Au-fwuchs! - What Are Those Little White "Bugs" in My Fish Tank?! Those Aquarium Specks on the Glass 

Not gonna lie...i saw these in my planted tank this past weekend and I was freaking out.

I looked this up at 4am freaking out that I had something wrong with my tank. Thank you!!!! I can go back to sleep

I was about to die when I saw these in my tank. I thought it was a parasite. Thankfully you had this video that gave me super relief!

they look like little fleas or dandruff. i freaked out, i thought they were some kind of parasite! 😅

I personally believe that tiny creatures in my tank mean that I'm doing something good that is allowing these things to survive. Not to mention that they also help you keep the ecosystem running! Keep on creating, Alex!

As a newcomer to this hobby your channel is absolutely invaluable! Everytime I have a question, you've made the video that contains all the answers and delve deeper into the subject. Thank you for helping me become so passionate about this! Greetings from Denmark

Thanks...you have been the only truly informative voice explaining all the mysteries in my shrimp tank!

So glad you did this video!! I was freaking out over a tiny 1mm bug tonight zipping around my fish bowl. I'm watching more closely now, lol!! Thanks!! USA

I’m new to fish keeping hobby and I just saw these in my betta tank after adding new plants, I panicked and luckily found this video. Thank you for this, I can now sleep without any worry.😌

Also, excellent video. Chasing a guppy fry through my moving bed filter (unplugged) and listening to you, searched copepods for the record, and your monologue was excellent, informative, and...just...good. Thanks man. Subscribed. Don’t stop making videos. I’m subscribed to Rachel Leary, king of diy, big al’s fish, and now, YOU. I don’t care about production value. Just keep making videos that aren’t dumbed down.

Thank you my friend, I was freaking out when I shaw these little creatures in my shrimp tank. Keep going bro, and again, thank you very much!

Amazing to me.. been searching for ANYONE who has info on the little white bugs! I never leave comments.. (extremely rare) but I wanted to thank you for taking time out to explain about the Copepod. I get them in vase water i keep plant cuttings in. Extremely interesting on how the heck they get on plant cuttings.. and no matter how many times I clean water, and rinse cuttings with hot water, they magically appear again.. i wonder if they're in our drinking water. I won't try and get rid of them now since they're basically harmless, and feel bad about all the cuttings I threw out, and all the lil copepods I flushed down sink. Thank you again.. I will now pass your info. to all these people searching for their "little white bugs in my vase water" questions! Thank you again for your time and patience to explain... You should teach the little ones, you'd be a great Science teacher! "The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go." -Dr. Seuss

Hey man - that was one of the most astute and concise descriptions I've ever heard of beneficial bacteria in my life. I've been a hobbyist for well over half my life at 40. Well done. Liked, subscribed and sharing widely to boot 👉😎👉 P.s. - your voice is not grating in any way so put that out of your mind lol ( I know I'm paraphrasing)

Man, I’m so glad I came a cross this video. I have these I’m my tank and was cleaning it and came across several of them. Thanks for the video and putting my mind at ease with these things.

I saw these in my tank today and did have a freak out, but your video was very helpfull thankyou.

That worm you saw was an annelid substrate worm and they're the OK kind, good food for Corydoras and Guppies.

I have been trying to figure out what these are since last night. Spent hours online watching videos, and never found any information about them until I finally came across your videoand they are I dead cocapods. . Thank you soooo much. They were creeping me out, and I was really bothered by not knowing what they were. I can now sleep peacefully. Will definitely subscribe to your channel. Very impressed.

great information! felt like i was in biology class haha. your knowledge on the topic is quite evident! keep up the good work and hope your tanks are doing well.

I noticed these in my tank this past week and noticed they looked just like the tiny white bugs we started in our gecko cage to eat the waste and keep the substrate healthy. So I figured they weren’t bad, but I wondered how the heck they got there! Very interesting video! Good to know it means my tank is healthy after a terrible algae bloom a couple months ago that I worked so hard to clear without chemicals. (Turned out adding more live plants was the final thing that restored my tank to normal and clear!)

