FoundMoney
Fish Crazy
I was doing a water change yesterday and a bit of a vacuum of the gravel. When I went to dump out the water in the sink I saw a little creature swimming around. I'd say it was about an inch long, and it was mostly tail. The tail took up about 2/3 of the body mass. The rest of the animal had six legs (I think) and a round bulbous head. The color was a light brown, but the body was almost translucent. The way it was swimming when I first saw it, I thought was some kind of fry. But after taking it out of the water it could crawl on its legs, although it seemed much more content in the water. My guess is that it was some kind of fly larva, as the head looked something like a fly.
Before dumping out the rest of the water, I examined the last quart or so of water in the bucket for more creatures. Sure enough I found two other animals. These were much smaller and looked at first like brine shrimp. However, this being a fresh water aquarium I highly doubt that. After further consideration, they most closely resembled mosquito larvae. I'm wondering how fly and mosquito larvae got in the tank in the first place?
Should I be concerned about these "nymphs" floating around in my fishtank? Is this something common in a tank that are usually eaten by fish? I guess the worst thing that could happen is that flies and mosquitos start coming out of the tank, but does the presence of insect larvae indicate some other kind of problem with the tank? What, if anything, should I do?
Before dumping out the rest of the water, I examined the last quart or so of water in the bucket for more creatures. Sure enough I found two other animals. These were much smaller and looked at first like brine shrimp. However, this being a fresh water aquarium I highly doubt that. After further consideration, they most closely resembled mosquito larvae. I'm wondering how fly and mosquito larvae got in the tank in the first place?
Should I be concerned about these "nymphs" floating around in my fishtank? Is this something common in a tank that are usually eaten by fish? I guess the worst thing that could happen is that flies and mosquitos start coming out of the tank, but does the presence of insect larvae indicate some other kind of problem with the tank? What, if anything, should I do?