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[APD] Ostracods!?



Ostracods!?  I knew it!  We're all doomed!  Today Byron's tank, tomorrow the 
world.  The ostracods are coming, the ostracods are coming!  God save us from 
the fury of the ostracods!  Cry havoc and let slip the hounds of war!

Ok, so let's not panic,  George Mangen



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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