Just found your channel when searching for those little bugs on my planted shrimp tank. Planning to add guppies to keep the population on check. New sub!

thankyou this is the only place that i found info on when i pulled some stuff out of my tank to rinse of and wondered why my fingers were sticky which was hard to even get off my hands

I freaked out when I saw hundreds of these in my fish tank. Glad to know they're not parasites 😅 I do water change every week.

No worries. It wasn't planaria, just a detritus worm. I think of them as a cross between a earthworm and a maggot. They usually live in and clean debris from the substrate but a huge outbreak in the water column can mean something is 'fishy' with your tank. Your tank looks great, and the inhabitants happy. I found a cyclops in my tank after introducing some rocks I boiled. I had my coffemaker next to the tank till I found microorganisms jumping around in the water reservoir. Mmmmmm, tasty coffee, what's that nutty flavor? My secret ingredient...

Excellent information! I’m working on establishing “sealed ecosystems” that can support fish and your videos have soooo much good info in them that relates to my project. You’re my teacher lol

Dude you make great content, your substrate video taught me a whole lot and this is just fascinating. Very calming voice as well 🤙🏻

I get excited when I see bugs, kinda fun

Man I’ve been looking for a while! I found these in my axolotl tank and started freaking out 😂 thank you very much!

I appreciate this video

The is for the info. I was freaking out for a second. Sent this video to my new to shrimp keeping neighbour

I watched this video while cleaning out my axolotl tank. I learned a lot!

i watch this video like once a month idk why i love it.

I saw a lot in my shrimp tank. I was freaking out. This is very helpful. Thank you for the information.

Awesome! My tank isn't the prettiest but at least it's healthy. I was worried about these little white "mites." Thanks!

Always coming through homes appreciate you player

I saw these in my tank. They move so fast, it seems like there’s a glitch in the matrix.

Hi, I just want to say that the little white torpedo critter is a copepod & not a seed shrimp (Ostracoda) which is a completely different animal :) both copepods & Ostracoda are extremely beneficial to all aquariums.

This is wonderful!! I just noticed them in my tank today, and I assumed they were little harmless bugs that benefit the tank and stuff or whatever. I don't know what to call it xD thank you! The tank I noticed them in is one of the tanks I'm most proud of, just because of how well it's been handljng ammonia and such. I've put a lot of boiled oak leaves and sticks in this tank for my halfmoon betta who doesn't get around great due to his tail. It all decided to decompose rather quick and have the thick fluffy layer stuff, which spiked the ammonia pretty high in an uncycled tank before. But ammonia never went above 0 in this tank. Also, it's semi-blackwater!! Love it xD

I have two female betas that share a 10 gallon. They looooove these little white buggy guys. I constantly see them hunting for them in areas that has dark pebble substrate. I’m guessing the contrast makes it easier to find the little white bois. It makes me so happy to see them being entertained and able to actually hunt with in their environment 🥲 I rarely see them on the glass… I’m guessing because my girls keep the population well under control.

I must have picked them up in my filter when I was using it to filter some stream fish.

Really Helpful video saving this one for future ref. for myself and others thank Alex

Those guys popped up in a tiny tank I’m cycling in the 2nd week! Yay, I’ve been adding live plants and healthy bacteria, so this makes me happy!! 3rd week now and they’re going strong. 😁

Awfuchs mainly focuses on algae species, biofilm is just a general term for any organisms(grazed by shrimps) that grows on the aquarium surface

Thanks a ton I was worried when I saw this on my new garden soil planted tank , this video cleared my head thanks once again

I had some mopani wood sitting around for a loooong time...finally soaked it in tap water for a week. Then I put them in a tank that I recently changed out *all* the gravel for some sand. Now I suddenly have a *ton* of them and they live on one specific spot of the driftwood. I have no idea where they came from lol, but 7+ years for dried eggs suggests the wood. I thought they were calcium buildup at first from feeding the shrimp!

great voice and even better explanations. i love how you word things.

i almost had a stroke when i saw them in my tank and this was the only video that was helpful

Thanks dude. Upgraded my tank and wasn't sure what they were.

