Little White Water Fleas

[tyleratl]

I have hundreds of tiny white water fleas on my tank walls. I'm starting a new tank and have live rock and a cleaning crew thus far. Where did these water fleas come from and should I do anything about them? Will they at least make a tasty meal for any fish I add to the tank?

 

[ericmcj31]

have any pics.? Could be 'pods-which are beneficial-but picks would help--FYI pods look kinda like really tiny shrimp-

 

[tyleratl]

It's really hard to photograph a flea (or whatever it is), but here's my attempt.
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[ericmcj31]

sorry, I can't see anything in the pic.

 

[tyleratl]

There are little white dots on the glass wall that show up on the pic. Although, you can't see what shape they are. They are just too small.

 

[ericmcj31]

sorry, maybe someone else can ID these for you ; good luck

 

[saltwater junky]

i doubt they are water fleas, most likely pods.

 

[tyleratl]

I think you are right. I looked up pod descriptions online and found this description, "Often the first of these to be seen in reef aquaria are the harpacticoid copepods. These are minute crustaceans often visible only as tiny white dots moving on the aquarium walls. Sometimes they also form swarms in the water, but as these animals are more-or-less natural fish food, such aggregations are very rare in tanks with fish in them." That does seem to fit exactly what I have.

 

[victor626nj]

you have pods they are a good thing

 

[ericmcj31]

yeah, they are definately beneficial

 

[tyleratl]

Great! I was worried because I didn't know what they were.

 

[ericmcj31]

eventually you'll see bigger pods--look like really tiny "shrimp" type animals--they're good-good luck

 

[lorenk]

Those are bad. You should bring them over to my tank.

 

[tyleratl]

Hehe . I think I'll keep them now that the secret about them being good is out. So, what do you feed them? Or, are they happy munching on algae?

 

[victor626nj]

you feed them fish poop no seriusly they wont go hungry but you can use dts phyto planktan