Petshrimp.com Discussion Forum

Good morning all,

At first I thought I had Glass Shrimp babies! As to the naked eye they looked like a microscopic shrimp shape. Then more & more weird things started showing up in my jar sample (I keep it on my computer desk, so I can watch these things grow close up) as the weeks went on (about 2 weeks in total since I found these things in the filter). I've looked at shrimp larval stage images, & I don't think they match. However I cannot see all the body parts of these "creatures" in my sample, so I'm not fully sure. If anyone can take a peek at the images I took with my Digital Camera, & help me ID these creatures, so I know how to deal with them, i would greatly appreciate it.

This is creature "A". The camera was set just below 50% of a 7.1MP. I forgot it was set low "d'oh". This was the best image of this creature "A" I was able to get.
http://jess.the-dog-dish.net/gallery2/m ... alNumber=1

This is creature "B" & 2 of creature "C".. I know what creature "C" is & am not worried about them. To me Creature "B" looks a lot like creature "A", however there are slight differences. This is why I think these are larva shrimp (or something), as they keep changing shapes slightly. Creatures "A" & "B" have been growing, or so it looks that way to me.
http://jess.the-dog-dish.net/gallery2/m ... alNumber=2

The reason I took images of the worms as well, was to give a size. The worms are those white worms (I forget their proper name). They are harmless to fish, they are a sign of a dirty tank. My worms live in the filter. I got those lovely things when I bought my Oscar 7yrs ago. Shes long gone, poor thing was doomed before I bought her.

Here is the gallery of the images I took of my samples. There are also white marble like things zooming around. They are quite large compared to creature "A". I looked in my pail (I dumped the filter water into a pail, not sure what else to do) & it is "now" infested with these black zooming things.
http://jess.the-dog-dish.net/?q=gallery ... OISSES_PMT


Thanks in advanced everyone.

Jess


EDIT: Forgot to mention, this is from my 90gal tank. I keep catfish, tetras, mystery snails, dwarf frogs, & shrimp (Glass mostly, & 1 Banana/Flower) in this tank.

Jess,

Thanks for posting your pictures. The creatures in question look like cyclops, a freshwater copepod, to me. Your water quality most be great as they are rarely live in tanks with poor water conditions.

Duane

Now thats cool to hear! & sucks that they are not baby shrimp "poo".

I'm now going to read up on them, to see if they are good to have or not.


Thank you so much for replying!

Jess

Hi Jess, welcome to the forum. Were/are any of your shrimp berried (carrying eggs)? You will see this about 3-4 weeks before you see the baby shrimps.

Thank you,

Yes several females I see on a daily bases have eggs. I have more then 20 glass shrimp in that tank. I love watching them move their swimmers to move the eggs around in her tail & I'm assuming to regulate water flow & temps. Thats why I thought those creatures might be baby shrimp. I'm just going to dump the pail now, as its gross water in my opinion, cause of all the brown algie my filter collects from the hand picked wood I have in the tank.

Its a natural hand picked tank. Each stone was hand picked & each log was picked & cut. I believe that why these creatures are able to live in the filter. Its warm, dark, safe from the fish, frogs, & shrimp, & there is an endless supply of food for them.

here is a picture of the tank.
http://jess.the-dog-dish.net/gallery2/m ... alNumber=2
Its not finished, its still a project in the making

You have alot of wood in that tank. What size tank is it and do have plants in there?

Its about a 90gal tank. The wood is Oak & Cherry, there are no plants in the tank yet. The back 1/2 of the tank is bare on the bottom. As soon as I can collect enough small pebbles (its winter here) & thin cherry branches, I'll think about adding plants. The tank is a catfish tank, not a shrimp tank. The shrimp have a job to do, like all the other non-fish critters I picked. With the plecos I know it'll be hard to keep plants, as they'll smoosh & uproot them.

I do have a 10gal plant tank. I just started it last weekend, as I was given 2 shrimp that attacked my friends fav pet shrimp. he had crazy long arms & was named Pinchy. Poor thing no longer has his long arms, they were chopped off So I took the a2 ggressive shrimp in & took some of her plants, so start my own plant tank.

You can als use moss in the tank which looks great and can be tied or placed anywhere in the tank. You can also get java ferns and anubias and tie those to the wood All of these plants require little light.

Wow, aggressive shrimp

I was thinking of tying on a small piece of moss to 1 of the logs & seeing how it does. I just wasn't sure if I wanted that moss growing everywhere or not. As it looks like it can grow like a weed & to the glass its self. My fear is it getting into my 200.00 filter & breaking it. I would be boned 100% if that happened. I'm far from rich hehe

My friend is heart broken over Pinchy's lost arms. She keeps fearing hes going to die. No one is really sure what he is (last I heard anyways). She posted him on here a week or so ago.. the other shrimp with the big blue furry claws are the ones who did that attacking.

The moss will not grow wild if the lights are low like yours are. Just have it tied so it does not float into your filter.

Pinchy will be alright if allowed to molt once or twice. the are will grow back and Pincy will have hopefully learned to stay away from the bullys

As long as I don't need a lawnmower to keep the moss under control, I'll tie a couple little pieces some time this week, Thanks

Cool tank critters. The first picture is definitely a copepod or cyclops as mentioned. Not sure what the leggy worm things are - possibly some form of insect larvae. Post more pictures as your tank develops and you find more critters. Don't worry about the micro-creatures as it does mean your water is of good quality. Alot of the smaller critters will also eat suspended green algae and so keep your water clean - any sudden algae blooms will soon be compensated for by an increase in algae eaters.

Shadohfrog the worms are commonly called red or white worms. They are commonly found in large Cichlid tanks. They are from cheap foods, & if you have marble sized balls of the worms, you have a filthy tank. A few like I have are fine. I have tried killing them for yrs now & as you can tell, they are still around. They eat left over fish food. They are 100% harmless to the fish & other fritters in the tank. The worst the worms will do is swim into the side of the fish & annoy it. You know what it feels like when a piece of dust or hair lands on your nose, its kinda like that. The worms are either stuck to the side of the tank, or they are swimming around like a sperm does.

I'll collect some in a jar, stir them up, & then tell my friends they are catfish sperm hehehe

I'm so mean