Urgent Help! - What The Hell Are These Bugs?!?!?

[Mr Bee]

This is a bit of an ongoing saga now......bear with me.......

I originally got 7 Neons, then a week later added 3 male Guppies.
A week after that, one guppy died of a mysterious disease, with a slightly swollen belly, so I guessed an internal bact infection, so started treating with Pimafix as a precautionary measure.

Then a few days into that treatment (beginning of this week) I noticed another guppy had dreaded white spot (Ich)... so after advice on here, started treatment with Interpet white spot meds, as the whole tank would be infected - that was on wednesday morning.

Thursday evening, and friday I noticed the white spots had gone from the fish, but he had stopped eating and was not active at all; not at all his usual behaviour, and thought he really didn't look very good.

Got up this morning to find him dead at bottom of the tank
No obvious signs of anything wrong, white spots (ich) had gone, there was no swollen belly, and colour was good.

So I scoop him out into a jug, but then notice something rather alarming..........BUGS crawling and swimming about in the jug with the dead fish. Look a bit like some sort of spider (same size as a 'money spider') or mite or something

Here's some pics

And here's a video clip of the crawling movement (opens in new window)


They seem to either cling to, or sit under the dead fish body. If you swirl the jug and disturb them, or move the guppy body, they start crawling again, until they find the body and hide again.

WHAT THE BEJEESUS ARE THESE THINGS

I know white spot (Ich) is a parasite, but I thought they were too small to see?? - or are these things Ich??


If I look closely in the tank, I can see these bug things in the tank, so it seems its infested with them!

I'm still in middle of white spot treatment, today was second dosing, so needs leaving another 7 days before a water change.


Did a test strip and water stats are

GH = 120 -180
KH = ~120
pH = 7.5
Ammonia = ZERO
NitrIte = ZERO
NitrAte = 20 - 40 ppm


Please help, what have I got in my tank?!?!?

 

[briobug]

They look like baby snails to me. That close up is really clear. You can see that little cone shape. I think they are just your basic variety of Gilled Snails. Or Physa Snail, Pouch Snail, Tadpole Snail...these types.

 

[Mr Bee]

Snails?

Snails??

Where have they come from then? I've never had snails before!

Can they come attached to fish? - Neons have been in 3 weeks, and the Guppies 2 weeks, and I've only just noticed these things crawling about, how long do they take to hatch?

Will they escape out the tank and roam around the house, 'cos there looks to be loads in there!

Are they dangerous or harmful in any way (to fish or filter), and how can I get rid of them??


Could these have killed my Guppy? or is not likely?

 

[sarah86]

they dont look like snails to me, in the video they are moving far too quickly to be snails, they look like some sort of lice but i cant tell from the video. have a look at this and see if it sounds familiar.

http/www.####Fish%20Lice.html

 

[corey01]

i think i know what they are..their water fleas their harmless as i can remember..and no they wont come out of the tank and attack you

 

[briobug]

Sorry I wasn't able to view the video. I was just going by the photo.

Okay I was able to just view the video. Sorry ha ha, my bad. Those would be Mexican Jumping snails.....

 

[Mr Bee]

Been looking at these things again in the tank, and they seem to be floating in the water column, and crawling on the glass sides of the tank. Not really swimming when in the water though, just seem like they're going wherever the current of water movement takes them.

But when they touch the sides of the tank or the bottom, they then crawl about on the glass.

Can't see any red sores on the fishes.

While I was watching them, a Neon sucked one off the glass side of the tank, but instantly spat it back out, so it's obviously not something they want to eat!!

And they love the frozen daphnia I feed them, so I don't think they are water fleas (a search on internet said water fleas = daphnia). If its lice, that sounds quite worrying, but everywher I read, all says lice are 1/4 inch long, and these things are tiny.....unless they're just babies.

But does everyone think they are NOT snails after all now then? - they do move quite quickly for snails!


Also noticed, at night (or evening) as it gets dark they are not visibe in the water or on the glass, so they must go and hide somewhere in the dark, and come out when its light again.

I'll ses if I can capture one and get a really close up pic of it later to see if that helps to work out what it is.

 

[Mr Bee]

OK, the third Guppy died on wednesday, again with no apparent symptoms, he looked fine, and all water parameters are normal.....still got these damn weird bugs though

Put some of the bugs in a vial and went an LFS today to see what they could make of them.......bloke in shop said he'd worked there and kept fish himself for 7 years and never seen anything like them, and kept the vial to show the manager and see what she thought of them!

Anyway, some close up pics I took earlier......

Another video of their movement, quite fast!



Also, they are definately breeding and increasing their numbers now, there's absolutely LOADS of them in there!!!

Anyone got any ideas what they are, or know of any place I can maybe contact or send the bugs to for an expert / specialist opinion?

 

[ICEEGRL]

That does not look like any snail I have ever seen before.
I am far from being an expert, but I would add a strong pest control to get rid of it quickly. I would also do some large water changes and clean the gravel very well each time to get as many out as possible.
I hope someone that knows more than me comes along soon.
I also hope you do not lose any more fish.
Good Luck