Assassin Snail only tank - mites?

[joolzbee]

Hi am new to this forum and its the best one I could find for snails! I have a 10 gallon Assassin Snail breeding tank and have noticed some tiny dot size black insects scurrying around in the sand. Does anyone know what they are?
I'm a bit worried as I don't know
if they are parasites and theres baby Assassins buried in the sand also. I only feed the snails Ramshorns, theres a cuttlefish in there for calcium and live plants. Can anyone help...please??!!

[pjaldave]

I'm pretty sure that they are the baby assassin snails. Can't think of anything else.

[joolzbee]

Thanks for the reply - they are definately not Assassin Snail babies...they move very quickly and are the wrong colour. I can only see them through a magnifying glass they are so small. They are in the sand substrate, come to the top and go under it again.

I did have some tiny white finer than cotton worm things in the tank, less than 5 cm long...I asked the guy I buy my Ramshorns from (food for the Assassins) if he knew what they were. He said he thought they were fly lavae from the cucumber/carrots I feed the Ramshorns. I'm wondering if some of these worms could have hatched into tiny flies?
The only thing is I don't put any veg in the Assassin tank only the Ramshorn tank...so don't know how they got in there.

I don't want to strip the whole tank and sterilise the sand as there are baby Assassins in there. Any ideas?

[Lady Hobbs]

Definately not assassins. But I don't know what they are! We can get many weird things in the substrate from overfeeding. I once got some kind of creepie crawler things in my shrimp tank but they didn't last long when I stopped dropping food in the tank for the shrimp. This could be something that come in from the plants, as well.

Since you have the ramshorms just for food for assassins, I see no reason for feeding them really. I think I would withhold the food and see if these things disappear.

[dmagerl]

my guess would be seed shrimp if they appear black. Cyclops usually appear a lighter color.

[pjaldave]

Are they destroying anything in the tank? If not then i'll leave them be as of now until they become a problem.

[joolzbee]

Thanks for your advice everyone - I think they are seed shrimp to be honest...so long as they don't do any harm thats fine. Maybe I should put some Assassin friendly fish in the tank - maybe some Corys? I did have 5 Endler Guppies in the tank but they were a bit too nippy around the snails so put them in my large tank with other guppies, they seem happier to be honest.
I actually feed the Ramshorns as I want them to breed - food for my Assassins, they work out quite expensive when I have to keep buying them.
Will see how it pans out with these seed shrimp - and not that worried about the Planaria, only seen them twice and not many at that - they disappear in a couple of hours.

Thanks again any further advice welcome....Julie