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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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