# bought isopods, found lots of red mites



## wriggles (Apr 5, 2014)

I bought dwarf purple isopods from a vendor and when it came in the mail I found a lot of tiny red mites crawling around. Should I go ahead and add the container to my viv or is this culture no good?
I'm not getting frogs for a couple months so there won't be anything in the tank to eat them.


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## Louis (Apr 23, 2014)

Just how vividly red do you mean? If they may be red spider mites they're not something you would want to introduce to your viv but if they're fairly fast moving and more of a reddish brown it's likely they are a relatively harmless predatory mite that you don't need to worry about.


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## minorhero (Apr 24, 2020)

wriggles said:


> I bought dwarf purple isopods from a vendor and when it came in the mail I found a lot of tiny red mites crawling around. Should I go ahead and add the container to my viv or is this culture no good?
> I'm not getting frogs for a couple months so there won't be anything in the tank to eat them.


As long as you are not yucked out by it you can individually pick out the isopods with your fingers. I did this with my tank because I didn't want to add straight peat moss to my tank and that's what they came in.


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## wriggles (Apr 5, 2014)

Louis said:


> Just how vividly red do you mean? If they may be red spider mites they're not something you would want to introduce to your viv but if they're fairly fast moving and more of a reddish brown it's likely they are a relatively harmless predatory mite that you don't need to worry about.


I can't really tell if it's a spider mite. I'll have to get a photo of one if I can.



minorhero said:


> As long as you are not yucked out by it you can individually pick out the isopods with your fingers. I did this with my tank because I didn't want to add straight peat moss to my tank and that's what they came in.


I was planning on doing this actually =)
Mine came in a mixture of wood chips, charcoal, and maybe peat moss.


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## Louis (Apr 23, 2014)

This is what a red spider mite looks like and they are a plant pest.








This is a predatory mite that would be a fairly harmless addition to the soil microfauna in your tank. It's unlikely that the mites you've found would harm your frogs. Worst case scenario they may eat some springtails but will mostly feed on slower moving white globular detritovorous mites and in turn will be eaten themselves by any frogs in the tank.


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## wriggles (Apr 5, 2014)

Louis said:


> This is what a red spider mite looks like and they are a plant pest.
> This is a predatory mite that would be a fairly harmless addition to the soil microfauna in your tank. It's unlikely that the mites you've found would harm your frogs. Worst case scenario they may eat some springtails but will mostly feed on slower moving white globular detritovorous mites and in turn will be eaten themselves by any frogs in the tank.


This is the best picture I can get.








I still can't tell if it's a spider mite, but I feel like it isn't.


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## Louis (Apr 23, 2014)

difficult to tell from the picture but I would expect a red spider mite to be more vividly red than that. How fast moving are they?


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## wriggles (Apr 5, 2014)

Louis said:


> difficult to tell from the picture but I would expect a red spider mite to be more vividly red than that. How fast moving are they?


They move about half the speed of the isopods, but they're always on the move.


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## wriggles (Apr 5, 2014)

Just a thought but wouldn't I see lots of webbing in the culture if it was spider mites?


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## Louis (Apr 23, 2014)

Not necessarily, but I don't think these are spider mites. If I were you I would be pretty comfortable introducing them along with the ispopods. They sound like predatory mites and it's very unlikely they will do any harm.


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## wriggles (Apr 5, 2014)

Louis said:


> Not necessarily, but I don't think these are spider mites. If I were you I would be pretty comfortable introducing them along with the ispopods. They sound like predatory mites and it's very unlikely they will do any harm.


I got a response from the vendor and they said they're probably detritivore mites. They even offered a refund! Not that I'd want one though, it sounds like these are fine to add to my tank.

Thanks for all the responses everyone!


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