Hi all, Im usually in the goldfish dept, but my daughter is having a potential problem with her tropical tank.

She has a white shell painted clam decoration which is literally crawling with these pinhead size grey dots. Yesterday I took the piece out and washed it with hot tap water and put it back in. They are back again. I don't see them any where else in the tank. I dont know if they are blending in with the dark colored rocks though.

We have'nt seen anything on the fish, and the fish seem OK.

They almost look like human lice, I thought maybe they were fish lice, but from what I've read about fish lice, I would think I would find big things on the fish.

Please help. Will her catfish eat them or should I be treating them?

I had these in my tank years ago and but i dont know what they are called. I'm sure they are harmless though and shows she has a good eco sytem going. Mine just disappeared one day so maybe the fish will eat them.
What kind of fish does she have?

Hi Sandy, and thanks for the quick reply

She has a 15 gal tank that she cycled with 2 guppies, which Im afraid did not make it

She now has 2 baby dalmation mollies, a betta, and a small baby catfish. The tank has been up and running for approx 2mos now.

One of her mollies lost an eye. ( I can only guess he ran into a pointy plant which I suggested she remove) We moved him to a small hospital tank with the thought that he would die, as he didn't look so hot. I salted the water a little and did water changes every day for him. 4 days later he looks perky, and ready to go back home, he's just missing an eye

Anyway Im glad you think these little creatures won't harm the fish, I
have never seen anything like them. We will just make sure we keep the tank clean and keep an "eye-out" for any problems.