"Auf" means "on" or "on top of" and "Wuchs" (pronounced vooks) just means growth. So it's like "surface growth". So your translation was pretty decent, you just put the word-break in slightly the wrong place. (I'm a native German speaker) Thanks for the great vid, really helpful. Just found some of these ickle critters in my tiny planted vase (no livestock, or so I thought. lol).

Hi, been subbed to the channel for a while now and I really like the factual/educational style of your videos:)

Your voice soothing as heck

i started a dirted tank recently (3 weeks) with a bunch of plants and good light, and boiled driftwood. These little "flea-like" friends appeared on the glass, 3-4 snails "appeared" and flat "worm-like" (harmless RHABDOCOLEA I think) amigos are saying HOLA to me on the same glass ... Am i OK ?? Or should i put half a botltle of sriracha sauce in the water to get rid of them ??? (JOKE !!) BTW : You and Father Fish are probably the 2 BEST channels for this "hobby" that is, essentially, biology and science ..... and the fact both of you stick to the FACTS and the "no-bullshit" approach of trying to sell products and "stuff", is what makes you stand out, so good job !

Well crap.. I was so worried! I just found these in my tank a few minutes ago. Geez they are little badasses 😱.. Thank you very much for the info! I really appreciate it!

As you can see, I'm roaming all around your channel videos and I'm so happy with your content. I discovered those now-called copepods and was a bit worried. I already knew from you that most of the micro organisms are beneficial for the tank but my tank is for now a shrimp only (with 3 Nerites to clean) tank. And your philosophy is in most of your tanks to always have a full ecosystem macro organism (fish), cleanup crew (shrimp/snail), micro organisms so that you have a full loop and everyone's in check. However I started with not an easy task if I only have shrimp because I am powerless against hydra/planeria and other organism that spawn out of nowhere (I had a bladder snail yesterday which I removed). So I am heavily researching how to best balance a tank in that configuration. The additional challenge with a shrimp only tank is that I don't need to feed the shrimp so my nitrates are always 0 and so I'm learning how to grow plants, but that's another super interesting topic :D I got separate N P K and micro fertilizer, and i'm currently reading research about N and P interactions in their respective assimilation by plants. This hobby is so cool man and you're an amazing person to encounter. Definitely will find a way to send you some support other than under the form of words ^^

My 10 gallon tank contained 2 guppies, 1 cory, and a dozen or so 'pest' snails. Using a sponge filter, standard heater, standard LED light. Light was on timer (8 hrs per day). It was doing great for months. Water testing always came up good. I thought it was time to give it a clean so I did a 50% water change and within three days the water was green. I thought it was just the glass so I scraped the glass clean but it wasn't.. it was the water. Did another 50% water change but next day water was green again. By the end of the week you couldn't even see the fish swimming in it and one guppy and the cory would only stay on the ground. Two days later they died and left just the one guppy (and I'm assuming the snails). Surviving guppy had babies so I took her and the fry and put them in a completely different tank with the sponge filter from original tank because I was worried they'd die too. (They are doing fine) However after 24hrs the now stagnate tank started clearing up and I noticed hundreds of little white flecks darting back and forth and down in the gravel. Three days have gone past and the water is totally clear again. Do you think those white flecks are these copepods? And would it be safe to return the filter to the stagnate water and put the guppy (& fry) back into the tank with the flecks? Any info would be great =)

Have them in my betta 5 gallon tank, so I must be doing a good job ☺️ mine are a small but smaller than yours ☺️

that worm floating past is detritus worm, safe

Thank you for this video, I just had a population of these little white bugs explode in my betta tank...I’ve never seen them before they are pretty interesting...good to know they are friendly!

Thank you so much for this video. You are very knowledgable. I was so worried about the copapods until I watched this.

Thanks!

