Scarey Critter Has Appeared In My Tank!

[Square]

First of all, hello. This is my first post and it's a cry for help! I'm very new to tropical fish keeping and I've only just set up my first tank. It has been up and running for about 2-3 months now without any serious disasters. It's quite a small tank at about 30 litres, I think. I have not introduced anything to the tank for at least 6 weeks but out of nowhere a rather disturbing bug has 'hatched'. I first noticed it a few days ago when I guess it was still immature. I apologies now for the vague descriptions! It looked like the kind of insect you'd get in a garden pond. A long slender body and a head part. At this stage it had a distictive forked 'tail' right at the end of its body. As I've monitored it over time, it seems to have molted a number of times leaving behind a 'shell' of it's body. Now, it probably measures 2cm long and about 1cm wide. It's body is a lot fatter now and is black with a slightly serated edge and has fairly long legs and a scarey looking head! I couldn't see any nasty jaw parts but I can't help but feel it's a predator. I've not had any (adult) fish go missing as yet but one of my platy's is producing young at the minute. I've seen it move and it can't half shift when it wants to! Other wise, it seems to move slowy, even stalking. I will try and get a picture of it later but am at work at the moment. I'm just hoping that it's something common and someone will say "Ah yes, that'll be a...". Other than the platy's (about 5), there are 9 neon tetra and a couple of loaches (and a shed load of snails!!). Suggestions??

 

[zoekin8yg]

a photo would help if you can get one

 

[Silverlady]

Perhaps it's a Dragon fly Larvae, they look a bit scary.

 

[Creature Seeker]

Sounds cool, wish I had one!

 

[Square]

Ok, typically I cannot find it at the moment to take a picture. However, looking at pictures of Dragonfly Lavae on the net, I have to say the resemblance is striking. It also says that some larger species will consume small fish How the wotsit am I gonna get rid of it? I hope there arn't hundreds of these things waiting to hatch I keep thinking of the film Alien....it's freaking me out!

 

[Liam]

if its this critter, its a crane fly larvae, (daddy long legs) I am pretty sure they are veg eaters and nothing to worry about, I leave them in tanks anyway, have had no problems.

 

[black angel]

Thats not a crane fly larvae. Crane flies lay eggs in soil and the young are grubs called leatherjackets.

dragonfly larvae look like this, the pic is at the bottom
http/home.att.net/~larvalbugbio/dragonfly.html


mayfly nymph
http/www.naturegrid.org.uk/pondexplorer/...y/maylarva.html

stonefly nymph
http/www.bugsurvey.nsw.gov.au/html/popup...sens_st-ny.html

damselfly nymph
http/www.bugsurvey.nsw.gov.au/html/popup..._tol_da-ny.html

all are pretty harmless to adult fish though dragonfly nymphs are capable of taking larger fry and small fish.

 

[Square]

95% sure it's dragonfly. Or was anyway I eventually found it and squished it Horrible thing to have to do! Thanks everyone who replied to my post. Happy halloween!

 

[Liam]

Thanks for the correction black angel, my friend assured me it was a crane fly nymph, when I sent him the pic, this is off topic but my pic looks like a damselfly nymph, all the live food I get comes from a little wildlife pond I have, never seen an adult damsel around but the link looks like it.