Insects, leeches, planaria etc

[albertjavieraguilar]

Cool! never thought of having a water strider in an aquarium. I would love to see the pictures i have problems taking pics and posting. How big is your aquarium? Do you have a filter and replace water? I don't filter an only change 10% every 3 months or so. the nymphs seem to multiply by magic unless there are dragonflys flying around. lol I think some my be feeding on my ghost shrimp larva though i have several that are 1 month old now. My leeches continue to grow an still have no idea what they are feeding on.

 

[Wy Renegade]

Nice, that one looks like it might be a hydra on the side of the aquarium? Could just be that with the feeding the nymphs are becoming large enough for you to see. Have you tried the hosting site for pictures?

My tank is a 20gal long turtle tank, with a aquaclear10 and a whisper 10i for filters. It runs without heater, and while I did water changes initially every month, its probably been close to a year since I changed any water out at this point. I do add water every few days, as it only contains about 2 gallons of water in the pool area.

Here's a couple of shots.
FTS from early last month;

Top down FTS from the same day;

Few of the invertes;

 

[albertjavieraguilar]

Wow great tank and pics. The my pic isn't a hydra though it does look like one form the angle i took (the rest of him is hiding in the algae). it's just the tail end that you see, its some kind of insect larva the biggest is close to 3 inches long. I saw my first hydra in the tank last weekend.
How big is your crayfish? I assume it's small or it would be eating everything up. What do you do when the larva mature? I like your mussels, i have some too. Your plants look great, what do you use for substrate and lighting?
I will try and figure out how the hosting site works. Thanks

 

[Wy Renegade]

Wow great tank and pics. The my pic isn't a hydra though it does look like one form the angle i took (the rest of him is hiding in the algae). it's just the tail end that you see, its some kind of insect larva the biggest is close to 3 inches long. I saw my first hydra in the tank last weekend.
How big is your crayfish? I assume it's small or it would be eating everything up. What do you do when the larva mature? I like your mussels, i have some too. Your plants look great, what do you use for substrate and lighting?
I will try and figure out how the hosting site works. Thanks

Cool, When I first started keep aquariums many years ago, I just added pond water to one. Had all kinds of daphnia and hydras as well as lots of other critters. Unfortunately it didn't last long.

Yeah the crayfish is small, only about 1" at this point. Generally speaking I allow the insects to molt to adults within the classroom, and then we move them to a nearby wetland area (weather permitting). My substrate is a 50/50 mix of sand and bagged dried peat moss, and the lighting consists of one regular strip light (plant bulb) and one double strip light (plant bulb and normal tank bulb. I don't use t5s cause the plants grow like crazy now and I don't want to have to use CO2.

Looking forward to seeing some other photos

 

[albertjavieraguilar]

Here is another picture of the larva that has the tail end that looks like a hydra. Any idea what it will be as an adult, some are close to 3 inches long

 

[Wy Renegade]

Interesting critter ~ not familiar with that particular one. However, the lack of a distinct head tells me it is most likely order Dipteria (so some type of true fly). The size would be similar to the size of Craneflies that we find out here, so maybe a different species of Cranefly? Here's some Cranefly larvae we've found;

 

[albertjavieraguilar]

Yeah it does look like a cranefly larva. Wow i looked them up I never knew there were so many different types of craneflys and the larva are so different for each. Now I know what it is but still have no idea what it eats, most seem to feed on plants. I will do some further research thanks for your help Wy. BtW you live in a great state, i saw those huge leeches swimming around at Yellowstone this summer.

 

[Wy Renegade]

Yeah it does look like a cranefly larva. Wow i looked them up I never knew there were so many different types of craneflys and the larva are so different for each. Now I know what it is but still have no idea what it eats, most seem to feed on plants. I will do some further research thanks for your help Wy. BtW you live in a great state, i saw those huge leeches swimming around at Yellowstone this summer.

Yeah there is a few. According to Pennak's guide to Freshwater Invertebrates of the United States, aquatic crane fly larvae are either carnivorous or herbivorous depending on species. He doesn't give any specific info on what they feed on however.

Thanks, were you around Yellowstone Lake? We try and spend some time over there every so often, but avoid the Yellowstone Lake area as much as possible. We spent a week in the backcountry this past summer. Canoed back into Shoshone lake, and fished and canoed around the lake. Also spent some time in the hot springs around the lake ~ the deer fly populations were crazy!

 

[albertjavieraguilar]

Since they were in algae mats i am gona guess the crane fly larva are herbivorous unless i see different. Haven't seen them eat any of my plants or animals.

Yellowstone :Camped a few days up in Slough creek and Morris Geyers. Saw my first wild wolves within 1 mile of our camp at slough creek Did you go to shoshone lake from lewis lake?

Saw the big leeches at yellow stone lake and several small ponds i was surprise to see a big leech like that free swiming in a big lake i would have though a big fish would eat it.

 

[Wy Renegade]

That would be my guess as well.

Very cool, I love watching the wolves. Yeah we canoed from the docks on Lewis and back into Shoshone, you have to walk/wade part of the way, as you're going against the current and its pretty swift.

Yeah I imagine the Cutthroat and the Lake trout both enjoy them when they get them.