Help! Alien Critter In My Aquarium!

[Phishy25]

While cleaning my tank yesterday I screamed the house down when I discovered one of these critter's munching on some platy fry!!!

I believe it to be a dragonfly larvae. It was horrible! I killed it immediately, but will there be more? How the *%!@? did it get in my tank? I haven't bought new plants for months, so do you think a dragon fly got in the house and laid eggs in my tank? Im confused and scared!!!

 

[DevUK]

Could be a may fly larvae. Bit smaller than dragonfies so could well of gotten into your tank to lay eggs.

 

[*Fishkies*]

Mayfly Larvae Picture. Quite similar, however a little different body type and he doesn't have the tail like the on pictured above does, this one just has the spikes of the tail.
Damselfly Larvae. There also is a picture of a damselfly larvae that may be it. It looks quite similar to the dragonfly picture you posted.
In anyway though you sure have an interesting situation.

 

[Phishy25]

Yeah it did have spikes on it's tail, so possibly a mayfly.....and it had teeth!!!!!!!! Oh the nightmares!!!

 

[Lorna]

How vile you poor thing!!

 

[YoungFishBreeder]

Aquatic invertebartes fall into 3 broad groups when speaking of acidity tollerance.

Mayflies are vulnerable to levels of low pH,

Caddisflies, stoneflies and alderflies are fairly tollerant of low pH, with.....

Dragonflies, Damselflies, Beetles and Bugs being the most tollerant, some surviving down to a pH of 4.5!


i wouldn't advise lowering the ph while your fish are in there though

 

[Phishy25]

I haven't seen anymore, bt they are tricky to see. Hopefully the larger fish might eat them? Will lowering the pH not affect my fish tho?

 

[YoungFishBreeder]

I said in my previous post i wouldn't advise lowering the ph

 

[Phishy25]

Duh sorry read that wrong

 

[lilmisshertz]

OMG how grose!! Are they fast moving? I'm feeling squeemish just thinking about it!
I bet your looking at your tank every 15 minutes to see if you can see one lol

 

[Phishy25]

I can't really describe how they move! I was catching platy fry to move to the fry tank when I discovered this beast!!! They are fairly quick moving, but just really nasty looking! Big head with teeth and 3 spikes as a tail!
I can describe how I moved! Very quickly, screaming and swearing and jumping up and down lots on beasty!!!

 

[lilmisshertz]

hahaha
Sounds like you were having lots of fun!!!!
Well I hope I don't come across anything like that when mine is all set up!

Your so brave for jumping on it, i would have probably ran a mile!!! and moaned to my partner to come back from work RIGHT NOW!!!