bugs in my crabitat!

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Sep 21, 2010 4:35 am

I haven't been here in a while so please forgive me. I have been crabbing for 2 years now. I am having a problem with bugs in my tank and am unsure what to do. I have had mites in the past and did a deep clean and got rid of them. I did my last deep clean in June of this year. I now have some sort of bug that is larger than a mite and can be seen with the naked eye but they are still small. They move very quickly and very jerkily kind of like a fruit fly but they don't have wings. They are all over my tank and they took over in just a matter of 2 weeks! Does anyone know what they might be? Any help at all is very much appreciated. They are about the size of a fruit fly but are thinner and are gray in color with no wings.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Sep 21, 2010 8:26 am

I have pictures now. If anyone knows what this thing is please tell me!

Crabby Abby · Post by **Crabby Abby** » Tue Sep 21, 2010 9:03 am

Looks to be a springtail which are not predatory and actually feed on waste so they're beneficial tank cleaners if the concepts of permitting them to stay doesn't "bug" you! lol Sorry, couldn't resist.You can read more here and this is the page I made my ID from. Yours looks like the second row, first sketch.Since they're not harmful it's best to wait until any buried hermits have surfaced before cleaning the substrate. Sometimes you can avoid it though by shaving the surface.