Question: Can someone with (ostra, cope, etc.)'pod' experience please verify?

I was looking in my amphiuma tridactylum's tank (it is only him and 3 nerite snails) today with a flashlight, and I noticed tiny little white specks crawling on him. Upon further investigation, I noticed my tank was overrun with them. I had not noticed this earlier because my tank has white sand/gravel and the area his tank is in does not have a very good light source. I noticed there were a few different looking 'critters', some being white and swimming, and others that were white and brown (striped-ish) 'ball' like critters that were crawling. After some interweb investigation, I found out about ostracods and copepods. However, I also noticed one or two tiny, little, white wormy-like creatures on my amphiuma. I don't think they're anchor worms they were not attached to him (they were squiggling around on him though.) I am about 99% positive I have both and basically I just want some people who have previous pod/cod experience to confirm that I have both copepods and ostracods and any ideas about what the wormy things could be...?

Sorry I couldn't get a picture of the worm thing.

Pretty good pictures attached.

Thanks in advance!

Indeed those are ostracods and copepods. The copepods are possibly Cyclops sp.

The wormy things could be Planaria or other types of Turbellaria. There are other options, but planaria are the most common perhaps.

Okay thank you. I was thinking planaria, but I couldn't remember the name. I am fairly certain I have never had these in any of my tanks before. It might be the water here actually, or the snails (or water) I got from the pet store had some hitchhikers maybe

Now, I read on here from other people with a lot of these things that white cloud minnows are good if you want to get the numbers down. However, they don't have those around here and the selections around here are VERY limited, unless I want to drive an hour away to get to a Petco/Petsmart. Are there any other common and hardy copepod/ostracod eating fish I can put in my freshwater tank (that generally won't bring additional troubles)? They need to be fast though because my amphiuma really likes to hunt slower things, but with his poor eyesight, he can't even see the little critters, so there is nothing killing them, except the unlucky few who get too close to the filter.

yup. those are "pods" as we in the fish keeping world like to call them. You could try a fish to eat them (though this isn't really advisable with anphibians). White clouds or celestial pearl danios would be the best if you do want to go the fish route, Though you may want to concider other options for bringing their numbers down.

The presence of pods in a tank only becomes noticeable when there is ample food sources for them to gain access to. I would try doing some large water changes on the tank and making sure that any and all uneaten food is removed after each feeding. That is generally how we deal with them in the fish keeping world. If your tank is overrun with them, just cut off the food source. Excess nutrients in the water probably aren't helping the amphibian you are keeping either.

The only food that it in there is poop from my amphiuma. It doesn't seem like that'd be enough to keep them alive. But I started scooping that out some hopefully that will cut down on them. And thanks for the fish suggestions!

EftMyLife said:

The only food that it in there is poop from my amphiuma. It doesn't seem like that'd be enough to keep them alive. But I started scooping that out some hopefully that will cut down on them. And thanks for the fish suggestions!

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Oh yes, that would certainly be enough to feed a colony of pods. I used to raise them as food for my fish and it is amazing what will keep them propogating.

Thank you for the photos, I love these things that show up in aquariums. The brownish ones sort of look like scuds. When disturbed, do they swim or just crawl?

Guppies might also do the trick, but be sure to quarantine any fish before adding them. If you have a local freecycle or craigslist you might be able to get some baby guppies or other surplus fish fry.

Do you have a gravel-washing siphon to get the mulm out of the gravel?

No problem. I had a lot of fun photographing them actually. I've only seen them swim a little, but then again, the times I have really looked at them they were eating.

We've tried having guppies with our amphiuma multiple times before, but... he likes to snack on them, so I am afraid to get them again.

We had a siphon like that but it not too long ago broke, unfortunately. We need to get a new one pretty soon. Why do you ask? Just to get extra nutrients out of the tank?

Unfortunately small fish do have a tendency to become food for amphibians if they are able to catch them. It is just one of those things.

A gravel syphon would do wonders for reducing the number of pods in the tank. Gravel is a major trap for uneaten food and waste and can easily turn into a "pod factory" and a source of excess nitrates in the tank which would reduce the water quality.

From pictures I've looked at on the internet, I am pretty sure now they are ostracods and and not scuds. They have the ostracods striped-look and the same body shape.



Mine are striped the same.