Small bug?

[Paul27]

Noticed this today. If you look on the back fin of the catfish, there is some sort of small bug. Noticed a few, seem to be hanging around on the plants. Have added some cryptocoryne lucens, so wonder if they have hitched hiked on that as never seen them before adding it.

Any ideas?

 

[Paul27]

 

[Paul27]

Looks like Argulus foliaceus or something similar.

Had a look a what you suggested it might be but looks different. It reminds me of a aphid. It fell off when the cat fish started to swim

 

[Edvet]

Looks some kind of harmless creature which accidentaly landed on the "dead" aka not moving catfish.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

It reminds me of a aphid

It might be, they last a while underwater.

How many legs does it have? Insects have six, more then that it is likely to be a crustacean.

cheers Darrel

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Hmm.. it also can be a tick.

It was the silvery sheen that made me think an Aphid was likely.

<"I still feed them to the fish">, by giving them a good swirl in a beaker of water and tipping them in. If you don't swirl them they float around the surface and end up on the floating plants.

Sometimes, if the fish don't pick them all off straight away and they grab onto a plant stem etc. and crawl around for a while.

Underwater they are quite conspicuous because they have a film of trapped air (I assume their bodies are minutely hairy?) and look silvery. When the air is used they go back to green, their spiracles fill up with water, and they drown.

cheers Darrel

 

[Paul27]

They have 6 legs. My Betta was watching one and looked like he didnt know whether to eat it or not. Left it in the end.

Long as it's not harmful to the fish or plants, it doesn't really bother me.

Interested in what it is though, think Darrel is right

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

My Betta was watching one and looked like he didnt know whether to eat it or not. Left it in the end.

I'm seen that with new fish, even when it is "gourmet fare" like a mosquito larvae or Blackworm.

I give my fish a lot of live food, so they usually pretty quickly cotton on to "things that wriggle".

The funniest to watch were the Marbled Hatchets, they used to get really excited when I changed the water, because they knew there were likely to be Daphnia, Cyclops, Asellus etc in the water change water (I use rain-water). I use old 6 pint milk cartons for the water change water and I change about 10% a day (two cartons worth on a 60cm tank).

I bring the water into the house over-night, but in the winter often it would only be ~15oC when I was tipping it into the tank, which would be at 25- 27oC. You could often actually see the thermal stream of cool sinking water.

According to a lot of things you read there would be <"thermal shock issues"> if the fish swam into the stream of cold water, but that didn't bother the Hatchets, they would fight with one another to be right under the container and to have first go at any crustaceans pouring out. They also used to quite often leap out of water as well, so you had to keep an eye on them to make sure that they hadn't escaped from the tank.

Immediately after water change it would be back to hanging stationery, just below the surface, in the <"stream of water from the filter">, each fish positioned as far away as possible from the others, while still being in the (admittedly gentle) flow.

cheers Darrel

 

[Paul27]

Hi all, I'm seen that with new fish, even when it is "gourmet fare" like a mosquito larvae or Blackworm.

I give my fish a lot of live food, so they usually pretty quickly cotton on to "things that wriggle".

The funniest to watch were the Marbled Hatchets, they used to get really excited when I changed the water, because they knew there were likely to be Daphnia, Cyclops, Asellus etc in the water change water (I use rain-water). I use old 6 pint milk cartons for the water change water and I change about 10% a day (two cartons worth on a 60cm tank).

I bring the water into the house over-night, but in the winter often it would only be ~15oC when I was tipping it into the tank, which would be at 25- 27oC. You could often actually see the thermal stream of cool sinking water.

According to a lot of things you read there would be <"thermal shock issues"> if the fish swam into the stream of cold water, but that didn't bother the Hatchets, they would fight with one another to be right under the container and to have first go at any crustaceans pouring out. They also used to quite often leap out of water as well, so you had to keep an eye on them to make sure that they hadn't escaped from the tank.

Immediately after water change it would be back to hanging stationery, just below the surface, in the <"stream of water from the filter">, each fish positioned as far away as possible from the others, while still being in the (admittedly gentle) flow.

cheers Darrel

I have had him for nearly 2 and a half years, he has seen three different tanks and countless rescapes and during this time when I've ever put live food in, he has never really been a massive fan. He would either look like he was about to strike and then not bother or grab something and spit it out straight away and not touch it again and when I top up the water or water change he dives straight into the stream of water but unlike your hatchet fish, he isn't doing it for food.

Did you have the hatchet fish in a covered tank?

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Did you have the hatchet fish in a covered tank?

Yes, they tend to jump a lot, and they can jump a long way. <"I've lost Copella arnoldi and Epiplatys annulatus as serial jumpers">.

I've kept Marbled Hatchets (Carnegiella strigata) on three different occasions, they've always done well for me, but I've never got them to spawn, so I'm not keeping them again.

I think you probably need a long tank for them to spawn successfully, I've seen them race along the surface as a pair (which is meant to be a prelude), but they never got any further.

cheers Darrel