Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi all -

I was wondering if you guys could help me out.

I have a 15 gallon that is filled 4/5ths of the way with water. It contains 1 hatchling painter and 2 hatchling musks. A piece of driftwood sticks out of the water for the turtles to rest on.

Well, today, I noticed a bunch of small white bumps all over the exposed driftwood. "Uh oh", I thought....MITES!!!!

Well, I don't think they're mites, they are more like fleas, they float on top of the water and they jump real good. My turtles seem very healthy, and I mechanically removed a bunch of the fleas, but there are still plenty more.

A few questions....

1. Anyone ever have experience with these critters and how to remove them? The tank is planted and I have a baby bullhead in the tank so I'd rather not break the tank down.

2. Any ideas what they are? If I could positively ID them, and learn their life history, I can better combat them. Googling "water flea" comes up with Daphnia, I thought Daphnia were purely aquatic. I'm interested to know if they will bother my painter while he's basking.

I took a couple of pieces of water lettuce from my brother a few weeks ago...he is notorious for keeping filthy tanks. I wonder if a few hitched a ride?

Thanks in advance,

Jigmaster

Oh! I have a bunch of plant life in the tank, all of it collected from local ponds...perhaps there were some eggs or larvae in the plants...

Thanks again,

Jigmaster

If these critters are really small, sounds like springtails!
Check out
www.ext.vt.edu/departments/entomology/factsheets/springta.html
and
www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/ent/clinic/Bugofwk/970003/springta.htm

A pest because of their annoying numbers, but **harmless!**

These are common in tanks and vivaria. They are either springtails or psocids ("booklice"which are from different groups of tiny primitive insects that cause no harm to your turtles. They are very similar in appearance and must be positively identified with a magnifying glass. They feed mostly on organic mater in the tank and in some cases may become very numerous. The amphibian forum gets several letters a week on this subject.
The best natural control would be small fish, such as guppies for the aquatic poulation and tiny frogs or salamanders for the terrestrial populations (dart frogs love them), but of course this would not be feasible in a turtle tank. You can scoop them out periodically, but they will probably return, considering the setup. Look them up on one of the state university agricultural pest sites for enlarged pictures. Unfortunately, I lost my best referrence that I always referred people to.