Strange critters?

[Fatts]

I have a 20 L set up with my T. candidi fry in it. The fry are a little over a month old and I have been feeding them routinly with BBS, golden pearls and decap BSEs. I have also started to raise the TDS and the PH in the tank slowly to the level of my tap water. Right now it is at 70 ppm and 6.1.

In the last few days I am starting to notice some white/pinkish little things (worms?) in the tank. They are about 1/2 a cm long and have 4 -5 long tenticles comming out the top of them. The fry and the mother are completely ignoring them and, and the little critters (for lack of a name) seem to leave the fry be. A little research on the web is not telling me anything. The only thing I have found is "tubifex worms", but wouldn't cichlids eat them? and how would they get into the tank?

Any clues? And should I do something about this?

 

[fishgeek]

their name eludes me now, cut back on the feeding as the waste is what has increased their numbers.

andrew

 

[fishgeek]

all i could think was nematocyst,
think this is them

 

[Mike Wise]

They sound like hydra to me. Basically, they are miniature anemones with poison nematocysts in each tentacle. These little beggars can even eat small fish fry. They are feeding on your micro foods right now. I agree, cut back on the amount fed, but not the freqency. If they get out of control, you'll have to sterilize the tank.

 

[Fatts]

That has to be it. Thanks.

Know an easy way to kill them off?

 

[aspen]

clout will kill them all. i wouldn't use clout on apistos unless i absolutely needed to so pull the fish for the treatment. but you need to get those little b******* out of the tank. it ain't pretty what they do to fry. i believe someone mentioned they may grow out of a bbs culture. not sure on that though.


rick

 

[tjnelson44]

Check this thread out:
http://forum.apistogramma.com/showthread.php?t=1942&highlight=hydrogen+peroxide+hydra
Don't use the dose of hydorgen peroxide that I used, it was over kill. Some of my plants did not make it and the ones that did took a long time to recover.
good luck,
trevor

 

[Fatts]

Thanks for the help guys. I am not too worried yet as the hydra are MUCH smaller than the fry. But I am going to try the H2O2 approach tomorrow morning. I'll let you know how it works