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Retirement and forum shutdown (17 Jan 2022)

Hi,

John Howell who has managed the forum for years is getting on and wishes to retire from the role of managing it.
Over the years, he has managed the forum through good days and bad days and he has always been fair.
He has managed to bring his passion for fish keeping to the forum and keep it going for so long.

I wish to thank John for his hard work in keeping the forum going.

With John wishing to "retire" from the role of managing the forum and the forum receiving very little traffic, I think we must agree that forum has come to a natural conclusion and it's time to put it to rest.

I am proposing that the forum be made read-only from March 2022 onwards and that no new users or content be created. The website is still registered for several more years, so the content will still be accessible but no new topics or replies will be allowed.

If there is interest from the ITFS or other fish keeping clubs, we may redirect traffic to them or to a Facebook group but will not actively manage it.

I'd like to thank everyone over the years who helped with forum, posted a reply, started a new topic, ask a question and helped a newbie in fish keeping. And thank you to the sponsors who helped us along the away. Hopefully it made the hobby stronger.

I'd especially like to thank John Howell and Valerie Rousseau for all of their contributions, without them the forum would have never been has successful.

Thank you
Darragh Sherwin

Little white bugs in my tank

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29 Apr 2012 10:53 #1 by Hicker12 (Stephen Hickey)
Hi all,

While doing a water change yesterday i spotted these little white bugs swimming around my tank and on the glass. I thought i was seeing things! They look like little white crabs(not the itchy type)! The tank is about 6 or 7 weeks old. Its a 30l shrimp tank. Its got one chreey red shrimp about 10 malaysian trumpet snails. Its planted with Pogostemon helferi, some Staurogyne repens, dwarf hairgrass and some java moss.

Help please.

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29 Apr 2012 10:55 #2 by igmillichip (ian millichip)
They could be springtails.....but would need a close-up photo to confirm.

Great food for certain fish, and pretty mega brilliant for dart frogs.

ian

Irish Tropical Fish Society (ITFS) Member.

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29 Apr 2012 11:06 #3 by Hicker12 (Stephen Hickey)
Thanks for the reply ian. I have been trying to take a photo of them but my camara is really crap. The little bugs are so small and very fast.

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29 Apr 2012 11:16 #4 by igmillichip (ian millichip)
They are small, so would need a pretty good macro lens anyway.

There is a possibility of you having flour mites, but I'd still be more thinking they are Springtails.

If they are springtails, then I wouldn't worry about them.....unsightly maybe, but some fish will love them.

ian

Irish Tropical Fish Society (ITFS) Member.

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29 Apr 2012 11:26 #5 by Hicker12 (Stephen Hickey)
Ok thanks, Which fish will eat them? Its not a heated tank but is at about 19.5-23 degrees. Ph is about 6.8

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29 Apr 2012 11:33 #6 by igmillichip (ian millichip)
Bettas, killifish, and other small surface-eating fish (full grown arowanas tend to ignore them :) ).

If you don't want them then surface agitation will soon prevent them hanging around the water surface.
You may find that small bits of food are encouraging them to hang around.......they eat the fungus that will grow on foods as well.

Irish Tropical Fish Society (ITFS) Member.

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29 Apr 2012 11:42 #7 by Hicker12 (Stephen Hickey)
Ok cool thanks, i dont have any of them fish at the mo. always wanted some killifish so might get some of them. Thanks again.

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29 Apr 2012 13:04 - 29 Apr 2012 13:05 #8 by stretnik (stretnik)
Replied by stretnik (stretnik) on topic Re: Little white bugs in my tank
They can walk on the surface due to the Meniscus, the "skin" on the top of the water, not really a skin... aaagh you could go into so much detail... they are so light and small that they can actually walk on the water without breaking the surface due to surface tension, as a result, fish find it difficult to catch them, they also are covered in a substance, wax-like, that causes them to pop up to the surface if you try to push them under. Make sure the area where you place your food into the Tak is cleaned regularly as this can lead to them breeding.



Kev.
Last edit: 29 Apr 2012 13:05 by stretnik (stretnik).

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29 Apr 2012 13:06 #9 by stretnik (stretnik)
Replied by stretnik (stretnik) on topic Re: Little white bugs in my tank

Ok cool thanks, i dont have any of them fish at the mo. always wanted some killifish so might get some of them. Thanks again.


I have a pair you can have foc.

Kev.

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29 Apr 2012 13:31 #10 by Hicker12 (Stephen Hickey)
Thanks kev,

Looking at that vid i dont think they are spring tails. Could they be water fleas?

I would love a pair of killifish. What water parameters do they like?

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29 Apr 2012 13:34 #11 by igmillichip (ian millichip)
Water fleas do not walk on land.

On a related note to Springtails, I try to breed as many as I possibly can to feed the dart frogs and keep their vivs clean. Hence, why I'm never worried over having springtails around (plus I have loads of specialist surface feeding fish to get rid of them anyway). :)

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29 Apr 2012 14:11 #12 by Hicker12 (Stephen Hickey)
I got 50 of them on ebay. The plan was to use them as food for my puffers but when i put some in the puffer tank they buried themselves and now only come out at night when my 2 puffers are asleep! I did some reserch on them and they are very beneficial. They only eat dead leaves or decaying plants. They also clean and aerate the substrate.

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29 Apr 2012 14:33 #13 by stretnik (stretnik)
Replied by stretnik (stretnik) on topic Re: Little white bugs in my tank
Sorry for all the copy and pasting, I'm feeling under the weather these last few Days, so.. here's another copy and paste :)

aqualandpetsplus.com/Minnows,%20Killies,%20Golden%20Wonder.htm

Kev.

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29 Apr 2012 14:41 #14 by stretnik (stretnik)
Replied by stretnik (stretnik) on topic Re: Little white bugs in my tank
Chris, I had these and I'm not exaggerating when I tell you you could see the whole substrate heave up and down like a living organism, they are the most invasive things on the Planet!! there were thousands of them.

Kev.

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29 Apr 2012 15:05 #15 by Hicker12 (Stephen Hickey)
I havent seen any baby snails yet. I did put 5 in my community but the assassin snails killed them. So if they get out of control in the 30l tank i will pop a few assassins in to sort them out!

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29 Apr 2012 15:33 #16 by Hicker12 (Stephen Hickey)

Chris, I had these and I'm not exaggerating when I tell you you could see the whole substrate heave up and down like a living organism, they are the most invasive things on the Planet!! there were thousands of them.

Kev.


:laugh: I was also so, and every morning before turning on lights in the tank all the glass were covered with them. :ohmy:


:( You guys have me worried now! Think i will move 2 assassin snails into that tank now!

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