Copepods?

[L&M]

We have these little white bug-looking things in the betta tank. I did a little research, but still confused.

Are copepods and water fleas the same? If not, how do I know which they are?

They are really freakin tiny and maybe round looking. They swim around and hang out on the glass a little bit.

They kinda weird me out a little, but I read that the betta may eat them. I doubt this because he seems to have a hard time catching his "dead" food and those little buggers are fast.

The betta tank is Fluval Edge. I modified the included filter to dampen the filtration to a level that would provide minimal current for the betta, so the filtration is very light. There is a small bit of algae, but there are a few baby ramshorn snails in there that pretty much keep it in check.

I have read conflicting information about the presence of copepods (if that's what they are) indicating good biological conditions versus it being an indication of over feeding/algae blooms.

I would tend to think that the betta tank doesn't have great water conditions. I never check it because my daughter has had that betta forever and it lives through whatever water conditions are. I just do 50% wc every two weeks and he's happy. I was occasionally doing a more thorough cleaning before I put the snails in, but now they keep the gravel looking clean so I put that off the last time. The tank actually looks pretty clean and healthy, but I just noticed those bug-looking things.

So,bad? Good? Should I go ahead and do a better cleaning? Turn up the flow on the filtration? Any other suggestions?

TIA

Laura

[allysangels]

little tiny round things? when they swim around, is their motion jerky or smooth? my guess is seed shrimp, i have tons of those myself. isn't harmful in any way. true you might want to cut back on feeding if there are tons of them.

[mnemenoi]

Could be Daphnia, Cyclops, Gammarus, and a plethora of teeny inverts. I'd recommend searching for them individually and you should be able to determine what they are. Whatever the case they are feeding on the algae and extra food and the betta will likely eat them eventually. I don't imagine they will be any sort of issue.

[Totenkampf]

if they are white then they are not water fleas (daphnia) since those are black. copepods are a cousin or daphnia and neither should be dangerous. my betta loves live food like daphnia and mosquito larvae. pics are worth a thousand words.

[AquaticAddict]

you don't necessarily get em from overfeeding I used to have tons of them in my shrimp tank and I hardly ever fed them, they're harmless

[L&M]

Copepods?

Definitely white and swim in a jerky motion. I'll see if I can get any pics when I get home from work, but probably not happening until after vacation. Too much to do with kids activities and getting prepared to go out of town.