I have these little mites and I want to nuke them

[beanbag]

Hello folks,

I have these tiny mite-like critters in my shrimp tank.  They are brown (or white / tan when younger) and about 0.5mm in size.  They move very very slowly and don't know how to swim.  They are also eating up my biofilm / algae/ leaf litter which is food for my shrimp.  I'm willing to evacuate my shrimp for a few days, so what's a good way to nuke them?

[jayc]

Red Water mites or Hydracarina. Not a very common sight in an aquarium.

Anything that would nuke them would be bad to have in the tank for shrimps as well.

If you can move your shrimp to another tank, then drain and dry out the tank to get rid of them. Or add some fish to eat them up.

Remove any filters and ensure none are in there too before adding it to a tank.

[sdlTBfanUK]

Those are creepy creatures?

I had water louse once and I did as JayC says and completely emptied the tank and redid everything, but they were larger so easier to spot and there is always the risk that some may get missed and will re-infest - not seen a recurrence in my tank though, thankfully!

I would probably try the fish route myself though they may also pick off baby shrimplets if they find them! Not sure what the best fish would be though, especially as the mites aren't swimmers so any appropriate fish would be one that goes exactly where the shrimplets are?

Simon

[jayc]

Yeah, I don't normally recommend fish with shrimp. But this case it's for a purpose. The smaller the fish the better.

[beanbag]

Thanks for the replies.  I don't really want to deal with having fish also, but if so, which one do you suggest?  I briefly looked into microrasbora, but they suggest you buy a school of 8+, and I didn't really want to deal with that.

These don't seem to be the red water mites as they aren't red, nor as large, nor as fast moving, but could very well be one of the many species of water mites.

I think they originally came with my pet store Marimo, so there are probably a bunch still inside anyway.  Thus, I need some way to nuke them without killing the plants.  The shrimp and filter with bacteria I can remove.

I just found a few in the new thank that I set up (almost done cycling), so I will need to nuke them from there also.

[jayc]

2 hours ago, beanbag said:

which one do you suggest? 

CPD Celestial Pearl Danio,  Endlers, Blue Eye Rainbowfish, (Pseudomugil tenellus), Emerald Dwarf Rasboras (CELESTICHTHYS ERYTHROMICRON), Chili Rasbora (Boraras brigittae), Gertrude’s Spotted Blue Eye Rainbowfish, (Pseudomugil gertrudae) .

 

2 hours ago, beanbag said:

Thus, I need some way to nuke them without killing the plants.

You could try some copper based products. I have not tried it on water mites specifically, though.

Just make sure you wash the plants thoroughly before using it with shrimp again.

[sdlTBfanUK]

As JayC states, the dwarf rasboras/danios etc would be my choice, followed by ember tetras or neon tetras, depending what is available to you. I am sure endler guppies (or any other guppy) would do the job but I would also expect they would be more likely to feed on baby shrimps as they went EVERYWHERE in my tank including through/under the moss/mesh at the bottom, behind filters etc, to the point where they have all died out now, all got stuck in various places so am giving up on them reluctantly as they were a personal favourite! They may be worth trying if there isn't anything else but there probably isn't anywhere they won't go to find food (inc shrimplets) is my experience of them? And with guppies you only want all male as they are prolific livebearers? The flip side is that you are probably not going to get over run with shrimps if the fish pick some baby shrimp off???? There again I don't know whether tetras will be confident enough to get to the mites as these fish swim in the open middle of the tank usually??

Adding fish does add extra interest to the tank as well! 

Friends have been here today and brought me some ember tetras and neon tetras for my old fish//cherry shrimp tank, woohoo!

Simon

[Grubs]

The mites are aquatic Oribatid mites (family Oribatidae).  https://www.mdfrc.org.au/bugguide/display.asp?type=9&class=16&subclass=41&couplet=0

They are slow to reproduce and generally rare in aquaria which suggests that through good tank hygiene the population will decline naturally.  I know you want the biofilm for you shrimp but I suggest clean the glass and clean the filter more often and at least for a few weeks I'd replace leaf material (e.g. mulberry or oak or indian almond) more often so you're removing the old leaves before they have broken down too much and this will remove any mites that are also feeding on them.  Once the mites have gone you can let the tank get a bit dirty again.

[Crabby]

On 9/29/2019 at 8:16 PM, beanbag said:

which do you suggest?

My vote is for Endlers. Mine are the most fascinating (from a fish lovers point of view here) and cute fish in my tank, but I reckon they would be perfect for you, as mine are constantly picking on stuff! They’re the only fish who eat my dreaded snail eggs (on the glass and other surfaces) which I love! Plus you don’t need heaps. Males are small if you just want them for this. And you will be able to get them anywhere.

 

On 9/30/2019 at 1:53 AM, sdlTBfanUK said:

As JayC states, the dwarf rasboras/danios etc would be my choice, followed by ember tetras

I have a school of 20 embers in my tank, but I rarely see them hunting in any manner, much less on surfaces.