What's that bug? How to recognize them

[FelixAvery]

great! stupendous!

[Canadiancray]

Fantastic thread. Keep it going.

[standoyo]

Fantastic!
The worse IMO are dragonfly larvae. They are killers in the tank and live up to 7 years. Fishes and shrimp get eaten or killed by them.

[starrystarstarr]

Thank you for posting rain-. Just started a shrimp tank a few months back and have encounter a few of these other "pets"
I also agree with Color Me Blue about making this post a sticky.

[RESGuy]

Originally Posted by standoyo

Fantastic!
The worse IMO are dragonfly larvae. They are killers in the tank and live up to 7 years. Fishes and shrimp get eaten or killed by them.

Indeed! I have them in a fountain outside and they look so evil and catch and eat tadpoles in there (which I don't mind ). Once they all mature which could take years, my backyard will be full of Dragon Flies lol!

[iturnrocks]

Previously I would have agreed that Ostracods (seed shrimp) are harmless. yesterday, a group of Ostracods attacked, killed, and ate 2 fairy shrimp in my tank.

I personally saw them attacking the first fairy shrimp- it was trying to kick them off. The second fairy shrimp disappeared sometime overnight.

I had previously seen ostracods consume a dead fairy shrimp, but this is the first time i have seen them kill one. I will add some more fairy shrimp to that tank next week and see if I cant get some photos of the swarm.

Here is another creature to add to the harmless list, although I doubt many of you will happen upon them in your tanks.

Clam shrimp - Here are some pics of one I caught wild by dip netting flooded fields. They swim kinda like daphnia by propelling themselves with their antennae. They are much larger than Ostracods. They have a very short lifespan, about 2-3 weeks. The one in these images is about 1/2 inch long.

[RESGuy]

Thanks for posting iturnrocks

[sandiegoryu]

Woooaaah. That looks cool. I just thought it was a magnified view of some strange looking daphnia! Clam shrimp eh? Kind of like saying Cat dog lol.

[bulrush]

These are really great pics. I have some comments:

- Tubifex worms have their head in the sand and TAILS in the air.

- Bloodworms are midge larva. Midge adults look exactly like mosquitos but they don't bite. Actually, midge larva are only one type of "bloodworm". Bloodworm is just a term for anything red that resembles a mosquito larva.

- The second mosquito pic with the big head, is ready to emerge as an adult.

- Can you find a pic of the mosquito eggs? They are a football shaped raft of dark brown, tube-shaped, slightly fuzzy eggs. Raft is about 4mm long.

[CdoGG]

Originally Posted by spypet

here is an underwater picture of ianmason's dragonfly larva/pupa.
they probably come from aquatic plants grown outdoors.
you can manually remove or hope the fish will eat them.



rain- thanks again for inspiring this thread.
feel free to use this stuff in your main post.

I just found one of these in my tank tonight. Are they harmful ?

[Wasserpest]

It depends on the size of other animals in your tank. Full grown Cichlids and such will probably make a quick snack out of it, while smaller fish might get eaten by it over time.

[CdoGG]

Originally Posted by Wasserpest

It depends on the size of other animals in your tank. Full grown Cichlids and such will probably make a quick snack out of it, while smaller fish might get eaten by it over time.

Well.... Just to be on the safe side I put it in my 90 gal with some fish that will take care of him !

[milalic]

good, good...

[aelysa]

This is not a planaria with a spine and rudimentary legs. It is an Australian LEECH! Apparently the "spine" is it's developing young, and when they become free swimming, they attach itself to the mother and look like a billion tiny wiggly legs. Totally disgusting and mine was about a fourth of an inch long.

Actually, I come to find a year later, it was some sort of snail leach. Even more disgusting.

[aquagirl]

OMG,
I have been looking for two weeks now for the type of bugs that I found in a banana plant that I purchased two weeks ago, for my blue shrimp tank. I purchased the plant at a LFS so the shrimp would have something to hold on to on the way home. My fault for putting it in the tank before proper cleansing, I know better!

I have contacted quite a few "experts" to no avail. I just happened to do a web search tonight for CRS and found a link to your site. I saw the sticky about bugs in your tank and took a look. They are seed shrimp, lol. You guys ROCK!!!!!! BTW.....Now that I have them how do I get rid of them? They look so much like my newly hatched cherry shrimp. Thanks in advance for any help that you can provide.