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Posted by sophie on March 16, 2005, 1:53 pm
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strange things have appeared in a small, (overpopulated) tank.
there are plants, kuhlis, rasboras and a dwarf gourami.
in one corner I have noticed some very, very tiny animals in amongst the
fronds of a very fine-leafed plant. I've been watching the corner
because of some peculiar stuff I'd noticed on the leaves, and this
morning I spotted a series of very, very tiny - almost microscopic -
organisms . There seem to be three different kinds, which is really
puzzling me, as one would have been puzzling enough!
type one I think _may_ be daphnia, it's a bit under a millimetre, a
slightly flattened-down-one-side oval and moves about relatively rapidly
around the (thin) stalks and needle leaves of the plant. I think it has
legs, but it's hard to tell. I've seen several of these.
type two looks like nothing on earth except very very tiny, nearly
translucent fry. About a millimetre again, it moves through the water in
a really rapid "darting" motion. Bit like those little spiders that come
out in the garden on very hot days, it seems to get from one place to
another without actually moving through the space in between... again,
I've seen several.
type three is just strange. similar size to the last two, maybe a little
bigger, though there are some really tiny ones in there too. has a
rounded oval body, with two oval "legs" hanging behind, like a very
small child's drawing of a fish made of balloons, if you see what I
mean. Moves about "nose" end first, round the plant stems, through the
water and up the glass. Again, several.
All of these stay in the same corner. I've spent a ridiculous amount of
time with my nose against the glass, giving myself eyestrain, and I know
my camera's macro isn't good enough to cope with them.
I wondered if type two might just be very small brine shrimp - but how??
can the eggs survive being frozen? I know daphnia eggs can survive being
dried out, and I feed dried daphnia, so could that be type one? and what
on EARTH is the third one?? why have they all showed up at once? and in
the same corner?? last new plants/bogwood were introduced about five
weeks ago.
help!
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sophie
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Posted by Richard Sexton on March 16, 2005, 3:25 pm
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>type one I think _may_ be daphnia, it's a bit under a millimetre, a
>slightly flattened-down-one-side oval and moves about relatively rapidly
>around the (thin) stalks and needle leaves of the plant. I think it has
>legs, but it's hard to tell. I've seen several of these.
Daphnia "hop" with a very animated "hop-stop-hop-stop" motion. What
you have sounds more like cyclops which are much more commonly
found showing up our of nowhre. If thyehave little antenna at the fron
tand some of them seem to be carrying saddlebags toward that rear
then those are egg cases and they're cyclops or something close to that.
>type two looks like nothing on earth except very very tiny, nearly
>translucent fry. About a millimetre again, it moves through the water in
>a really rapid "darting" motion. Bit like those little spiders that come
>out in the garden on very hot days, it seems to get from one place to
>another without actually moving through the space in between... again,
>I've seen several.
Sounds lke paramecium.
>type three is just strange. similar size to the last two, maybe a little
>bigger, though there are some really tiny ones in there too. has a
>rounded oval body, with two oval "legs" hanging behind, like a very
>small child's drawing of a fish made of balloons, if you see what I
>mean. Moves about "nose" end first, round the plant stems, through the
>water and up the glass. Again, several.
More fishfood.
>All of these stay in the same corner. I've spent a ridiculous amount of
>time with my nose against the glass, giving myself eyestrain, and I know
>my camera's macro isn't good enough to cope with them.
Mine either, I've tried. I can photograph hydra sort of ok
but nothing smaller.
>I wondered if type two might just be very small brine shrimp - but how??
>can the eggs survive being frozen? I know daphnia eggs can survive being
>dried out, and I feed dried daphnia, so could that be type one? and what
>on EARTH is the third one?? why have they all showed up at once? and in
>the same corner?? last new plants/bogwood were introduced about five
>weeks ago.
Yup, they came in on th eplants most likely. If you stop feeding your
fish they'll disappear. Eaten. Gone.
--
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633CSi 250SE/C 300SD | Killies, killi.net, Crypts, aquaria.net
1970 280SE, 72 280SE | Old wristwatches http://watches.list.mbz.org
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Posted by sophie on March 16, 2005, 4:13 pm
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writes
>>type one I think _may_ be daphnia, it's a bit under a millimetre, a
>>slightly flattened-down-one-side oval and moves about relatively rapidly
>>around the (thin) stalks and needle leaves of the plant. I think it has
>>legs, but it's hard to tell. I've seen several of these.
