Strange Invertabrates

[troy]

Today I bought two plants from the pet store and found some weird bugs in the water with the plants. I put them in a large critter keeper that had been set up for awhile to put something from a lake in it. After watching them for awhile, most were little shrimps and shrimp like things 1/2" or smaller. Also there was a flat worm with a triangular head that I think is a platana(I don't know the spelling). Then there were two worm things with lines around them, carrying what I believe is gunk. The shrimp things kept going to the surface swimming weirdly up to the surface. What are they and are they harmful or beneficial in any way.

[Rue]

Without seeing them I can't be sure.

Daphnia, cyclops and planaria all spring to mind.

None are harmful. Most are good eating for the fish.

[troy]

Tanks for the response. I suspected the worms were planaria and most of the shrimp things were daphnia, but I still think the largest is a shrimp or crayfish by the way it moves its tail and how it looks.

[YaYgoldFish]

maybe you should look at other places to buy your plants..

[genitor]

shrimp looking things can be water fleas

[nanaglen2001]

Beware of planaria, those things can really become a plague, and there is more or less no way to get rid of them. Besides emptying the tank, throwing away everything whats in it (plants, sand and decoration) and really desinfecting it. And even then you cant be sure if an egg or some piece of the planaria survives.

[Rue]

...my recent outbreak seems to have looked after itself...I cut down on the feeding and cleaned the gravel really well a couple of times...

Unless you're rearing fry...I haven't come across any drawbacks to having them in your tank...

[troy]

Hopefully none are in my tank because, all the things I could see were in the water and I that in the container I'm putting stuff that I catch at a lake tomorrow.