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I was looking into my betta tanks a week or so ago and saw one in which the water looked cloudy. Weird, I thought, so I looked closer. The WATER wasn't cloudy, rather, there were these tiny white specks on the sides of the tank, and they were MOVING! I cleaned the tank extra well and the specks haven't returned. I found the same thing in another tank just yesterday.

Now, there doesn't seem to be ANY connection between the two tanks. I mean, I have five betta tanks in my bedroom and only two have shown this weird... stuff. To make things even more confusing, the two tanks couldn't be more different.

All the betta tanks are two gallon kritter keepers, heated but not filtered. They are scheduled to get 100% waterchanges weekly. All tanks are fed the same food, the same amount, at the same time.

The first tank I found it in was Jez's tank (there's another thread debating over "her" sex, female or short-tailed male). She's absolutely healthy, not even a tear on her fins. There's no medication in her water at all.

Just recently, I found the same weird white specks in Equity's tank. He's got severe tail rot (he did SOMEthing to his tail that caused him to lose half his tail in one day and I just haven't been able to stop the resulting fin rot), currently medicated with Melafix and Pimafix, as nothing else seems to help. Both are dosed at the proper levels, once daily. The white specks showed up two days after a water change.

Both fish are my most ravenous eaters (I call them my sharks). They are both active and healthy (despite Equity's tail). They have exactly the same gravel, the same plants, same heater, same EVERYthing. But so do most of my betta tanks! There's absolutely NO reason I can think of why these two would exhibit WHATEVER those white specks are and other tanks don't.

The white specks are very thin and maybe 1/16 of an inch long (sort of worm-like but VERY tiny). Barely noticeable until you stare directly at the glass. When I do water changes, I rinse the tank in hot water, swish the gravel around, everything. The betta waits in one of those betta cups while I do this.

Okay... I've been keeping bettas for nearly two years now and this is the FIRST time I've ever seen this happen. Any ideas? I haven't changed anything in the past few weeks, same food, same dechlor... season's changing, so perhaps the city's changed whatever they put in the water (yay for lake michigan's yucky water)...

Ack! Okay, now I just found it in my betta tank here, which doesn't even have ANYTHING to do with the bettas in my bedroom. He's got river rocks, not gravel substrate, different plants, different heater, same water though... ARGH. What on EARTH is going on?!

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

They *could* be planaria, which would be really odd in this case. These wormy organisms typically show up only in dirty tanks, ones which do not see many water changes, and have leftover rotting food about. They are not actually dangerous to fish, in fact, many fish see these flatworms as a tasty snack. They just feed on the leftover food and whatnot, and are sort of helpful. However, people don't tank kindly to these unsightly intruders. They can be eliminated through water changes, especially the thorough ones that you are doing. If those things looked like [link=this]http://ebiomedia.com/prod/newimages/plan.jpg" style="COLOR: #808080[/link] they were planaria. Otherwise, I haven't a clue as to what these things were.

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

Perhaps it's limpets? I've had them a while ago and apparently I got them with some new plants. Have a look here, this is my thread about the limpets.

Mine are gone now. They went as suddenly as they came.

No, I've seen planaria before, and the planaria I've seen are like, ten+ times longer than these tiny little things. They're like specks of dust that just happen to be alive. If they're limpets, I can't tell... I mean, I can barely see to tell that they're sort of worm-like in nature... they're TINY. Smaller than the average grain of sand. Or rather, they might almost be the size of a grain of sand if they curled up into balls...

Guess I'm just going to scrub this tank clean, too, and hope they don't come back. I just don't get it... why these three tanks out of SIX betta tanks? This one isn't even on the same floor of the house as the others. There's nothing about these three that are different from the others. Some are medicated, some not, but there doesn't seem to be any connecting factor. Sigh.

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

If they're not explicitly causing any harm, I don't feel there's adequate justification for tearing down a tank to remove them. This being said, I would remain wary of their presence; do you have a microscope under which you may view a specimen?

Heh... oh, that's not tearing down the tank, that's normal cleaning procedure. There's no way I'm going to attempt to cycle a non-filtered two gallon tank. 100% cleaning is standard for small betta tanks.

I don't LIKE whatever the specks are, so I want to get rid of them, but I wouldn't tear down a tank unless it was absolutely necessary. I'm mostly curious as to what they are. The fish seem to completely ignore them, I just don't like the "cloudy" look of the tank.

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

Kitten,
those tiny white specks you are noticeing, are a microscopic life form related to the Hydra, but much tinier. They are usually only present in water that is reasonably pristine, and if you can keep them alive, you have great water!!
I cannot remember the name of them right now, but if you had a strong magnifying glass, you would see they look like a little stalk with a frond of waving tentacles on top. They are harmless, and can be removed easily enough with a good sponge. Some fish I believe eat them, My flying fox (croscheilus siamensis) does, and so may some algae eaters who are more inclined to a meaty diet.


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