I was worried when I just seen them in my new shrimp tank too thought it was bad

It is likely seed shrimps have 25% chance of surviving form being digested

I was freaking out so much when I found these haha ! So it brought me to this video... I guess I’m doing something good 😅

great video, there are a pod and a sign of health

Cycling a tank and have so much life in there already. I too was worried they might be parasites but this is all good.

I really love your channel dude. So so much. Shine on ya crazy diamond 💎

Very good video

They need more to do

Very informative and totally fascinating, thank you!

Wow you are full of knowledge my friend. 😮👍

I figured I was doing something right if new life is popping up

I love this channel. Thanks so much!

Alexander Williamson is the best name ever. 1:5 chance you signed the Declaration of Independence.

landed on this vid because of this reason.

All I can say is thank you!!🙂

I had some ostracods (seed shrimp) in a jar setup, and it got a hydra infestation. It killed the daphnia and copepods for the most part I think, but I saw ostracods survive being grabbed by hydra. As it was caught and grabbed by the hydra it instantly closed its shell, and after just a couple of seconds, the hydra let it go. The ostracod sank a bit down and then swam away seemingly as if nothing had happened. Ostracods seem to establish a bit slower than copepods, but they seem close to indestructible.

I thought they were baby shrimps.. thank you sharing this videos .

I didnt know why my betta kept biting the glass till I saw these little things he's eating them free fish food lol

I've seen these in my tank last week and tought that against all odds one of the brine shrimp eggs that I feed my fish with had hatched. Anyway. Anything that dares to move in there is getting immediately eaten by my fishs. I might want to figure out how to culture them. Live food is the best !

And I also only see them during water changes. There crawling all over my hang on back filters when the water is about 50 percent gone. Then when I fill it back up I don’t see them anymore

some copepods may be parasitic or carrying callamus worms, which is why never feed daphnia, copepods found in water sources with fish as it highly likely mean callamus worms can exist/thrive. They are used as bio indicators of the water quality

I love this I am really happy for my tank

I have little white bugs like these. Thank you for posting this video as i love my betta fish so much and i was worried these could be parasites. He likes to eat them 😋

i found these in my terrarium with a pond

They look like tiny lobster and my fish love them

Great vid thanks

Man you sound really stoned, but also dropped so much info. haha

Very helpful video. I was so happy to find out they mean I'm doing something right lol!

I saw these in my beta fish tank and I freaked out because I thought they were gonna kill my lil Carlton

Just put some clams, and some fish would eat them… not sure shrimp or snail will. But I have couple schools of Japanese rice fish and two of hillstream loaches also with some shrimp🤔 and the thing is, I just happen to saw a something like sea horse looking swim around my tank. Not exactly like your worm, but it’s a shape of sea horse swim around my tank. Hard to spot it, I happen to saw one, and when I turn around and look back again. It’s gone, can’t find anywhere. I’m thinking either some kind of worm or baby shrimp??! But think my fish probably going to eat it 🤣

At 10:15 I saw a detritus worm. Harmless to shrimp.

My tank is covered with these help

Great job man! I really like the content. Keep up the great work!

Wow! Thank you! Very helpful

I am actually looking for this microfauna put in my pond before putting fish or shrimp (except planarias)

This is a good video

Also the worm that floated past was a detritus worm & not a Planaria, so all good :) 👍

So helpful!

I drained a 10 gallon tank all the way down to 1 inch, took all the substrate out (glass beads/marbles not my tank but one I saved/adopted) and I saw what looked like a BLIZZARD. it was an absolute storm of tiny tiny little white aufwuchs or infusoria. I proceeded to put potting soil in the bottom and cap it with sand. I tried to do it slowly and carefully so the little critters didn't get buried because I love them and they are great fry food. But after I filler the war with some water I didn't see them anymore. Do you think the oh swing from adding potting soil killed them? Do you think I buried them to death? Or do you think they are okay and I just can't see them now? I put some smooth river pebbles and sand over the dirt and popped some plants in. I hope they are still there. I love the little life in the tanks

I think that was a detritus worm

Loved the info!