Help ridding tanks of plant eating mites?

[Toska]

Hello I have been dealing with these bugs for some time and I just want to get rid of them

I don't know where they came from, none of my fish will eat them, they are NOT snails. They have legs but move very slowly I only see them move when I take them out the tank. I noticed them when they started doing heavy damage to my floating plants, manual removal of infected plants, increased water changes havent seemed to help at all

The picture is of an anubias leaf that grew in fine and undamaged and this is what they've done to it in a few short days. 

Some online searching has led me to believe these are just some water mite? Most are harmless but guess not mine and nobody really says how to get rid of them, I've seen suggestions that endlers will eat them but I cannot really add any fish to either of my tanks due to current stocking.

Any advice and ideas are helpful and appreciated!

[Odd Duck]

I’ve got some of what appears to be the same species in my outdoor tub.  I added a bunch of guppies to the tub (and a heater since it’s cooling off) and I make sure to swish the frogbit around regularly to knock the mites off.  I also don’t feed that tub heavily and skip some days.  A heavy rain also helped knock down the mite population.  I just brought some frogbit inside today and have it all held down with silverware so it’s submerged fully in soda water for it’s Reverse Respiration treatment because I definitely do NOT want to risk bringing the mites indoors.  You CANNOT do soda water to the entire tank as it will kill your fish/snails/shrimp very well.  But you CAN pull all of your frogbit out and treat all your frogbit.  I’m only bringing inside a small portion since I know it grows like crazy when healthy.  I just want to add it to a couple more tanks and what I have indoors has been growing slowly since I’ve neglected to fertilize and my tanks are pretty heavily planted.

I don’t know if the mites will survive the winter but I’m assuming they will if the frogbit survives.  I’m not sure if the current heater will be enough to get the frogbit through a winter.  I have no idea if the mites can survive without floating plants but if your Anubias was fully submerged, then I would recommend you try to soak every plant you can with soda water re: the RR directions to eliminate as many mites as possible.  Then your fish may be more likely to clean up the rest.

 

 

[Toska]

That's very interesting!! I guess I just don't know how good it would do for me dipping my plants as they're all over in my tank, on rocks, on the glass on my SNAILS! I'd imaine there all over the substrate and sponge filter to but both are black so I cannot tell. They can absolutely survive submerged without floating plants present. but I'll definitely look into doing that to knock their numbers down

The big issue is my fish DON'T eat these, I have Gardneri Killis in a 10g tank and Golden Wonder Killis in a 20g long, the Golden's absolutely don't eat them they won't even acknowledge baby brine shrimp as a food source so doubt they're not gonna notice these little things. I never see the gardneri eating them except ONE smaller female who seems to notice them but if she is eating them shes absolutely not eating them enough for population control sadly. 

I'm not entirely against getting a fish to maybe help but I have 7 gardneri in the 10g so i don't really wanna add anything else and my golden wonders are VERY aggressive and likely to just kill, bully and or eat any new tankmates that could help me here

[eatyourpeas]

They look like aphids. I have them in my floating plants and are a great food source for fish, especially when you can’t feed regularly (i.e. traveling). Sparkling gourami, WCMM, CPDs, Norman Lampeyes love them. 🙂

[OnlyGenusCaps]

Do you have, or can you get, a more detailed macro?  The fact they are living below the water line rules out most insects.  I'm quite curious what these might be.  If they can be ID'd then we might be able to figure out if they are particularly sensitive to anything.