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Unidentified Insect

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richard

Guest
In my C.O. tank there are very very small insects "flickering around". they are approximately 1/64 of an inch to 1/32 of an inch. They are pure white and congregate on my java moss. half of their length is composed of what seems to be an ultra thin tail. My ghost shrimp has taken a liking to stalking these things. Are they brine shrimps? on the largest one i saw, it appeared to be vaguely lobster shaped. can you see Daphnia? I have no idea what they are or what their presence in my tank means. Is it possible they came in on a plant(even though I haven't bought any plants in 2 months and i just found them today)? Could they be some kind of parasite? Please give me a heads up if you know what im talking about....
 
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joseph

Guest
How do they move? If they move with a darting motion they could be Cyclops.
 
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richard

Guest
yeah they move with a darting zigzag motion. I cant find any size ranges on these answers you have provided. Id like to know so i can compare them with the ones in my tank. I googled images of springtails and the tails are too short to match. On all the pictures i found, they looked too different in body width. they move very fast like the ghost shrimp. Is it possible my shrimps reproduced?
 
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jennifer

Guest
The microscopy site I gave does list the sizes of the organisms. If you go to the page on Arthropods, it links to a good page about Cyclops, which seems like a good possibility. It is also certainly possible that your ghost shrimp reproduced. If so, congratulations, that's a rarity!
 
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richard

Guest
Thanks Jen. I completely missed the cyclops page. I am pretty confident by now that these little critters are cyclops. Cyclops are mainly fed to Juvies right? An adult is not going to waste his time with these? thanks again
 
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richard

Guest
I brought some of these guys to my school and viewed them with the microscopes(as I have no idea where mine is..), and this insect is quite clearly cyclops. on other posts i have seen people mention that cyclops can be a pest to adult newts. Is this true? When Under the microscope, I noticed that there are a few tiny little white worms wriggling in the water - is this a normal observation of aquarium water and I am just getting worked up over nothing, or is there the possibility of their being parasitic? I can now visibly identify them(cyclops) by their egg sacs.
 
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edward

Guest
Hi Richard,

I may be misrembering it but unless you are referring to anchor worm which is a type of copepod, your adults are safe from the free living copepods you see in the tank. Some of the larger copepods can predate on small larva but the adults should be fine.
It sounds like you are seeing the normal microfauna that is often found in the tanks.

Ed
 
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cameron

Guest
Those are definately springtails. I found some in my container yesterday and took me quite a while to get them all out.
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