Tiny White Bugs In My Tank!

J

jbhumphreys

Guest
I have a 55 gallon tank with 4 shrimp, snails, and about 11 lbs of live rock. Moved my fish over to my hospital tank about 2 weeks ago to deal with an Ick outbreak. Today I noticed little white bugs swimming around the back of my 55 gallon tank. What could they be? I just added about 6 lbs of live rock last weekend. Could they have come from it? Could it be ICH? Does ICH swim?
 

fshhub

Active Member
sounds like pods, and yes they probably came on the rock, no need to worry, they are good things
HTH
 

tyrfing

Member
Lay off the caffeine, don't worry. First, ich is a bacterial infection, it's so small you wouldn't be able to see it in the tank, so what you're seeing is definitely not ich.
Dollars to doughnuts the hitchhikers came on your latest batch of live rock. Without a more detailed description, it's hard to say what they are.
Take a magnifying glass and get a closer look. If you look carefully, you'll probably see them on the front of your tank, water returns, power heads etc. Note how many legs, whether the front ends have claws or elongated legs, if the bodies are segmented or not, whether there are antennae etc. The more descriptive you are, the better people can help you.
The best thing is that you have a copepod break out which is a great thing. Copes are the beginning of the food chain for most carniverous fish and a sign of a healthy tank. The worst is that they are mantis shrimp larvae which would suck worse than a sequel to the movie "Dude Where's My Car?".
By the way, how are you treating the ich and how long are you going to treat for? It's persistent so be careful.
 
i am no expert but i do believe they are copepods ... i have them as well and wondered what they were .. i looked on line and also asked the clerk at my lfs and i was told it may be that ... check on line .. :)
 
J

jbhumphreys

Guest
These things are tiny little white bugs, about the size of an Ich spot on a fish. That is why I thought that. They swim like a newly hatched Brine Shrimp. Way to small for me to see how many legs they have. Maybe I am just now noticing them because there are no fish in the tank to eat them. All of my fish are in my Quarantine tank for the past 2 weeks. I am treating them with Hyposalinty. Seems to be working well. I don't plan on moving them back for another 2 to 3 weeks.
 

fshhub

Active Member
it is doubtful that you could see ick, besides,
if they are bug like looking, i would have to say they are pods, and if you keep the fish out fro 4 weeks(total), you should be fine, for ick should die without a host in a little under 4 weeks
 
J

jbhumphreys

Guest
Thanks. Will the pods grow? Have never heard of them before. I'm guessing my fish will eat them all up once I put them back in.
 

fshhub

Active Member
they eat detritus and the fish eat them, if you wait a couple of more weeks, they may establish themselves well enough that your fish will not deplete them completley
 

broomer5

Active Member
I've been lucky enough to never have to deal with Ich ... so I am no disease expert, but I'm pretty sure it's a parasite not a bacterial infection.
What you most likely have as others have mentioned are copepods. They are harmless. They most likely came in on your recent addition of live rock.
Here's a link more info on copepods.
<a href="http://www.nmnh.si.edu/iz/copepod/" target="_blank">http://www.nmnh.si.edu/iz/copepod/</a>
 

tyrfing

Member
You have pods man! They will get a bit bigger. Everyonce in a while you'll see a larger husk of one floating by and you'll be able to get a better look at them. It's really not the size of the individual pod, but the size of the population that contributes to the health of your ecosystem. Congrats, you must have pretty good parameters to have the little guys in there!
 
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