Pest identification

[cptalbertwesker]

I was bathing my snails yesterday and noticed that these small white things crawling around the tank.

I introduced tropical woodlice a month or so back, and up until now I just figured anything I saw moving was them, but upon closer inspection I'm wondering if they brought something into my tanks with them.

I'm not sure if they are mites or not though and thats what I'm worried about, they seem to congregrate around areas the snails sit, so on the lid there is a fair amount at the moment, although there are two different types of these white creatures from what I can determine.

One variety is long and skinny, but I'm sure they are not the woodlice because I've seen no adult woodlice in ages. The others are short and round, though there is not as many of these compared to the skinny ones.

One of them can jump, as when I was giving the lid a good clean they were jumping quite far away from the water.

Now that I've noticed them I intend to get some Hypoaspis to rid my poor snailies of these pests, but I was wondering, are these indeed mites? Because from what I've heard mites are very difficult to see, but I can identify each leg on these little beasties, but it may just be i've got good eyesight, no idea.

Heres a photo if it helps, they are the little white things

[welsh]

springtails I would say espically if the little blighters are jumping

[cptalbertwesker]

That never crossed my mind, I always thought that springtails were brown or black, after trying to poke them with the tip of a pencil they must be springtails, they're almost as fast as fleas!

Although the few of the rounder little white things I seem to see less often dont jump, they just sort of crawled onto the tip of my pencil, they are a little slower than the springtails in movement, could these be mites? I see these on the tank more than on the snails though, do mites only stay on the snails?

[feebix]

I really wouldn`t worry about mites dude, in recreating an environment for your snails you are inviting all sorts of mites and springtails into the tank anyway, it cannot be avoided and is actually a good thing anyway. The mites and springtails all do the same job as the woodlice. Of course you don`t want to get over run, but all you have to do is skim the top of the compost off to drastically reduce numbers, I mix a load of Coir in too. There is a species of mite that damages your snails, they hang around the snails vent and I believe they move very slowly. Most of what you`ll find in your tank will move quickly. Even if you pick up a bit of cucumber or something and there`s a mat of mites covering the floor making it white, that`s fine ;D But as I say, you can control their numbers by skimming. You can also control mite numbers by changing the way you feed, if you scatter food all over the floor, you`ll have more mites. If you put the food in a pile and a different place each time, you`ll have fewer mites. With that, and skimming, mites aren`t a problem for me what so ever......

[cptalbertwesker]

Aww thank you feebix, you've really put my mind at rest

[feebix]

;D yay ! ;D