What are these things?

[toad]

Yesterday, I posted about the snails that hitch hiked in on my new plants.

Well, after I noticed the snails, I noticed other things, too:

There are small oblong creatures walking around in the sand at the bottom of the tank. They are a little thicker at one end, and too small for my camera to focus on. I saw one swimming, but the others are just staying at the bottom, where they hop, like they are walking on the moon.

There are no fish in the tank yet, but I'm thinking, once added, maybe the fish will eat them?

[aokashi]

some kind of copepod?

[Perseusmom]

water fleas maybe ?...walking on the moon thats so funny...lol

[MSG]

It's probably a scud, freshwater shrimp like critter.

Fish will definitely eat them, but they could harbor disease/parasites from the research I've done on them.

What kind of plants did these critters come from?

Where did you get these plants?

[toad]

They do sort of look like they could be shrimp-type creatures.

I bought micro sword, hornwort, a java fern, a moss ball, water sprite, and something else... it's grass like, and quite pretty. I don't know which plants were the infected ones, as I put them all in at the same time, and then found all these creepers after.

They were all purchased from Live Aquaria dot com, so I didn't imagine there would be parasites in them O.O Not happy about this. Will be emailing them...

What should I do about these shrimp things? I don't want the fish to catch anything from them...

[Perseusmom]

Hey yeah I had one of those in with the baby snails but it must have died or I sucked it up doing a water change for them. I would just use your gravel cleaner and get them out and keep checking for more till you dont see them anymore.

[Pilot00]

Call me an idiot if you will but since you dont have fish in there...I would kept them for a while and see if they grow up just of curiosity to see what they are.

Could it not be the little organisms formed in bottles by letting a lettuce in the sun for a while (forgot the name)? The ones used to feed fry.

[MSG]

Pilot, it's not the lettuce critters, infusoria type things. Lettuce organisms are very hard to see.

90% sure it's a scud/shrimp like critter. Copepod I've rarely seen. Same with the fairy shrimps.

Scuds = are like a freshwater brine shrimp.

Go to any lake/pond and take a little scoop of water with some of the soil. You'll see them swimming around at the bottom.




Scuds I've seen plenty of.


Good to know, a lot of the plants I was listed on the other threads was from that site. But like the fact they list all the info on there.

Makes it easier to create a "If I happen to come across" type shopping list.

This is the main reason you QT stuff.

• If you don't have any fish in the tank, don't introduce any FISH for 2 weeks or so.
• If you happen to have a betta in there, remove him from the tank for 2 weeks.
• Don't even waste your time trying to siphon out the gravel. You'll NEVER get ALL the scuds. They're good diggers & great at clinging onto things.
• If you have a cory cat, unleash him. They're great at picking scuds out of gravel & plants. In their natural environment I think those shrimp like critters are their number 1 source of protein.

[Pilot00]

Originally Posted by MSG

Pilot, it's not the lettuce critters, infusoria type things. Lettuce organisms are very hard to see.

Once they have their way for some days they can be seen clearly with naked eyes. Though i dont know really if they are infusoria in toads tank, it was a guess/suggestion really. I wont even dare to dream i know much of those things.

Only cories eat those scuds?

EDIT: If what wikipedia says is true then Copepods are quite beneficial same can be said for fairy shrimps (i can be wrong ofc).

Everything on your list MSG seems to be a treat for fish!

[MSG]

What do you think fish eat in their natural environment? They don't have prepared foods. They have to go search for food & not get eaten in the process.

Their food usually consists of microscopic insects/bacteria/plants,etc....

Cories are designed for bottom feeding. That's where the scuds live.

They're slightly above the snails in the food chain.