Sounds like they could be copepods. VERY GOOD if so. Do a search to find a picture and see if this is what you have.
white bugs
hi,
i can not find out any info on these small white bugs crawling all over my tank, i used copper and nothing, they just hide in my crushed coral substrate!. i have tried the stuff from kent marine and that did not work. they seem not to bother any of my fish and do not seem to trouble my small reef tank( has it too), i think they came from a store i had delt with a while ago.
they are small about the size of a pencile head and climb up the sides of the tank with no problem, only when i do a major cleaning or have to move coral around do they come out.
does any one have any idea what they could be and do i leave them alone or how would i get rid of them without killing everything?
thanks for any help
tim
i can not find out any info on these small white bugs crawling all over my tank, i used copper and nothing, they just hide in my crushed coral substrate!. i have tried the stuff from kent marine and that did not work. they seem not to bother any of my fish and do not seem to trouble my small reef tank( has it too), i think they came from a store i had delt with a while ago.
they are small about the size of a pencile head and climb up the sides of the tank with no problem, only when i do a major cleaning or have to move coral around do they come out.
does any one have any idea what they could be and do i leave them alone or how would i get rid of them without killing everything?
thanks for any help
tim
1 - 14 of 14 Posts
Did you say you used copper in your reef tank?
sorry i have two tanks one is a small reef the other is just fish, i uted copper with just the fish, at one point in time i could not see any fish at all because of the millons of millons of these small white bugs
tims
tims
If you could post a close up picture of one on the glass someone can probably correctly identify it. Do they get on the fish or just the glass and rock? Do you have live rock in the FO tank?
i do not have the right camera to take a good picture of them because of the size, they do not seem to affect the fish in any way. if they are copepods they may have come from a group of feather dusters i had in the tank a few years ago.
You know, now that I think about it, I had little white worms in my tank a couple of years ago. They came all at once it semmed like. Hundreds if not thousands as if they all matured at the same time and started hunting for food. At the time I had a tomato clown, bi-color angel, couple of blue damsels, and a purple and yellow pseudochromis. I'm not sure which fish did it but they were completely gone within a week. What kind of fish do you have in your tanks?
in this tank i have a wonderful 12 inch bat fish, a percula clown, foxface and cortez angel. i did have several dusters about 1 1/2 years ago.i thin the copper was sucked up by my crushed coral base, but i did remove water with the little buggers and add copper to them. they seemed to laught at me. maybe it is not a big problem now but i have run in to not being able to see any fish unless they are against the front glass. i just do not want to lose my batfish, i have had him since he was a baby.
tims
tims
tims
They do sound like some type of fauna, either pods or worms, that more than likely likes left over food and detritus. Try siphoning and cleaning small sections of your gravel at a time until you get it back in line again.
Also, you might want to look into either feeding your tank less or exporting more of the left overs out of it.
I don't think there's any direct harm to your fish from these critters, but they are a sign that your water quality could be deteriorating from waste in the system.
They do sound like some type of fauna, either pods or worms, that more than likely likes left over food and detritus. Try siphoning and cleaning small sections of your gravel at a time until you get it back in line again.
Also, you might want to look into either feeding your tank less or exporting more of the left overs out of it.
I don't think there's any direct harm to your fish from these critters, but they are a sign that your water quality could be deteriorating from waste in the system.
thanks for everyones input, i will try to clean the substrate a little at a time and see if that helps.ummmm wonder if there is a market for them?
tims
tims
I still think...
...that you have copepods, alot of fish will try to eat them if they can, my clowns and my chromis eat them, they are good in moderation but it sounds like you have a large festaion, the main reason copepods multiply and infestate your tank is that you overfeed, so I guess what I'm trying to ask is how often do yo feed your fish?:fish:
...that you have copepods, alot of fish will try to eat them if they can, my clowns and my chromis eat them, they are good in moderation but it sounds like you have a large festaion, the main reason copepods multiply and infestate your tank is that you overfeed, so I guess what I'm trying to ask is how often do yo feed your fish?:fish:
i downlaoded your pic for reference. i feed once in the morning and once in the evening. i did find out that my girlfriend and my 6 yr. old were feeding them too !!!!!, they looked hungry they said..... well i am the only one feeding now. my rainbow wrasse is not too happy about that but.....
tims
tims
well there you go a small snack in the morning (maybe) and food at night I use (5 in 1) and thats it, I know their cute and look hungry but they can go for a week or two without eating its not gonna kill them
the pic doesn't look like white bugs but they are its been magnified a lot
1 - 14 of 14 Posts
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