White Creatures In Tank- Crustacea

[Txen]

Hi

I was just wondering which type the white, less and 1mm fast moving little dots on the glass are and the worm like, nearly 1mm long white creatures on the glass and in the water.

Water fleas?
Water mites?
Copepods?

And what can one do to get rid of them or to reducce the number of them?


I have a 50l, have had 5 otos in it since the 2 weeks, did weekly water chnages (20-25%) and cleaning (gravel vacc, glass cleaning).

I have been using ketapang (indian almond leaves) which i boiled andthen used to mix with it with the tap water to lower the ph from 7.4 to 6.8.
But i think the creatures might have been in the tank before i started that.

I had a big plant decay a month ago as the lighting wasnt intense enough.......


Any ideas?

 

[SJ2K]

Planaria Worm

The decaying plant will of increased your ammonia levels, this is a possible reason for the worms.

 

[KraKen]

microfoods grow on leaves so that might be what those are,

you could add 4 male endlers or some microrasboras or some shrimp which would probably eat them.

 

[eschaton]

Otos are strict algae eaters. They will not take care of detritus, or predate. So other little things (sounds like cyclops and maybe some small worm) are taking their place in the water. Essentially, your tank is an ecosystem and it's missing important roles, so freshwater "hitchhikers" are filling in.

Introduction of just about any other fish will result in these guys falling to the wayside, as they get eaten. A snail will help too, as it will eat the detritus before the microlife eats it.