FishProfiles.com Message Forums

29 gal. 3 Melataenia praecox, 2 cherry barb males, 1 panda cory, 7 serpae tet, 7 harl ras, one neon tet, 2 lemon tet. My mistake! Used an algae remover at least 3 mo. ago to clear stringy bloom, really just needed to change water... Then cloudyness began... I thought it was homeless algae cells floating around and the filter would remove it. Well that didn't happen. Cycle apparently broken. Changes of water to remove toxin. StressZyme reapplied. Filter changed. Cycle not reliably reestablished, but quality and pH appropriate to my community. Cloudiness reduced with partial changes, it returns fully in a day or two. AquariSol doesn't affect it. Temps of 82+ dont affect it. Have lost a few individual fish, maybe from old age, had them a while. Bottom feeders suffered from treatment. Removed fake plants. Rocks remain, getting a little green from algae.

But! I got out my 40-yr-old reflector microscope, and though I could see more of what was in my own eye than on the stage, at about 30X viewed microorganisms that looked like wineglasses with the foot broken off, that is, mouth, guts, tail on a joint that swivels, possible whips on end but unclear. They are very fine particles to the unaided eye and by the behavior of the water recloud the likely source of cloudiness. I can't get rid of them! Afraid to establish a new tank that these might go with moving my fish. Afraid to move healthy and very fast fish to hospital tank that I haven't got yet, that they may die of trauma and still that I won't be able to get rid of the bugs.

Help! Thank you.

Hi,
It sounds like you have a tank full of hydra.
This link among others, will tell you all about them
and what to do:

http://members.optushome.com.au/chelmon/Hydra.htm

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

Thanks Frank, looked at them. Sizes listed (.25-2.5 cm) on Jan's handsome site were VERY too big. These are like animated, completely dispersed floating dust, at least 20 in a spread drop. Didnt see tentacles at mouth end, and the tail which may have had a flagellum is more like a little leg. Not a water flea, didnt see eyes or arms. No slide covers though so couldn't force them onto their little sides. Maybe another analysis? Thanks again.

Hi,
No, not really. With your comment about the wine glass
with the bottom snapped off, I immediately thought of
the Hydra. Another common pest is a type of flat worm,
but they do not look like the critter you described.
Perhaps someone else might have some other ideas..

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

Hello again! After looking at kinds of protozoa I think they are Rotifera of some sort. Any idea of safe control measure? Or of a natural predator of them that would be compatible with my adult community tank?

One species of Rotifer is raised as fry food. A fine clouding would appear (before this major problem) after giving fish a few grains of dry Daphnia. Wonder if these rehydrated out of that product?

Mmm, could be daphnia http://www.caudata.org/daphnia/#anatomy]http://www.caudata.org/daphnia/#anatomy[/link]. The following is a very good site for identification of freshwater zooplankton [link=http://www.caudata.org/daphnia/#anatomy.

It's too much to ask for pictures from you but these should help you to identify your critters. Shame that you don't have a hatch of young fish!

__________
"To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research."
researched from Steven Wright

Would cost too much to adapt my old microscope to take pics through that old thing but could sketch the creatures and fax to someone! Started a thread in General Freshwater too. And Happy Easter!

I doubt that you have Daphnia. Not least because your fish would have eaten them all pretty smartly if they were - Daphnia are a prime fish food. Also, Daphnia can reach 3mm in size, which is plenty large enough to be discernible to the naked eye. Even Cyclops are naked-eye visible to the point of being able to discern some basic structures.

Your suspicion about Rotifers may provve sound, but you would need to check other possibilities first. Do your drawing, scan it, then stick it up somewhere such as PhotoBucket or one of the other free image hosts. Then I can take a look and see what sort of creature you have. Oh, some idea of dimensions would be good too if possible - you say you needed 30x magnification to see some structure? Hmm ... looking at somewhere around 110 microns I think. In case you're wondering why I chose 110 microns as my starting figure, the reason is simple: it's one of the standard mesh sizes for marine plankton filters, and quite a few freshwater organisms hover around the same size ...


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Thanks Calilasseia it will take me some time to do this. I'm an older lady with web ignorance; will get someone to help. Workday and horses suck up my free time too. Will respond with location of image! Will try again to look in the microscope. Saw them with 10x reticle and 20x tube-thing-that-points-at-the-stage (how that computes magnification, sorry, I've forgotten).

Also, what's the deal with 'hair algae'? That caused me to medicate rashly in the first place. Months ago, it seemed to appear after I increased water flow and aeration. It's back. I feed the fishies only once a day and less than they want, vacuuming weekly and replacing 6-9 gallons of my 29gal.

In which case, you might find what you're looking for on this site:

Microscopy Website

This is the menu page with lots of links to various sites. There should be a bar at the top of the web page with lots of buttons on it, one entitled "Museum". Click on that, and it will take you via stages to the various pages featuring illustrations of assorted life forms. It's divided into freshwater, marine, botanical and insect sections.

Have fun hunting!


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Thank you. Great site! This is where I saw the rotifers in the first place. At http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/pond/index.html, under "the smallest page" in window Mic-UK [site A]: Rotifers the best representation of what I saw was Euchlanis, the first one. At my magnification couldn't see division in tail. Otherwise that's the best-guess bug. And they are fruitful.

OK, control suitable for a tropical freshwater aquarium, anyone?

Last edited by cihigh at 03-Apr-2005 08:33