Bugs in my turtle tank

[Stainer]

Hi today i noticed heaps of little dots in the corner of my tank
i moved the water a bit and they scaterd some swam and some
ran on the side of the tank. After a closer look there are heaps
all around the tank i can see that they have legs. does anybody
know what these are and what should i do?

 

[horsesrule]

Without knowing what kind of bugs they are i would do a water change and get them out.

Some bugs are good though for turtles tanks, i often get crickets, earwigs, slaters etc in the house so i throw them in the tank and they eat them.

In the wild turtles do eat bugs.

 

[Stainer]

These are as big as a pin head

 

[Stainer]

can't anybody help

 

[Shonfield]

without knowing what they are they could be any type of bug around your house
so unless you can id it we cant give much more info than try get them out with water changes etc.

 

[Chrisreptile]

Are they small and white?

 

[Stainer]

they are small and brown
Thankyou for the help so far. I just did a big water change,
my canister filter broke 3 days ago and i just got it fixed today
could it have anything to do with that? like parisites

 

[Philip77]

It is hard to tell with out seeing any of the bugs though possibly Daphina, (or a relative) a small plankton like crustacean sometimes called water fleas though nothing like a flea apart from appearance. These animals i think are algae feeders and shouldn't bother your Turtle though getting rid of algae should limit the population also maybe adding some small cheap fish such as guppies or cloud minnows as Daphina are excellent fish food.
The other thing i can think of are some flat worms start out looking like small bugs
I would suggest adding some fish as they like to eat any small bugs and unless the bugs are causing undue harm or stress to your turtle or yourself i wouldn't be to concern. Clean out the tank and try adding some fish before resorting to pesticides/quarantine etc.
probably not much help but thought it may help,
Cheers,
Phil

 

[Philip77]

A broken filter may of encouraged mini algal bloom which has given rise to a small colony of Daphina or other algae eater i wouldn't be concerned

 

[Stainer]

That sounds like them water fleas as there are more around a big clump of algae
and they do look like fleas.
i have some paki loaches will they eat them, I fell better now that i no they wont hurt my turtle
Thanks heaps

 

[Philip77]

Loaches should eat them though they normally only feed in the bottom layer of water a few cheap minnows or guppies will feed the entire depth though keeping the feed source of the Daphina low will keep the colony low

 

[Stainer]

yer i have been trying to get rid of the algae for ages
i even bought a $60 dollar fish but nipper(my turtle) didnt like him
if i bought guppies they would be goone in 5 minutes
my turtle is crazy

 

[Philip77]

Guppies and minnows are cheap and fast, a dozen fish will only cost $15-$20 the other options are algae eating catfish such as bristlenose or any of the corydoras a little more expensive to replace if nipper gets hungry there are a few product that can be added to the water to help reduce algae from cheap chemicals up to expensize UV filters if the algae is real problem

 

[Stainer]

thanks
i had a sailfish pleco i had one for awhile and nipper left it alone
but it died from water conditions so i fixed all that and got another and havent
seen it since so there is a chance it is still there. but i will get more fish
thankyou for your help

 

[Philip77]

There is a product from Aquatopia that i have used in fish tanks approriatley call Algae Eliminator only about $3 for 50ml up to about $10 for 500ml it worked well though i tend to use chemicals as a final option