Little weird moving things?

[MistersMom]

so,there are these itzy bitzy teeny tiny little things, at the top of my tank, on the waters edge. smaller than the tip of a pen.

I Brought home 2 ghost shrimp yesterday, for my tank, the algae was getting pretty bad no matter how much i cleaned and scrubbed and switched water, so i just got some little guy to clean it up, and quite frankly they have done great!! but. yesterday, while staring at my fish and the tanks (which i do QUITE often, im sure it creeps my fish out, my face up against the glass and what not) i noticed, inside my little see through ghost shrimp, was a bunch of little green round things, after some research i have declared them eggs.

well, today, she doesn't have as many... and now , there is these little things twitching and swimming and moving around in the water on the top, and even a few on the glass of the tank...

any one know what these things are?i was thinking maybe baby shrimp, but i have no idea, i thought shrimp may be like lobsters and keep their babies on their tail, or near them, maybe like craw-fish .... but.... i have no idea, and i don't want my fish to possibly get parasites....

[Jessicatm137]

Do you think you could get a picture?

[MistersMom]

No. lol, they r too small... like..... so small i have to practically go cross-eyed to see them :/

[emeraldsky]

From what I understand, ghost shrimp wont breed in freshwater, only brackish. I could be mistaken though. They will become berried though the eggs wont hatch. Shrimp also carry their eggs on their tails, like crayfish.

It sounds like run of the mill harmless aquarium organisms, though for the life of me I couldnt name them. Try feeding less and seeing if that gets rid of them possibly? c:

[Twilight Storm]

You will have to compare the things you see with pictures posted on the internet to be 100% sure, but most likely they are harmless aquarium critters. They probably rode in on your shrimp or their water? Could be Planetaria? little worm like things?

Someone else can probably help more then me (or already did ;P) but maybe try to find a good list of all freshwater aquarium bugs and parasites and grab your magnifying glass?

Good luck ID-ing your little critters. On the plus side the shrimps will help clean them from your tank if they are planetaria.

[Fabian]

How do they look like?

[SpookyTooth]

There are lots of microfauna species that can call a freshwater aquarium home. I've never seen baby shrimp so I can't really say if they are or aren't those.

You have copepods; tiny dot-like creatures that move around rather rapidly and can suddenly appear in their thousands.

You have hydra; they look like brown feather dusters and often retract into themselves when they feel vibrations.

You have cyclops; they are slightly larger than copepods and have a forked tail.

There are detritus worms; they are thin hair-like worms that live naturally in all aquarium substrates but can end up having a population explosion.

There is planaria; these are a species of flat-worm and are thicker than detritus worms. They are often confused with detritus worms, too.

Seed shrimp; these vary wildly in side and usually bumble around in the water column looking like drunken bees.

Daphnia; water fleas... they look like transparent fleas... under water. They dart around.

There are loads of others but I can't think of them right now heh. Most of the above are harmless (hydra can harm tiny, tiny fry) but many of them are a sign of overfeeding. They can all hitch-hike in on plants and sometimes fish. I've had some of these come in on plants and my betta has enjoyed hunting them.

[MistersMom]

they r water fleas D: and thx for the info, and yeah, i figured the shrimp were like other crustaceans ... but, they have gone down a bit, quite a bit, and now i can hardly see as many. thank you for the lists, and the tips.