Tiny flea like animals in my water - help

[rupes88]

My new tank is on day 14 of the cycle and I have noticed that there are tiny tiny white flea like animal jetting about.

I have no fish yet but I have planted a moderate amount of plants.

What should I do about this ? when I get the fish will they just eat them or could they cause harm to fish and the general health of the tank ?

My tanks details:
99x47x60cm

temp: 28.5
Ph: 6.6
Am: .25
Nitrite: .5
Nitrate: 0

I also have a little light brown algae growing on the leaves of my anubias, should I just wipe this offer or is there a better treatment ?

I'm a little rusty as I havent had a discus tank for 10 years, so your help is appreciated.

thanks ~rupes

[Mulisha]

umm i'm not sure what this could be but is there lots of them or just one of them in the water :?:

[rupes88]

It is hard to tell how many there are but there are enough for you to find pretty easily if you look hard enough. They are really small but move pretty fast. I have also noticed that they come and rest on the glass for a while then they buzz off again!!

[Martin Boele]

Hello Rupes88,

The little light brown algae is normal when you start a new tank.
is will disappears after a few weeks.
For the second problem , is it moving on the glass like worms and is it small and about 7 mm ( 3/8 of a inch)long ???

Martin( from Holland )

[rupes88]

No, they are white and about the size of a gran of sugar and when they swim they are very fast and erratic.

I havent added any fish to the tank as yet. Do you think I should get some tetras and see if they eat them or should I solve this problem before I add them.

Thanks

[G-1000]

Hi Mate,

The algae definately is normal when cycling, however algae can also multiply with exposure to too much fluorecent light, or natural light.

As for the fleas in the water. Is it possbile that they are very small pieces of packaging foam or like polystyrene etc? Or are they definately fleas ?

G

[anti-generic]

connect a Uv in there and FRY them..
muhahhahahaha!

[rupes88]

To be honest I'm not sure what the are but they are definatly alive. When I say fleas, they are so small (size of a ball nib on a ball point pen) I cant really see there shape to well, but they look like some sort of pond life.

Know I think about it they probably hitched a ride with the plants. A few fish should make a meal of them. However, please let me know if youthink I should worry.

rupert

[Merrilyn]

Hi Rupert, they sound very much like cyclops. A distant relative of daphnia, and a useful food source for tiny fry. Larger fish will ignore them, but anything the size of a neon tetra will find them very tasty, if they can catch them. :lol:

They probably hitched a ride on your plants into the tank.

At this stage, I wouldn't be adding any fish, your ammonia level is still far too high and would soon kill anything you put in there.

Are you doing a fishless cycle, by adding raw ammonia to the tank, or are you using some other product.

Your nitrite reading shows that your cycle is well under way, but I'd still wait for a nitrate reading before adding any fish.

[Littlefish]

Sounds like some form of macroinvertebrate (cyclops or somesuch) that came in with the plants.

The fact that they have appeared in the absence of fish would suggest that they are not parasitic, and are probably feeding on detritus/bacteria. Probably make good fish food.

Fred

[rupes88]

WOW the heat has been a killer here in sydney today!! I've just spent a great day though skin diving ~~ big blue groupers - the sydney harbour is surprisingly clean and well stocked these days....there is some beautiful life in the blue....

Thanks for your comments I'm glad these little criters won't be a problem.

On day 15 of the cycle I have moderatly planted my tank (99x47x60cm) with Vals, crypts, wisteria, Anubias. No fish yet, and I'm using Stress Zyme and some discus buffer and I've got a bag of peat in the tricklle filter.

Am I on the write track ? Youre right LadyRed I will wait till i get zero ammonia and nitrite before adding any fish.