General Care Discussion :: Desperate to find out what these bugs are in tank!!

Taking care of your turtle's overall health.

Post Posted: Sun Sep 11, 2005 5:58 am   Desperate to find out what these bugs are in tank!!

I am so frustrated! :x My turtle's tank has these teeny tiny little white bugs crawling around. They look like sand granuals crawling around. Then, eventually, they get as big as, maybe, a pin head and eventually grow wings. They live in the water, they do not drown, I have seen them floating ontop of the water, crawling on the turtle's shell, and all over the tank. I have tried everything to kill them and they will not die. They tend to remove themselves from the turtles when I soak them in ZooMeds repti-turtle sulfa dip after a few times. It is hard to kill them since I have to be careful what I use so that I don't harm the turtles, and even harder since I have no idea what they are. I can completely clean the tank and the filters, disinfect it, and they seem to be gone, until a few days later. I am getting really annoyed too because I will be relaxing in my house and see one of them fly by. I am really frustrated and am hoping someone can tell me what they are. I can't take a picture because they are too small. :roll: Help! :!:
krisiecap
 
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Post Posted: Sun Sep 11, 2005 10:03 am   

Do you have gravel, any kind of substrate in your tank? How big is your tank? Temperature of the water? Filter? Heater?
Do you put food into the tank, and if so, what?

27 Turtles. 6 Tortoises.
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JessicaTS
 
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Post Posted: Sun Sep 11, 2005 12:49 pm   

pretty much everything has been discussed, including these buggers.

hopefully, these will answer everything.

http://www.redearslider.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1231

http://www.redearslider.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1373
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steve
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Post Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2005 5:04 am   Bugs in tank

Thanks for replying! I did search the forum before I posted, but I didn't find anything where people said these bugs have wings on some of them. That is why I posted, thinking maybe I have a different kind. The only gravel I have are those medium sized clear fake rocks that you find in some plant vases. My tank that they are in is about 25-30 gallons. I have 2 filters in the tank. I used to feed them in the tank, but now I put then in a different one. They still appear though.
krisiecap
 
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Post Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2005 10:34 am   

The only bugs that small that I found were the fruit flies, they are a bit bigger than a pin head when adult, but I didn't find any reference to an aquarium infestation. :?
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STRAYKINGFISHER
 
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Post Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2005 11:46 am   

The only small white fly things I can think of are the ones you get on houseplants. Have you totally cleaned out your tank? You'll need to rinse your filter media really well also, the problem there as I see it is that if you use the tank water to clean it, which is recommended you could be going just reinfesting it. I think I'd risk using clean water to rinse it out... or get totally new media.
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cam722
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Post Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2005 12:34 pm   

Can you post a picture of one?
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Post Posted: Tue Sep 13, 2005 5:13 am   

I wish I could take a picture, but they are too small to even show up. :(
krisiecap
 
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Post Posted: Tue Sep 13, 2005 4:33 pm   

It could be mosquitos or dragonflies, I remember that at their larvae stage, they live in water and I definitatly know they grow wings. :P I've seen alot of creepy crawlies around the water of my plants at home. Dunno what they are though. :oops:
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knite
 
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Post Posted: Tue Sep 13, 2005 11:55 pm   

How old is your food?
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Post Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2005 8:00 pm   

Hello

I had this problem. Mine looked almost like tiny worms. I changed my band of pellets, and that cleared it up. They are in the shrimp pellets.
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Post Posted: Sun Oct 02, 2005 7:35 am   I finally found out what those white flying bugs are!!!!

I found out that a friend of mine knows a herpatologist at his pharmacy school. I chased the flys around the tank and got them into a ziplock bag and managed to get some of the little tiny ones without wings in it too. He too it to the professor and he said they are called Moth Flies, also known as Drain Flies. I looked that up on the internet and found tons of sites about them. Reading the information and looking at the pictures, that is exactly what they are. He said they are attracted to the water and the humidity in the tank. Here is one of the websites I found that talks about them.......

http://www.pestproducts.com/mothfly.htm

Apparently, many people have them, not just in their tanks, but they are so small, that many people dont even know they are there. Yuck! I'm just happy that I know what these annoying guys are now. :wink: Hopefully this will help solve the bug mystery that other people might be having.[/b]
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