not

on the subject of bloodworms.. im gonna get some live ones from a pet shop i know but how often should treats like this be given?

also do bloodworms enter the human body in parasitic form???

i heared from someone,not to use them cos they get inside your eyeball lol or is that a load of bullshi*???

cheers guys
dipper

 

[OldMan47]

I have no idea what the real name of "blood worms" is. They are not likely to be parasites that people need to worry about because the pet shops would never be able to overcome the liability issues of selling such a thing. They would all go broke as soon as anyone had any trouble at all with them.
If you have no nearby fish clubs, why not start one? I am sure your local fish shop would welcome a group of people getting together to discuss fish and their care. We meet regularly and use auction proceeds to be able to pay outside speakers to come to our meetings once in a while. Our own club is sponsored by a local fish shop that gives club members a significant discount on fish and equipment. They also welcome us soliciting new members in their entryway and posting announcements of our club auctions on their bulletin board. Most of our auctions see a contribution by that LFS of equipment for us to raffle off. The LFS also supplies us with coupons to hand out so that our auction buyers get large discounts on any purchases the day of the auction at the LFS. Between us and the LFS, we both make money that way. It draws people into our sale and it brings out of town customers to their shop. When an auction is scheduled, that LFS stocks up on hard to find fish and expects to see lots of extra customers that day to buy up what they have stocked. We all win. The club can attract new members and can also get out of town people to attend our fund raiser auctions and the LFS sees a big surge in business that day.

 

[garyalty]

i have a small setup in 1 of my ponds for my fish fry when i collected a sample of the water. when i was looking through the container with a head torch loads of tiny bugs came to the light white in colour so so small i cant work out what they are some the same size as newly born fry... any ideas what they could be or if the fish are ok with them??