Tiny black bugs in tank?

[AlyKat]

Hi all...I'm a newbie to posting in this forum, but have been lurking for a while. I was wondering if you could answer this for me...I was doing a water change in my 20G that is home to 5 Platys and 5 Guppies, 1 Cory Cat and 1 Julii Cat. When I bought the bucket of tank water into the kitchen and looked inside(there's some fry in the tank and I wanted to make sure I didn't vacuum any up) there were hundreds of these tiny black bugs swimming around. I called my LFS and they seem to think that they're harmless. I'm not so sure...any input would be great!

Thanks!

AlyKat
55G - 7 Tiger Barbs, 4 Clown Loaches, 6 Zebra Danios & 2 Plecos
20G - 5 Guppies, 5 Platys, a few fry, 1 Cory Cat, and 1 Julii Cat
10G - about 20 guppy & platy fry

 

[Lotus]

Yes, they're most likely harmless. There are a number of small "bugs" that can get into tanks. You might want to do some extra water changes/gravel vacuuming to help reduce uneaten food/waste in the tank. It's hard in a fry tank to feed less, but upping the water changes can help get rid of these bugs.

 

[AlyKat]

Any clue as to what they are or where they came from? Do you think my other tanks at risk? My 10 and 20 are right next to each other...

 

[Lotus]

They could have come in with anything "wet" from the LFS, such as in water with fish, plants, etc.

 

[AlyKat]

They could have come in with anything "wet" from the LFS, such as in water with fish, plants, etc.

That's odd though, because I haven't put anything new in there for quite a long time...maybe a year?

 

[MissFishy]

I too have a shrimp tank with tons of these little black bugs! They don't seem to be spreading to the other tanks in the same room. I wonder if fry would eat these?

 

[MysterySnail]

Hello i also have these little black bugs in my tank but i know where mine came from. I babysit this couple who i also do their tank maintenance and i noticed these little black bugs in their tank. I caught one and saw that they were more like a little beetle. The couple said that the bugs had been in the tank for a while and that they seemed harmless. Well i breed their mystery snails so that i could start breeding them on my own, so i took a few of the freshly hatched mystery snails and put them in a tupper ware container with about an inch of water in it. I made absolute SURE that there were not little black bugs in the water because i didnt want them in my tank.

Lo and behold i wake up this morning to 4 of them in my tank. I really just want them out, but the newly hatched snails are so little and i dont want to accidently suction one of them out.

Any ideas?