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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.
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Paul Krombholz in steamy central Mississippi
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