Tamara

Ok i have no clue what this is!!!
it has nothing to do with my fish, they seem fine,
i have; 1pleco thing, 1corycat, 5guppies, 4mollies

and i was changing my rocks yesterday and i found all these little TINY eggs type BUGS!!!
they're probably about 2-7millimeters big..
they're orangish, with little black spots
my camera couldn't take a picture that you could see them!
i found them all under the rocks,
and some are now climbing on top...only a few around the edges that i could see.
There's probably about...100, 000-1million..
HELP ME PLEASE!
the fish seem normal as well!

Tamara

also they crawl!/swim on the rocks
sothey are alive!

Isabella

Did you lately buy any live plants? Do you have any live plants in your tank? If so, they can be snail eggs and snails brought from the store on plants.

If not, they can be planaria. Planaria are tiny worms (that can grow larger if not removed from the tank in time). They are the result of too much fish wastes or uneaten food collected on tank's bottom - which is what they feed on. If you perform regular (weekly) water changes with THOROUGH gravel vacs, you shouldn't have them. Overfeeding may also cause planaria.

When you perform water changes, you should clean your gravel with a siphon tube, and remove the wastes from beneath the gravel. If it's left there to rot, it will increase your nitrate and may cause the planaria we're talking about. Planaria are not dangerous to fish; in fact, your fish may even eat them if they can see them - something like bloodworms, lol.

Tamara

i have no live plants, and usually i stir the gravel every 2weeksish
i bought 6 new fish within the past month...
could snails have been on the fish?
and they're to smalll to get out ofthe tank with a net either...
ill checknitrIte & ammonia right now

Isabella

No, not snails. They're probably planaria in your case. Stirring gravel every 2 weeks won't do. You need to remove the wastes from underneath the gravel every week. Do it with a siphon tube, it's real easy. And do it regularly. If you do this, the planaria should be gone after a while. If you don't want them to appear again, perform weekly gravel vacs, as I've said before.

Tamara

i just looked up planaria and it says:flat bodied and long....the things i have are round...

Isabella

If your planaria are still tiny, they may not yet have the shape and length as well as the color of the adult planaria. If it's not planaria and if they're not snails ... I really don't know. But whatever it is, THOROUGH AND REGULAR GRAVEL VACS should remove them. Whatever it is, do perform weekly and thorough gravel vacs with a siphon tube. And then see if they go away.

Tamara

"If small white creatures are seen crawling all over the glass and ornaments, especially at night, they may be planaria. Planaria commonly show up in tanks with an excess of food. Most are introduced to an aquarium from other aquaria with live foods like black worms, live plants, or anything else moved from an active aquarium that has them. There is some belief that they can survive in freeze-dried or frozen foods. If a lot of food is left in a tank; including dead and dying fish, snails, other animals, and plants; then a few planaria may divide into hundreds very quickly. "
theyre brown w/ black dots...
+round

Isabella

As I have said before: If these creatures are neither snails nor planaria, I don't know what they are, I'm sorry. But the only best thing you can do - no matter what they are - is change your water every week with a thorough gravel vac. That is all I can suggest to you.

Tamara

Ok--well thanks anyways, but also...if i completly changed the tank and just kept some of the water in buckets...but completly cleaned the tank..would that get rid of them? or would that just move them to my bath tub??because over the weekend they've multiplied probably by about 5 so about 100,000 of them are now in my tank....all the fish are still fine too.

chickadee

What are you feeding your fish? Would any of the food be fresh or freeze-dried? If so sometimes the fish do not eat every last bit of it and there are things that grow from the residue of the food. I had a small problem with the daphnia until I learned to put just a couple of pieces in for the bettas and make them eat them in front of me. If you do not watch that your fish eat all their food you could be looking at a host of little parasites growing out of the leftover scraps.

As Isabella has said, nothing substitutes for a good cleaning and suctioning of the gravel along with a massive water change. Sometimes it takes a water change again the next day after everything has settled if the stuff is ruffled up into the water. It takes a while to get good at syphoning.

Rose

Tamara

well i know you're not supposed to do this...but i took all the gravel out, took all the water out...cleaned everything!
now it's fine, and i'm slowly adding gravel back in just in case if they decide to come back...
and also i got a new filter which definetly i think helps!
but thanks for all the help to!

chickadee

You probably got rid of all your beneficial bacteria so the tank is probably going to cycle again. Please start testing for ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates again daily and check for raised levels until the cycle completes. Unless you are leaving the old filter cartridge in the new filter to seed the new filter, the beneficial bacteria went out with the old filter and gravel, since that is where almost all the bacteria are hosted.

Please let us know if there is a problem that occurs due to this situation. I hope everything works out well and you find a solution to the problem.

Rose

Miss Mouse

sounds like it could be daphnia? do they look a bit like little waterboatment? (do you know those things that swim around in ponds)