Tiny White/Black Specks- Very Concerning

[LightEnderling]

While I was feeding our fish Lil B, who is a relative of the piranha, I happened to notice small white specks on an oyster shell that I had brought from a fishing trip last year. At first I thought they were tiny bubbles, but then I took a closer look and noticed that they were crawling. The whole tank is INFESTED with these little things and my mom and I are very concerned for our fish. Since Lil B is incredibly aggressive and has killed her former tank mates, we know we can't risk putting in small fish or bottom feeders to take care of this problem. We need a fast and easy way to take care of these things at the lowest price. We have two separate tanks, the largest one is about three feet in length, a foot in width, about sixteen inches in height, and contains five large standard goldfish, we had a bottom feeder but he died recently. The second tank that contains our piranha relative is about sixteen inches in length, a foot in width, and about fourteen inches in height. The large tank I know we can put small guppies in, but we definitely cannot put any kind of fish in the second tank. We really need help!

[happydanio123]

Hi there,

Can you describe how they look like eg are they worm or bug like? Usually a standard dose of anti worm should do or aquarium salt if your lil B can take it. I suggest doing big water changes to suck up as many of them as possible.

Cheers,

Happydanio

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[LightEnderling]

The look like tiny bugs, mites to be specific. I also managed to look up what species and gender Lil B really is. He is a Convict Cichlid, which I realize now that he is not related to piranhas but is still really aggressive, he is larger than average has bit me before. Tomorrow I'll see if I can put him in an alternate mini tank we first received him in and disinfect the entire tank. The larger tank will have to wait though, for the outside glass is smudged thanks to little kids. I'll have my mom try to find some small fish like guppies for the that tank. Thank you for the advice on the aquarium salt, I'll suggest it to my mom.

[happydanio123]

No worries. They could be the free swimming young of ick, a type of external parasite that attacks fish's outer surface area, aka white spot. Good that you mentioned that they look like mites because I was contemplating if they could be nematodes which are very small white worms that are mostly beneficial. But it seems these guys mean bad business!
I suggest you try out this Chemical called Searchem paraguard which is basically a preventive medicine so even if it is overdosed by a little or isn't targeted at the intruders it won't harm Lil B. Searchem Paraguard also covers a wide spectrum of Parasites, Bacteria and Fungus so it might help rid of those mites. Good luck!!!

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