File :-(, x, )
HALP Anonymous
My dearest /an/...

I've been cycling my new 2 1/2 gallon freshwater tank for a couple of weeks now (grainy cell phone pic very related) and today I noticed something strange. What I originally thought were reeeeally tiny bubbles floating in the water are actually thousands upon thousands of barely visible white creatures. They are very tiny, probably less than two tenths of a millimeter all together. They are covering the walls of the aquarium (about a millimeter or two apart) and my best assumption, since it is still very hard to tell with just a magnifying glass, is that they are teardrop shaped. They are constantly moving and when they bump into each other they jolt backwards a little bit and then keep on moving. I'm a biochemistry major, /an/, so I'm clueless without a microscope and I have hardly any experience with aquariums (this is my first on my own, my dad used to keep fish a long time ago). Has anyone had the same thing happen to them, or does anyone have any idea what these guys are and if they're going to hurt my fishies? I'm going to try and check them out under the microscope tomorrow if the microbiology lab on campus is open.
>> Anonymous
Huh, I've never had that happen. I'd just dump out the water, sterilize everything, and start over.
>> Anonymous
http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/Tank_critters.shtml

Check this out, are they limpets maybe? I've never had them in my tank that I know of, but if this is them, maybe you can find some information on getting rid of them.
>> Anonymous
>>188815
sounds like Daphnea
>> Anonymous
I had the same problem with my fishtank a couple years ago, but I had fish in it. I just had to clean the tank (vacuum the rocks and replace some water) and the fish ate whatever freaky things were left over. Didn't sterilize or anything and they haven't come back, just needed to clean the rocks and such.
>> Anonymous
>>188816
OH GOD NO
>>188820
I forgot to mention, they move pretty fast so they're not limpets or flatworms. I wiki'd "ostracod" and it looks pretty close to what I'd imagine these fuckers look like under the microscope, but 2mm is still huge compared to what I have.
>>188840
Probably not daphnia, they float around and the things in my tank are crawling on the glass.
>> Anonymous
>>188815

my thought it almost something like a brine shrimp from what you described.

srsly don't have a clue, good luck D:
>> Anonymous
BRB GOIN TO FAV FISHBOARD TO GET ANSWERS
>> Anonymous
Water is never truly dead in the fish tank, it always has various living organisms inside it. The ammount of those organisms depend on food availibility and predators. If you have no fish in your tank then noone is going to eat those creatures and they would leave happily until ran out of food source. If you do have fish it means that you probably overfeed it or fish creates lots of waste.
In general I would not worry about those small criters. Everything goes according to keikaku.
>> Anonymous
Planaria. Harmless.
Once you introduce fish, they'll be gone due to om nom nom.
>> Anonymous
lol @ cycling a 2.5 gallon
>> Anonymous
>>188982
What's lolworthy about that?
The smaller a fishtank, the harder to maintain!
With less water, the balance of the system becomes very senitive.
A 1000 gallon tank is very easy to maintain in contrast.
Also, the filter needs at least 2 weeks for bacteria to settle in.
That does not depend on size.
>> Anonymous
probably ich or fish lice. I would first try salting the tank. Really it's a good idea to salt any tank you are going to put new fish in. By the way, I think it's one tbsp of SEASALT, not regular table salt, for every gallon of water. I'm not positive so you should google it.
>> Anonymous
>>188884
what's your favorite fish board?
>> Anonymous
>>188884

^
|
|
Me... yeah, sounds like plantaria or hydra of some type from the feedback that I got. That or this - http://www.microscope-microscope.org/applications/pond-critters/animals/cyclops.htm
- which doesn't seem to fit you're description.

>>188986

I started on petfish but noa also like ultimatebettas. Good info and most folks definitely know the difference between a hole
and their ass in the ground.
>> Anonymous
     File :-(, x)
If they are that small and have a tapering body I would suggest Copepod Cyclopoida. When you look under the mic look for egg sacs. If you see then hanging off its behind its pry a copepod.
>> Anonymous
P.S. If they do look like these little guys, they eat algae and zooplankton, like protozoans and dinoflagellates and junk. Also, these little guys end up EVERYWHERE! You could put a bucket on top of a roof, pick it up a week later, and theyd be in there....how...who knows.
>> Anonymous
If you want to kill little buggers, get a uvc - cleaner.
>> Anonymous
Put Freshwater Aquarium salt in it and make sure the tank is about 82 degrees. If it's Ich, it'll be gone in roughly 10 days. Also, the bacteria you're trying to cycle in will only develop if there's a food source. I.E. Ammonia and Nitrites. My suggestion is this. Buy Stress Zyme as that's a bottle of this nitrifying bacteria and add it right after putting fish in there. Then add it on the 7th and 14th day.
>> Anonymous
OP here: I put them under the scope and it turns out they're ciliate protozoans of some sort. They closely resemble paramecium but they are still smaller than any paramecium I ever remember seeing. Possibly blepharisma or euglena. They're too small to be ich, which is also a ciliate protozoa, so I'm fine with them, as long as they're eating fish food that falls to the bottom of the tank for me.

By the way I probably should have mentioned that I'm cycling with four white cloud mountain minnows.