You know...I've been staring into my oodles of X-mas moss and I've seen a couple of itty bitty green things zip by -- maybe tiny green scuds? I don't have green shrimp in the tanks so it can't be them...besides the green shrimp babies appear clear at this size.
I'll keep you posted if they do turn out to be the green scuds...maybe separate them and try to breed a colony. Can anyone tell me how they breed? eggs I'm assuming...lol
Acsuth wrote:You know...I've been staring into my oodles of X-mas moss and I've seen a couple of itty bitty green things zip by -- maybe tiny green scuds? I don't have green shrimp in the tanks so it can't be them...besides the green shrimp babies appear clear at this size.
Scuds are usually clear. Any color they show is normally food in their digestive tracks. That's what makes Mustafa's find so cool. One clue to identifying them as scuds is to watch their swimming style. It should be jerky -- a quick sprint, followed by a brief rest and another sprint.
Bradimus wrote:My sister-in-law works for the Florida Dept. of Environment Protection. One of her colleagues monitors freshwater inverts to track water quality. He IDed them.
Ok, I have some like in the photo...but I have more that look a bit like rolly polys -- looking down on them they are oblong with little horizontal black stripes...then the green things are so tiny I can't tell what they are... I guess there are a few different species in the X-mas moss lol.
I think I might have them too but they are so tiny I dont now if you could see them that ig enought o see what they are. I wish I had some water fleas again I remeber that I got them in a tank once and they were a light pink color it seemed.
I actually was trying to find some of those little buggers to buy at one point. I heard they are cool to have in a little desktop tank at work and pretty entertaining. I'd love to ask someone to send me a couple, but there is no way I am paying $28 to ship something that usually ends up in your tank by accident. Still, it would be cool to have some. I am a fan of little critters in my tanks that don't hurt anything. I got some aquatic worms that look like half inch earthworms in one of my tanks and tried to reseed them when I sterilized my tank, but unfortunately had no luck. I don't even know what they are called.
-Aphyosemion
Aphyosemion, if you could add your location (on your profile page), we might be able to help more. As it is, perhaps someone in your immediate vicinity may have scuds, daphnia, etc. that they might be willing to hand you but we don't know where you're coming from.
You are probably talking about the "Blackworm" (Lumbriculus variegatus). It is an aquatic worm, which looks like a huge Tubifex (with which it is NOT related by the way) and is sold for very cheap in most Pet Stores as live fish food. You should be able to get a good portion for a little more than a dollar.
Mustafa
Aphyosemion wrote:I got some aquatic worms that look like half inch earthworms in one of my tanks and tried to reseed them when I sterilized my tank, but unfortunately had no luck. I don't even know what they are called.
-Aphyosemion
Well, I live in Minnesota in the twin cities. As for the worms, I had seen pictures of blackworms where there was a whole mass of them and you couldn't really see what they looked like up close. The worms in my tank weren't black, but red, just like an earthworm. Still, the size of blackworms looks right, so maybe individually they are more red than black? I'm not positive, but those could be what I had. If that is, I think I will buy some more now that my tank has been up and running for a long time. More activity in the gravel is a good thing to keep it from compacting. Plus, anything that might pop it's head up and be a renewable fish food is an added bonus.
-Aphyosemion
They won't harm anything in the tank really. If you really want to get rid of them badly I would try loaches, which should be able to dig them out. My P. paludosus (freshwater glass shrimp) pull the blackworms out of the ground, too.
