What Are These Red Things In My Tank?

[Merebere]

Hello,
(I apologize if this topic has already been discussed, but I couldn't find it) - i also posted this somewhere else, but I'm really worried about it, so I thought I would try here...

I was feeding my fish today, and I saw what I thought was leftover food floating on the top. But this "food" started to jump! They look like little red bugs! They are an orangy-red colour. They are no bigger than the size of the head of a straight pin (maybe even a little bit smaller), and they float on the top of the water of my freshwater tropical aquarium, jumping and almost striding across the surface of the water.
I wanted to know if they can be of any harm to my fish, or plants...

My Aquarium info:
I don't have any tests for my water unfortunatly...but I do a 10-15% water change once a week. I use a store brand clorhine remover.
10 gallon
- 4 swordtails
- 2 guppies
- 4 neon tetras
- 1 dwarf pleco
I have some live plants, but none that are floating that the "bugs" would live in..
** btw.. I recently had a fish with ich in the tank, I treated it, and it is healthy again (just in case that has anything to do with the bugs)

I've had aquariums all my life, but I have never seen anything like it, any help would be great!
Many thanks!

 

[Little-Fizz]

Hello,
(I apologize if this topic has already been discussed, but I couldn't find it) - i also posted this somewhere else, but I'm really worried about it, so I thought I would try here...

I was feeding my fish today, and I saw what I thought was leftover food floating on the top. But this "food" started to jump! They look like little red bugs! They are an orangy-red colour. They are no bigger than the size of the head of a straight pin (maybe even a little bit smaller), and they float on the top of the water of my freshwater tropical aquarium, jumping and almost striding across the surface of the water.
I wanted to know if they can be of any harm to my fish, or plants...

My Aquarium info:
I don't have any tests for my water unfortunatly...but I do a 10-15% water change once a week. I use a store brand clorhine remover.
10 gallon
- 4 swordtails
- 2 guppies
- 4 neon tetras
- 1 dwarf pleco
I have some live plants, but none that are floating that the "bugs" would live in..
** btw.. I recently had a fish with ich in the tank, I treated it, and it is healthy again (just in case that has anything to do with the bugs)

I've had aquariums all my life, but I have never seen anything like it, any help would be great!
Many thanks!

Yikes, well first off, your way over stocked. I would deffinatly recommened getting a tester as well as doing more than one water change a week. I had kind of the same thing... My bugs were black though, and they were tiny. I forgot to ask anyone about it and I'm pretty sure they are gone... I'll check... Ew ok, lol I just found like three, two were dead and the alive one was on my finger and jumped off... So now I have to go get into the shower because I'm paranoid it's on me. But I have had these bugs for a long time I guess and they have had no effect on my fish. Not to sure on the colour though, they are not red, not really black though. It's hard to tell they are very small. I'd say more of a brown colour.

 

[shang hi]

does it have very long legs? if it does they it could be a dragonfly larva, these come on plants and can even come out the tap - if you repedly get this and you think it could harm your fish then invest in a UV steriliser, i have one built into my tank, and on the up side it reduces the risk of white spot by 95% and other paricites. catch them if you can (you'll save £150 - $200 on the steriliser that way) and destroy it (aslong as its not fry) a good way to do this is burn it, boil it.
i hope this is of use.... hope it goes smoothly, shang hi

 

[darknirvana217]

I have these little pests on my tank, my hood, filter, and parts of plants that come out of the water. they have never seemed to pose a threat to my fish, which is a good thing because tehy are virtually indestructable. They are hard to catch and you can't even drown them. Mine appear to be a tan to grey color. They actually came in on an apono planet from a local fish store. What kind of live plants do you have?

 

[Liam]

They may be springtails, thiy little guys that can hop very high for their size, I think there are hundreds or thousands of species of them, completely harmless to fish, a google of 'springtail' would help you identify them.

 

[Merebere]

Thanks for all the suggestions!
They don't have long legs (that I can see...they are sooo tiny) but they kinda have antennas.... or something like that.
There aren't very many in the tank -yet (knock on wood)
And finally, I have 3 types of plants... but I don't remember what they are called... one is a grass (with very thin blades), another is a kind of myrio ( i think...) and I have no idea what the other one is named (its a low plant that spreads like crazy, and have quite broad leaves)
The pests in the tank don't seem to be bothering the fish at all, sometimes they try to eat them though! haha