>
>Daphnia "hop" with a very animated "hop-stop-hop-stop" motion. What
>you have sounds more like cyclops which are much more commonly
>found showing up our of nowhre. If thyehave little antenna at the fron
>tand some of them seem to be carrying saddlebags toward that rear
>then those are egg cases and they're cyclops or something close to that.
http://images.google.co.uk/images?q=cyclops%20aquarium&hl=en&lr=&client=f
irefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official_s&sa=N&tab=wi
looks probable...
however
http://www.lfscultures.com/p8.html
looks remarkably like type 2. Maybe they're all the same thing. There
are also some absolute midgets (under half a mm I think) scooting about
the underside of the leaves and doing the stop-start-stop thing through
teh water. My eye-muscles hurt.
>
>>type two looks like nothing on earth except very very tiny, nearly
>>translucent fry. About a millimetre again, it moves through the water in
>>a really rapid "darting" motion. Bit like those little spiders that come
>>out in the garden on very hot days, it seems to get from one place to
>>another without actually moving through the space in between... again,
>>I've seen several.
>
>Sounds lke paramecium.
and now I am dredging throuugh the sands of incipient senility for
memories of biology A level. ah. no. not paramecium, more
complicated/higher level than that; possibly more cyclops things.
>
>>type three is just strange. similar size to the last two, maybe a little
>>bigger, though there are some really tiny ones in there too. has a
>>rounded oval body, with two oval "legs" hanging behind, like a very
>>small child's drawing of a fish made of balloons, if you see what I
>>mean. Moves about "nose" end first, round the plant stems, through the
>>water and up the glass. Again, several.
>
>More fishfood.
hee. I kind of like them; I'm hoping to build up lots more before the
fish eat them all. Kind of a live-food snack bar for when I go away. My
son (5) is fascinated by them and wants me to get a gigantic magnifying
glass. Not a bad idea, actually. Might help me to see type three clearly
enough to draw it so someone might recognise it. I like knowing what
things are - which reminds me that I must find out what the plant they
rode in on might be. I'd rather have tiny thingies coming in with teh
plants than algae, like happened in the other tank, any day.
Thank you for your help, Richard, 's'appreciated.
photos of hydra are cool, too.
--
sophie
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Posted by sophie on March 16, 2005, 6:25 pm
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writes
>if
> thyehave little antenna at the fron
>tand some of them seem to be carrying saddlebags toward that rear
>then those are egg cases and they're cyclops or something close to that.
>>type three is just strange. similar size to the last two, maybe a little
>>bigger, though there are some really tiny ones in there too. has a
>>rounded oval body, with two oval "legs" hanging behind, like a very
>>small child's drawing of a fish made of balloons, if you see what I
>>mean.
does the above description tie in with your "saddlebags", Richard?
because then I just have cyclops in varying sizes, places, and stages of
the reproductive cycle, which sounds much more sensible than three
different organisms...
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sophie
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Posted by Richard Sexton on March 16, 2005, 11:44 pm
Please log in for more thread options >> thyehave little antenna at the fron
>>tand some of them seem to be carrying saddlebags toward that rear
>>then those are egg cases and they're cyclops or something close to that.
>
>>>type three is just strange. similar size to the last two, maybe a little
>>>bigger, though there are some really tiny ones in there too. has a
>>>rounded oval body, with two oval "legs" hanging behind, like a very
>>>small child's drawing of a fish made of balloons, if you see what I
>>>mean.
>
>does the above description tie in with your "saddlebags", Richard?
>because then I just have cyclops in varying sizes, places, and stages of
>the reproductive cycle, which sounds much more sensible than three
>different organisms...
Sounds about right. I have a tankfull too, I've eben trying to raise them
on green water. I can grow Daphnia like crasy in this stuff, like, fill
a 20 to bursting with just a small starter in under a month but I
have failed to get any sugnificant numbers on these guys.
Here's the hydra btw:
http://images.aquaria.net/invertebrates/coelcentrates/hydra/
--
Need Mercedes parts ? - http://parts.mbz.org
http://www.mbz.org | Mercedes Mailing lists: http://lists.mbz.org
633CSi 250SE/C 300SD | Killies, killi.net, Crypts, aquaria.net
1970 280SE, 72 280SE | Old wristwatches http://watches.list.mbz.org
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>slightly flattened-down-one-side oval and moves about relatively rapidly
>around the (thin) stalks and needle leaves of the plant. I think it has
>legs, but it's hard to tell. I've seen several of these.