Bugs in my water!! What are they?

C

clown04

AC Members
Oct 18, 2009
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hey.
so today i noticed that i have these tiny little bugs in my crab tank. its a sand tank with a beach.
after 10 mins of some food being on the beach, i noticed these black dots all over the food.
i can seen them on the glass too. looks like they can jump and walk of water but dont sink.
their staying on the waters surface, on the glass. i have tons of them.
they look like tics or something.
they look like black dots from above and almost transparent from underneath.
anyone know what im talking about? if so, are they harmful?
i cant get any pictures of them because their so tiny.
makes me itch thinking they might be crawling out of the tank =(
 
There are tons of little bugs that do this, and almost all of them are harmless and only interested in any extra food/debris that might be left in your tank. They probably aren't crawling out the tank either - most bugs like that like humidity, water, the heat they're getting from the lamp, and whatever food you might be feeding.

I'm not terribly knowledgeable about crab tanks, but my guess is that if you do a good water change and fast (don't feed) the crabs for a little while, the bug population will diminish a lot. You'll probably want to feed a lot less in general, following that fast and in general.
These guys probably have been around for a while, but their population boomed when life got good for them. Think about how fruit flies can suddenly appear in your home, seemingly for no reason (you've never seen them there, and then all of a sudden, you have a TON). The adults are probably around, just not in high quantities... and then the few days that the garbage doesn't get taken out, their population explodes! It's the same phenomenon.
 
Springtails could definitely be it! I've gotten those guys once before - the filter I was using wasn't working as well as it had been, and there was some fish food at the top of the tank. Those guys loved the conditions. Every so often though, one of the fish would be able to catch one, which is pretty cool.

Good luck with the process!
 
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