Little tiny insect things

pictus_man_77 · Post by **pictus_man_77** » 02 Feb 2006, 21:45

i seem to sometimes find little creatures right at the very bottom of my tank
NOw, this sounds extremely bad to me, so does anyone know what they are

I tried taking photos, but they are too small to get into focus

Silent Doh · Post by **Silent Doh** » 02 Feb 2006, 22:22

They could be a kind of fly larvae. Did it happen to have sand or something of the like stuck all around it? I have a few of these in my 20 gal. high, since I used "100% natural gravel" (straight from a local stream) I noticed a few of what you mentioned, oh shoot! I forgot what they were called!

Kana3 · Post by **Kana3** » 02 Feb 2006, 23:58

Did they look anything like these?
http://aquaticbabble.forumup.org/viewto ... aticbabble

Although I never saw them actually 'in' my water...

Mike_Noren · Post by **Mike_Noren** » 03 Feb 2006, 10:05

Kana3: your guys are springtails: http://www.battleduck.com/media/images/ ... ngtail.jpg . They'd be on the surface of the water, and you've got floating plants - they eat dead vegetal matter.

Pictus_man: your guys are pretty guaranteed to be some sort of small crustacean, probably copepods, possibly ostracods or cladocerans. Copepods will look like this:
http://www.sacsplash.org/cimages/Copepod.jpg
(with or without the eggsacks on the tail)
and be from 0.5mm to perhaps 3mm.

All of these small crustaceans come with the plants, all of them, and others, are common in aquaria with plants (although most never notice them), and they're completely harmless.

pictus_man_77 · Post by **pictus_man_77** » 03 Feb 2006, 17:01

OK, as long as i know tht they are harmless, its fine. By the plants is actuall.y where they usually get sucked up from

Kana3 · Post by **Kana3** » 04 Feb 2006, 12:21

Thanks Mike.

I don't have floating plants as such, but my Cabomba goes wild, and I often have it growing across the surface, before I cut it back. Now that I have more info, I'm guessing the Springtails made their way to my tank, via my Wife's pot plants.

I don't know that, if I was looking for an insect picture, I would have thought to try a site called 'BattleDuck' tho'!

B-2 · Post by **B-2** » 08 Feb 2006, 21:50

Silent Doh, it was a cadis fly larvae in your tank.