What is this...hopping thing?!?

[supersmirky]

I was looking at the surface of the water in my tank yesterday and saw what looked like little sand granules on the surface, just a couple...but then...they were hopping all over the place....too damn small to really see what it is. Anyone have a clue?

[biggin]

Could they be something from the substrate? Smaller pieces that can not break the surface tension?

[tsunderl]

Water fleas???:confuzeld: If you run charcoal and have recently changed it, it could be specks of charcoal too.

[supersmirky]

They are almost tan. I just added a plant, and am wondering if it was on that. Tan granule sized jumpers.

[Haiven]

Jaglover had a problem with dragonflies. She got eggs on a plant and they hatched......grew.....and ate her fry. Eventually one was in the process of metamorphizing from the grub thing into the fly thing and that's when they realized what was happening. Ugh!

[supersmirky]

oh yuck. Did they stand on top of the water as well?? Wonder if my fish will eat it...although it seems too small for them to see right now

[Travis_Conklin]

I have also seen these, on some of my older tanks. Don't know what they are, but know what you are talking about. Some sort of small insect on the water surface that you can see hopping around. I think the fish would eat them but I think they are so small they either cannot see them or don't bother. Hatchet fish come to mind as a go getter for them but I really don't want any Hatchet fish. Let me know what you find out would be nice to know what they are...but I really have not been to concerned about them.

[supersmirky]

hmm...interesting indeed. They don't really seem to do anything but hop. I'll post more when I find out more

[supersmirky]

Okay...someone responded on my other forum and said it sounded like some springtails (Collembola)...mostly found on floating plants.

[Travis_Conklin]

Cool I will have to take a look for them on the net.

[supersmirky]

Here's a link to an interesting writeup about them

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collembola

[lellison]

I have also seen these in my tank. I believed the ones I had were termites from a piece of wood I put in there and then realized it was rotten. Took the wood out and they are gone now. Probably not what you are talking about but sounds like what was in my tank.

[AndrewH]

I've 'em too.

They're on my Lotus plant leaves. The ones I see are so dog gone small it's hard to see them (less than a mm). The tank is running along just fine (no sudden deaths or anything weird going on), so I think I'll leave 'em alone for now.

:D

[supersmirky]

I would think some of the fish would pick em off for brunch

[AndrewH]

Hell, it's hard enough for me to see these mini millimeter bugs, I don't see how the fish would.

Not to mention it's take a billion of them to = one flake of food :hehe:

[EAST_TX_RN]

I noticed some of the tiny bugs I had before on a cuke I left in there for 24 hours, the same thing that happened before. I am not worried about it though, because my Kribs will eat them up like they did last time.

[budwick weiser]

damn i have some of those hopping things too!!

[AndrewH]

Has anyone IDed 'em yet?