minute white hoppers in water

[k9outfit]

Just noticed that I have little white bugs in with my Discus :shock: They are miniscule - can't make out the body shape even with a magnifying glass - and they move in a manner reminiscent of grasshoppers in a field: short quick hops, then they "take wing" and seem to fly for 6-8 cm distances. One landed on a fish and stayed longer than I'm comfortable with. Also, noticed one of my fish flashing last night.

I'm using peat to soften the water, but didn't notice any bugs in a sample taken directly off the bottom of the barrel with the peat water. Neither have I added anything new to the tank; bare bottom with 4 chunks of wood. It's been set up for roughly a month already. Where would they have come from???? :(

Any thoughts? How can I get rid of the bugs safely?

Read aquafrogstuff's post in the "General" section; could be the same thing. Is physical removal the only way to be rid of them? Where would they have come from, so I don't re-infest the tank?

[wickedglass]

If they move with jerky movements, they might be cyclops. below is a pic of a female with egg sacks, the males look somewhat smaller than that and have no egg sacks. They are generally smaller than mites, too, but you should be able to see their shapes with the naked eye. Although that's subjective, I have 20/20 vision and can see them, my girlfriend has a hard time making out their shapes.
I keep a small tank populated with cyclops for fry food. They're good for fry a few days old, not newly hatched, as they may actually eat the fry if they're too small, instead of the other way around. I have cyclops in one of my big tanks, too, and they don't harm the fish at all, and may even provide a small change of the mormal food for small mouthed fishes like my pencil fish.

[k9outfit]

It appears that I do have cyclops in my tank. I prefer them in a can, freeze dried, rather than scuttling and hopping along the bottom of my tank. So, how do I get rid of them? Where on earth did they materialize from???? The Discus don't seem to have any desire to munch them, and 2 of them seem quite stressed - possibly (probably?) completely unrelated. Regardless, they're making me nervous, especially when I see them on my fish, and the fish not radiating well being.

[wickedglass]

the cyclops could have some into your tank in a number of different ways. possibly live food or even if you use freeze-dried cyclops, the occasional egg may still be viable. cyclops are copepod crustaceans and remotely related to artemia brine shrimp. brine shrimp eggs survive for years dried up.
I've never had any problems at all with cyclops, and your discus being off-colour is most likely not the fault of the cyclops, however may be related ... ie an introduction of flukes, parasites, fungus, or some other type of pathogen into the tank through the live food. freeze dried food is also never 100% free from these pathogens, especially freeze-dried tubifex worms. many discus keepers also don't feed blood-worms as their exoskeletons and mandibles may cause lacerations in the gut of their fish ... but also because they can come from quite polluted waters and introduce pathogens.

hope that helps a little