tank invaded by water fleas<wot to do?

[south coast nelly]

gday folks....ive got a friend on another forum and she sent me a mail asking me the following as no one could help her

i know you guys are the best so heres the mail she sent me...please help....

"dont know if you can help on this iv posted up a few topics on the matter but seems as no one can help my tank has been invaded by daphnia aka water fleas and are know feeding of the discus this dont seem to bother them but in the long term it might im due to get more discus in the tank sept ( iv had to put off getting them due to the pests) iv never added live food other than earth worms i got some corys and bumble bee gobys to eat them but theres to many of the fleas for them to keep on top of it im adding some mollys and others tomorrow but dont want to add to much and over do the stocking of the tank but i really want to know if theres anything i can add to the water to kill all or at least most of them if you have anytips it would be use full my waters spot on so its not cause of that. i had a friend wetting them self cause its like i need frontline for fish lol but dont think they do that lol i dont know if you can help but tips are welcome x have a good day x"

 

[jpjn]

I wonder if they are indeed Daphnia (water fleas). Could be something else if they're feedng off the Discus. I've never heard of water fleas being a threat to the fish. Smaller fish would gobble those water fleas right up.
Such as Guppies.

 

[guppy]

Several of the copepods have been known to feed on discus slime coats. I was looking into this for another post and while copper sulfate or cupramine work it seems Clout works very well. It is not recommended for scaleles fish and tends to kill loachs and many catfish though.

 

[south coast nelly]

bump

 

[perfection]

i would id the critters first. most fish lice medications will kill water flees even at half dose or you could go all natural and stock the tank with a herd of hydras LOL

 

[Mystix212]

Jam the tank with 5-6 mollies and or guppies. Dont feed them, they should feed off the daphina. But first you have to figure out is what is the source of the problem? They might be mulitplying in the sump in a refugium.

 

[fishdance]

If they are daphnia and they are a problem in a discus tank, just bump up the temperature. Daphnia cant handle warm water which is a pity as I culture these for fantastic live food and they do an incredible job clearing green water algae.