Daphnia/snails

[nanu156]

ummm yeah i mean a blanched zucchini got rid of my HORRID pond snail infestation pretty quickly. I just cut thin long strips put it in at lights out, then in the am threw it away. I would guess your snails would be having a hay day on it too but you just pick them off on your way to the trash can. I would do a new one every night till it came out clean one morning.

Also with an infestation like that you risk killing them off then their caucuses lay in your gravel and plants to rot, giving you an ammonia issue later.

I once bought a tank that had gravel in it, I dried the gravel in the sun and set up the tank. There had been curly little pond snail ish guys in the gravel I THOUGHT I had them all picked out, well..... 4 days later I lost 3 plecos that i was trying to spawn. Like a 400.00 lesson. Apparently there were soooo many snails in the gravel it was literally infested like a house full of roaches. They were dead and roughly the same color as the terracotta gravel. I didn't know that there were so many in there but my ammonia test was off the charts, like almost black/green wayyy past the dark green that is 8!

So using a snail killer could really backfire if you have a heavy infestation.

 

[Artemis_Psyche]

I guess I'm kind of confused since I've never seen these things, but if they are copepods and wandering in the gravel, couldn't you just do so gravel vacuuming to reduce their numbers?

 

[aakaakaak]

There had been curly little pond snail ish guys in the gravel I THOUGHT I had them all picked out, well..... 4 days later I lost 3 plecos that i was trying to spawn. Like a 400.00 lesson.

Zebras? Or gold nuggets?

 

[OrangeCones]

They do look a lot like that only they are a lot smaller. Could they perhaps be daphnia young?

'Daphnia' is a common term for many related critters. Some are so tiny you can barely see them, others are much larger. I breed smaller ones for fry food. If you think Chili Rasbora are small, their fry are teeny tiny!

 

[paperdog9]

'Daphnia' is a common term for many related critters. Some are so tiny you can barely see them, others are much larger. I breed smaller ones for fry food. If you think Chili Rasbora are small, their fry are teeny tiny!

Ya, mine are free swimming, but they like to stay in the gravel, so I'm wondering if I have a smaller spiecies.

 

[paperdog9]

I guess I'm kind of confused since I've never seen these things, but if they are copepods and wandering in the gravel, couldn't you just do so gravel vacuuming to reduce their numbers?

Yes, but when the vacuum goes in, it scares them and they scatter all over the plants making it hard to get to them.

 

[paperdog9]

ummm yeah i mean a blanched zucchini got rid of my HORRID pond snail infestation pretty quickly. I just cut thin long strips put it in at lights out, then in the am threw it away. I would guess your snails would be having a hay day on it too but you just pick them off on your way to the trash can. I would do a new one every night till it came out clean one morning.

Also with an infestation like that you risk killing them off then their caucuses lay in your gravel and plants to rot, giving you an ammonia issue later.

I once bought a tank that had gravel in it, I dried the gravel in the sun and set up the tank. There had been curly little pond snail ish guys in the gravel I THOUGHT I had them all picked out, well..... 4 days later I lost 3 plecos that i was trying to spawn. Like a 400.00 lesson. Apparently there were soooo many snails in the gravel it was literally infested like a house full of roaches. They were dead and roughly the same color as the terracotta gravel. I didn't know that there were so many in there but my ammonia test was off the charts, like almost black/green wayyy past the dark green that is 8!

So using a snail killer could really backfire if you have a heavy infestation.

Could cucumber or lettuce work? Maybe just a trap with fish food in it?

 

[IThinkTherefore]

Well, I think what we want to avoid here is overcorrecting and causing a bigger problem.

From what I can gather, the copepods are not hurting anything, but copper can be extremely harmful to inverts and trace amounts *will* remain in the tank after the water changes.

Perhaps, if they aren't causing too much trouble, you may want to treat with regular vacuumings and cucumber traps, and reduce the amount of food you give your fish. If you reduce their food source and consistently remove even some of their numbers, you may see a steady decrease to extinction.