My sling won't budge...

[Allie Lastbeat]

I was feeding Pablo when I noticed something strange in his water dish. They appear to be teeny tiny white worms floating in the water. They kept drifting towards the center, then jumping (?) outwards, only to drift back in again. I took a video, but it's super crappy. Can't see the worms too well, but you can track their movements. Anyone know what these things are?

I thoroughly washed the water bowl and refilled with clean water. I also checked the substrate and didn't see anything moving anywhere. Checked Pablo, too, and he appears to be clean, though he's got a curious white spot on his abdomen... Should I be worried?

 

[cold blood]

hard to tell, but it looks like mites.

that "curious white spot" is called a "mirror patch", its normal.

 

[Allie Lastbeat]

hard to tell, but it looks like mites.

Where might they have come from? The only things being introduced into the habitat are pinheads...

Do I need to throw everything out and start with fresh substrate and moss?

that "curious white spot" is called a "mirror patch", its normal.

Cool.

 

[symbol]

As you said, it's hard to get a good look at them from that video BUT, personally, I think they look and move much more like very small glassworms than mites. Based on the video and your description of them looking like tiny white worms, I'm going to guess that they're most likely some kind of small midge larva.

 

[JumpingSpiderLady]

Thier little hopping makes me think of springtails. Don't know if what folks like in thier T enclosures is the same species, but sometimes fishkeepers find springtails hopping around the surface of an open top aquarium.
I can't say that's what those are. I really don't know.

 

[Allie Lastbeat]

Thier little hopping makes me think of springtails. Don't know if what folks like in thier T enclosures is the same species, but sometimes fishkeepers find springtails hopping around the surface of an open top aquarium.
I can't say that's what those are. I really don't know.

Ya, know, I just came to the same conclusion. I just watched a couple videos on youtube of springtails and they move exactly like what I saw. They seems to congregate in water bowls, from what I'm reading. So, not a threat to Pablo. But I still don't know how they got there...

 

[BGL]

Has your sling eaten yet?
You may have noticed my thread about my GP sling.

 

[Allie Lastbeat]

Has your sling eaten yet?
You may have noticed my thread about my GP sling.

Oh, yeah. He's a little glutton. I drop in 2-3 pinhead B. lats every third day and he jumps on them within seconds. Lemme tell ya, it was a huge relief the first time I saw him eat. Like, ok, we're gonna make it through this together. I think I just assumed that slings must be delicate because they're so small when in fact they're quite resilient.

 

[BGL]

It's almost like they're too easy to care for. If there was more to be done maybe we wouldn't worry

 

[cold blood]

Where might they have come from? The only things being introduced into the habitat are pinheads...

Do I need to throw everything out and start with fresh substrate and moss?



Cool.

Could be springtails, but I've never heard of those popping up without being introduced.

Mites are everywhere, crickets are a major source for their introduction...they also gather in water, especially in drier enclosures. They have to get really bad before they actually start causing problems.

 

[JumpingSpiderLady]

Could be springtails, but I've never heard of those popping up without being introduced.

I have. In fish tanks. Ive never experienced it personally, but it's not unheard of. What introduced them? I don't know. I'm not saying they are definitely springtails, but they could be.
Do mites move like that? I thought they would drown in standing water.

 

[Realevil1]

Im about 80% sure those are spring tails, and they probably came in on that moss I'd imagine. Mites don't really move like that from what I've seen.

 

[Allie Lastbeat]

It's hard to know for sure what they are. Luckily, they don't appear to have spread any further than the water dish. And none of my other enclosures have them. Still, I'll keep a weather eye out for signs of more.

Thanks, everyone, for the advice.

 

[REEFSPIDER]

@Allie Lastbeat they might be phorid flies I recently had some of those little buggers in some of my setups and they love to congregate in the water dish, they also although being winged flies much prefer to jump just like the video you shared. Try and get a close look at them do they have wings? if not I would almost certainly say they are springtails as @JumpingSpiderLady has stated. Based only on the sporadic jumping, not common with mites.

 

[Allie Lastbeat]

Try and get a close look at them do they have wings?

Definitely no wings.

 

[REEFSPIDER]

Definitely no wings.

Interesting. I can't get a good look at your video on my iPhone or my eyes may just be deteriorating with age. But I wanna say they're springtails. I would just clean the water dish out remove the substrate around where the dish was and replace it and move the dish to elsewhere in the enclosure to play it safe.

 

[Allie Lastbeat]

Interesting. I can't get a good look at your video on my iPhone or my eyes may just be deteriorating with age.

It's not your eyes. It's my video, which was itself filmed using an iPhone. That's why the quality is so bad.

 

[REEFSPIDER]

It's not your eyes. It's my video, which was itself filmed using an iPhone. That's why the quality is so bad.

That explains it. My camera shoots good one day and crap the next. Sometimes I get lucky and get a decent shot off of this device.