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Black bugs are destroying my plants

matt3

Seedling
Joined
13 Mar 2016
Messages
5
Location
Edinburgh
Hi. My plants are dying due to a plague of some sort of bugs. Anyone knows what's that and how to get rid of them?
 

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I cant see any bugs? The black specs just look like algae/silt but the pictures aren't really clear enough to see, it maybe looks like a bug in the 5th pic but can't ID it without more detail

Insects aren't normally a problem for submersed plants in aquariums, if there was any in there, they should quickly be eaten by fish. Do you have any fish in the tank?

Holes in the leaves like that could be a potassium deficiency, especially as you are in Edinburgh (like me), we have soft tap water and this is usually the first deficiency my plants show. Are you fertilising this tank, and what with? CO2/lighting?
 
Three fingers, thanks for your response.
I have 6 amber tertas in my tank and aroud 10 bloody mary shrimps. I do fertilise. Once a week 8 ml of TNC complete. Co2 8h, lights 6,5 hour. I'm attaching a video of the bugs.
 
More pictures of damages and a creatures.
 

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Anybody? It's getting worse everyday. Bugs are getting bigger and I'm concerned with this situation.
 
They are Ostracods. Never seen them attack healthy plants directly but they will eat decaying plant material. They like blanched courgette, add this on a bamboo skewer and you can easily fish them out by lifting the courgette out by the stick when it's covered in them. If you want the food close to the substrate or to ensure sinking deeper, instead of a bamboo skewer you can use a long cable tie around one of those clay weight rings that come with some potted plants and then skewer the courgette onto the cable tie.
 
Hi
If U have good relation with your lfs get some small (young)guppies or platies they will sort them out for a week (if U dont feed them)and then return them.
It is surprising that your fish are not eating them.
Regards Konsa
 
Yeah, can't be 100% sure without a clearer close-up, but the movement in the video and the shape are consistent with harmless ostracods. In all of the pictures, they can only be seen feeding on already dead plant tissue.

I think your plants are suffering from a deficiency of potassium (possibly other things too) due to the soft water. You may want to look into adding a GH booster. Cheap to make your own from mainly potash and Epsom salts, or there are more expensive ready-made versions like Seachem Equilibrium.

Without knowing your full setup details and water change/fertiliser routines, it's hard to diagnose accurately though.
 
Hi All,
Ostracods, so that's what they are!! I had these in my 20L shrimp tank, never noticed any plant damage tho! but they just seem to have died out, so what did I do that was right?? it's a mystery but I'll know next tiem.
 
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