I vacumned the gravel of my guppy/planted tank. (That tank has had sooooo many things that seem to have resisted the pp sterilization of the plants, from snails on out.) I have recently finished a regiment of Quick Cure and Triple Sulfa to kill "Guppy disease" and it has done the job most successfully. The pH is 7.4, temp 78F, the cycle has just bumped with the Triple Sulfa dose - to .25 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 10 nitrate.

Tank- 10 gallon, Aquaclear filter, gravel substrate, moderately planted with living plants. Guppies - one adult pair and assorted babies, one Siamese algae eater and one clown loach (tiny).

After I vaumned I noticed many small moving specks at the bottom of the bucket of waste water. I syringed several out into a test tube. On examination, they are about 1 mm in diameter, egg shaped, with a single flagilating "tail" that provids the propulsion. They are clear with brown/rust colored lined markings that swirl over the surface. They were not attached to the fish, and were in the surface of the gravel, for I did not do an extremely deep gravel vacumn.

What are these? I have never seen them before. They match nothing in my books.

How do I kill them?

The tank is running on a first dose of Prazi for potential fluke infestation - an assumption for 2 of my goldie tanks are infected with flukes and I decided to treat the whole lot of them, to prevent any re-contamination in the future.

??????????????

is it this guy? cyclopa

if not, is there any chance of a drawing of one? maybe you could try looking at one under the scope too.

either way, if youve never found any on slime scrapes, im willing to bet that they either live off of poo and stuff, or they eat other things that live off of poo. if that is the case, you shouldnt really worry about killing them off. seriously, i think that we would all be pretty surprised to find that all our tanks have a very wide variety of microorganisms scattered about. i think the sheer diversity of microbugs is the main reason none of us can find very many referrences to all or most of them. i think its the harmful ones that weve pretty much become concerned with the most. you know, all the regular suspects.

ive been checking everything out i can dig up and ive found nothing that sounds like what your seeing besides the cyclops. ill bet yours are non-threatening. well, at least i hope theyre non-threatening..............

if you get an id, let us know what you found out.

Nope - they do not seem to have any "antennae" like that one.

I am going to try to take the tube of them to work tomorrow and use the microscope/camera there to try to get a picture.

I looked at them under the microscope to get the description that I gave.

I know it is kind of strange to say, and very naive of me, but, could they be one of the various protozoa that people cultivate as food for baby fish? I do not have any idea what those look like, but would expect them to look similar to what I am seeing.

(Good grief it is hard to type not using my middle finger - it is still totally numbed out from when the doc stitched it up this afternoon. I amtyping soooooo slowly!)

I would leave them alone, except I find it rather creepy to have something running around in that tank that I do not know or understand.

Here are some pictures of the critters. They are really too big to capture using the microscope I have that has a camera - I do not get the brown/rust colored swirls that are on their surface, nor can I capture the entire bug, but this might give someone any idea.

Most of all, I want to know how to erradicate it!!!! ewwwwwwwwwh.

Test

EEEEEEEEEEWWWWWW STOP!

I'd want them out of my tank too!!!


Eeeeeeeew!

they look like slugs... are you afraid to get em out...? try getting one out and putting it in salt water and test if they are having side effects if they do they are slugs

Whoa thats a powerful microscope you got there. Thats a very clear and close up of the bug...hopefully it's a good bug

Ok, I think I might have an answer.

I suspect they are a crustacean, Ostracod - probably Cyris.

They supposedly eat plant debris and waste. All descriptions and pictures seem to match up with what I am seeing.

Being a close relative to Daphnia - I am assuming that my clown loach will be happily eating these critters? I am hoping that Prazi might slow their population down, also.

They are not on my fish nor do they seem to care about the fish. They are extremely active - maniacly so - and are found in the gravel in a planted tank.

I am not going to go to extreme measures to try to erradicate them, but would love to know how, if I decide it is necessary!

thats cool you found out what they were!

thats REALLY cool that you can use a scope with digital imaging! gawd id love to have one of those!

im willing to bet you that they are at least beneficial in that they help break down wastes for the plants to use up! you know, like beneficial nematodes in potting soil and whatnot.........

in the end, the worst part about it all is that you know theyre there, huh?