How? What? Why? Huh?

[w6wat]

I was noticing some more new fry in my Neolamprolugus Brichardi tank. There are fry about a month old, and now several more a few days old. Mom & Dad are doing fine. They seem to spawn every 3 weeks or so. The water parameters are fine.

While looking into the tank, I noticed some unusual White threadlike growth on the glass. It's not Planaria. I've never seen it before, and I'm at a loss. While looking at this stuff, with some reading glasses, I noticed something crawling on the glass. I noticed a few of them, and since I float bio-media at all times in the tanks, I found more of them on the media. They are tiny critters about the size of half a BB. They appear to have some sort of exoskeleton that is transparent. From what I can see, it may have a spiral form. I tried to photograph them, but they're so tiny, it's impossible to get a good digital picture. I might have to dig out the film cameras with Ultra Macro lenses to see them clearly. I think they may be some kind of snail.

Anyway, my questions are what is the White spindly growth on the glass? And what the heck are the little critters?

There has never been any live plants nor live food in this tank. NEVER! All the plants are plastic, the rocks are fake. The gravel is epoxy coated and a commercial product sold as aquarium gravel. If they are snails, where the heck did they come from?

Help!

[Ghost_knife]

could be planeria (sp) and some form of Diatom

[Roan Art]

Limpets?

http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=5001

Roan

[w6wat]

Limpets?





Wow! That could very well be the culprit. I'll go do some research on those little suckers right now.

[w6wat]

Hmmmm.....ok, so there are freshwater limpets, and of course baby snails. It's going to be difficult to differentiate, and......from what I could find on them, there weren't really any references to origin. So, whatever they are, where did they come from?

Anybody have any clues as to the spindly white stuff? Again, it's not Planaria.

[RTR]

Examine with a hand lens - possible nematodes, possible hydra, possible crustacean, possible mollusk.

[w6wat]

Well.......it seems as though the white spindly stuff is probably a fungus from decaying food. The solution would be to vacuum the gravel and do a 25% water change. I can't vacuum the gravel as the tank is full of fry. They are fearless and curious, and would certainly be vacuumed up. I only put in enough flake food for mom and dad and a few of the larger fry to consume in a couple of minutes twice a day, as well as some "first bites" for the rest of the fry. Apparently this is too much food.

Now in regards to the "critters", with +350 reading glasses, I was able to get a better look at one. He/she has a transparent exoskeleton with some color on the hook/point. The "shell" appears to me to be somewhat spiraled in shape, but it's difficult to see. It may just be "volcano" shaped. There is a definite head protruding from the shell with a couple of horn-like appendices. These little suckers can cover some territory too! They move very quickly, probably 2-3 times faster than snails. The smallest one I can see is about 1/64", and the largest about 3/64".

Something else I spotted in there today was a spider-like critter. White in color with a tiny tube-like body shaped like a "T". From each section of the "T", were 4 long spindly arms or tentacles. It was clinging to the glass, and I pushed it off. The tentacles retracted, but as it was floating along with the tank current, out came the tentacles again. The fish looked at it, but weren't interested in eating it at all. What the heck is this, now? I've never had so many wierd things in a tank in all my years of fish keeping. Or, at least I never noticed them.

It's going to be nearly impossible to ever vacuum the gravel in this tank since mom and dad spawn approximately every 3 weeks. I guess I can try to catch most of the larger fry (1/2") and put them into their own tank. I have a 60g and another 28g sitting idle. I guess if I set up the 60, I could move the 2 dozen or so Brichardi, and then move the 5 dozen Hap. Obliquedens, a few Peacocks, and some soon to be released Labidichromis Caeruleus into a nicely sized multi-species juvenile tank. But I'm very concerned I'll move some of these critters from the Brichardi tank into the new setup. Hmmmm.....in the throes of a dilemma.

[Roan Art]

I've little limpets on the glass in my son's 65g upstairs, IMO they don't look like snails at all. Much flatter and they stay there even if the water level goes down. Hard as a rock, too, and hard to get off. I used an algae scraper.

FWIK they're harmless.

Roan

[Aqualung]

The "T" shaped critters could be some type of copepod. A google image search will show you some pics. I had lots of them show up in a greenwater culture recently. Excess food will allow them to multiply rapidly.