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[APD] Re:bugs in my aquarium!
If they are little round or oval guys that swim through the water
sometimes and sometimes crawl around on surfaces, they are
ostracods. They are generally harmless, and they eat a little algae
and dead plant material. Bigger species can chew on your plants and
do damage, but the little ones don't ever seem to injure plants,
although, if they get numerous, they chew all the root hairs off of
the roots of plants like water sprite, when it is floating and not
rooted in the substrate. The water sprite does not do well when its
root hairs are all chewed off. Same goes for Java fern and Bolbitis.
Fish don't like to eat them very much, but many small to medium fish
eat enough of them to keep them fairly scarce. Ostracods stuff eggs
in crevices, and the eggs have delayed hatching times, sometimes not
hatching for over a year! The eggs are resistant to drying and most
chemicals, and so the ostracods are very difficult to eradicate.
--
Paul Krombholz in steamy central Mississippi
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