# Under the Microscope OMG



## Sally M (Nov 14, 2013)

I decided to look at the brown stuff that covers the roots of my floating plants with my microscope! OMG! At 40X, there are amazing creatures in my tank. There are some microscopic worms wiggling around and eating. Some things are little round blobs. I have a whole new world to identify! Does anyone know anything about the microscopic critters in freshwater tanks? And whether they are good or bad would be helpful too!

Sally


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## Flear (Oct 5, 2012)

i'm not aware of anything on that size, ... but it makes me want to use sand/dirt from a local creek to mix with a dirt substrate for a tank i want to build even more


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## rickey (Jul 7, 2013)

Benthos

There are whole other worlds in your aquarium, at the surface, in your gravel, in the filter. It's actually a sign of health in an ecosystem.

Rick


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## Flear (Oct 5, 2012)

Ricky, would that be why my tank can't get greenwater again ?
i'm only recently guessing it's whatever is in the HOB filter i have ... so i turned it off, then i'm going to add a scoop of greenwater to the tank.

i have no idea what is in the tank where, but i think it was eating my greenwater at an amazing level 

if it was in the filter, it being off should be good and the tank should get darker green each day instead of lighter 

no one had any information on what could be going wrong, so very frustrating. and now i'm at a guess & trial & error

i never thought to consider there could be stuff living in there i didn't add.

it doesn't make sense to consider that, but honestly, i expected stuff to be present i could see, ... that in mind i have no idea how big rotifers are to the naked eye


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## Sally M (Nov 14, 2013)

I forgot how much fun a microscope is and how much I like biology! I went back to college after 20 years and the whole world of biology had changed. And that was 15 years ago.....

Flear - I don't think there's any need to get water from a pond. There is plenty of life without it!

I was actually expecting to see some diatoms because it looks like "brown algae" gathering on the roots of my floaters. Surprise surprise - it IS brown algae! It looks like dead green filamentous algae. Now I'm have to get some of the stuff growing on the tank walls and see if that is really diatoms.


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## Flear (Oct 5, 2012)

but worms and such as well, ... i'm very interested in having a super diverse tank, both stuff i can see and stuff i can't

more sources for additional stuff is good
and of course keeping concious of potencial parasites. best advice i heard suggested so long as there's no fish in the water the chances of parasites goes way down, ... could be even none


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## Sally M (Nov 14, 2013)

Flear there are some YouTube videos 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3B3OnTVvmg

Just my one look found worms like this and some type of crustacean might have been a rotifer.

Makes me do my suck siphoning a little more carefully:shock:


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## rsskylight04 (Nov 9, 2013)

This is the stuff I missed out on in college by taking the English major. Makes me want to return for a second degree. Learned so much about people, communication, society, and psychology, but NOTHING that applies to fishkeeping! Except the propensity to always keep an open mind and always leave open the possibility that I might be wrong.

Very interesting thread. Thanks for posting.


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## Sally M (Nov 14, 2013)

So I took a sample off the substrate of my planted tank from an area that has a few different types of yucky things growing on it. There are little tufts of white fuzz, some fine white thread and a slime mold type of webbing. It smells like bad swamp water. It forms mostly in an area where algae wafers landed and disintegrated. I put it on a slide and found a huge number of what I think are nematodes. I assume that they are scavenger nematodes and beneficial. 

But I'm wondering about what is growing on the substrate. I think it is white mold of some sort but not sure if I should do anything about it. The tank holds about 25 newly acquired little red cherry shrimp, a few MTS, and one ghost shrimp.


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## rickey (Jul 7, 2013)

Flear said:


> Ricky, would that be why my tank can't get greenwater again ?
> i'm only recently guessing it's whatever is in the HOB filter i have ... so i turned it off, then i'm going to add a scoop of greenwater to the tank.
> 
> i have no idea what is in the tank where, but i think it was eating my greenwater at an amazing level
> ...


Ecosystems are never static they are continuously in a state of fluxes.Nutrient levels change, Bacteria outcompete other bacteria, molds and viruses outcompete other molds and viruses and the higher animal change with them. Flear you are continually in search of a balanced self sustaining ecosystem this is all part of the process. I have a well balance six gallon, that is well planted, Eco-complete substrate that I add no CO2, no fertilizer, and have to trim plants on a weekly basis. I have never deep vac the substrate and it sustains 3 filter feeding wood shrimp(that I do not feed) and a Betta. Even though I do one change a week I could easily go 2 or 3 weeks without it. I do it as much for my piece of mind than a real need. If you go to my website under Goldfish Care one of the must have on hand items I have listed is a microscope. I aware that most fish keeper don't have or have access to one but, the sure do come in handy if you're a very serious fish keeper or breeder

R


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## Chesh (Feb 17, 2012)

I had a lot of fun looking at a snip from my filter media under a microscope. . . fascinating! 
Sounds like you're having fun, too! ^__^


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## Flear (Oct 5, 2012)

Rickey, thanks, definitely going to be looking that up and adding a microscope to my list of things to get 

Sally, ... i'm not sure, but it looks like cyanobacteria in the one picture.
the white fuzzy stuff, ... any experience i've had with that i tend to ignore and adjust my feeding and it solves itself.

as for the worm you posted, ... the spikes coming out of it would worry me lots


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## Sally M (Nov 14, 2013)

I've never thought of cyanobacteria as white - I guess I think of it as green. I've found some weird things in the microscopic world! I have huge numbers of the nematodes - hopefully the scavenger ones - a few other things that are disc shaped, water fleas and those worms. I think the spiny things are their cilia - ie means of locomotion. Looking through the microscope makes my skin crawl at times!


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