Funny little mite spidery things destroyed my daphnia

[bichogrilo]

Any body know what these might be? They are large, daphnia size, and swarm like crazy over anything dead. They resemble tiny ticks or mites, and have completely out competed my daphnia pond, just when i really need them for my axie babies. I made the mistake of thinking they were daphnia and put them in my tank and lost a baby axie to the savages before i realized what was happening, and then did stressed suctioning of the offenders. Strangely, in small numbers, the axolotls are quite happy to eat them.

 

[Jennewt]

I'm not sure what they might be. There are several kinds of live food with that property: in small numbers they are eaten, but in large numbers they can go on the attack. Some kinds of cyclops are capable of this.

I think your only recourse is to clean out the daphnia culture and start over.

If you want to ID them, I'd suggest first getting a good close-up look at them, using a magnifier of some kind if possible. Then google "pond invertebrates" and variations on this and search through images until you find something that resembles them.

 

[JP100]

Any body know what these might be? They are large, daphnia size, and swarm like crazy over anything dead. They resemble tiny ticks or mites, and have completely out competed my daphnia pond, just when i really need them for my axie babies. I made the mistake of thinking they were daphnia and put them in my tank and lost a baby axie to the savages before i realized what was happening, and then did stressed suctioning of the offenders. Strangely, in small numbers, the axolotls are quite happy to eat them.

hi are they Red?? Iv seen small red mite type things that seem to do the same. But not in such large numbers