Tadpole Like "fry" Appearing In Tank But Have No Idea Who They

[maddox]

Hey guys,
 
Over the past month or so, every now and then I keep seeing tadpole like fish, very very small randomly appearing in my tank and then eaten by my platy. Is there anyone who can tell me what the heck they may be? I know my endler guppy had two babies recently and I've placed them in a separate container in a tank, and those are significantly bigger and I can tell them easily, where as these "tadpoles" I have no idea.
 
I have two ghost shrimp, one adult sized cobra endler guppy, one 4-5 month old cobra endler guppy, and two different type of platy.
 
If anyone can give me any insight I would appreciate it. My only speculation is that it may be from a mosquito or insect that laid its eggs in my tank since I'm in Florida and its humid here most of the time.
 

 

[ncguppy830]

ok well mosquito larvae is red, so what color is it? how does it swim?

 

[Chad]

We really need a photo if you can capture one to take a picture that would be great.

 

[maddox]

It swims exactly like tadpoles do and has the same color as a guppy fry is. The way they look like is the head appears black / dark, and the rest is the color of the guppy fry (grayish?). Sorry if this may seem offensive, but basically if you've ever seen how sperm move in grade school during health class, kind of wiggle move, that's how they move.
 
I tried taking a recording with my camera, but boy was it impossible to make anything out. I put them in a separate container outside the tank, caught about 7 of them thinking I could save them but within minutes 3 of them stopped moving and subsequently, I found gnats inside the container out of nowhere. I took the 3 gnats out and saw a 4th death so I ended up just  putting them back in the tank since it did them no good for me trying to separate them. I know I must sound like a complete newbie and yes I am, but I tried googling as much as possible on this and got nowhere. There's no website out there that shows you stages of fish fry from birth to adult. I know there's a wide variety, but no visual of it on the more common ones.
 
I've been seeing these guys randomly come out more frequently on one side of the tank but I do frequent water changes so I figure wherever there nest is would've been sucked up by now but I guess not. If I collect them again I'll try to get a good video shot of them. This has definitely been going on randomly for more than a month now.

 

[ncguppy830]

hmmm im stumped, saying there that small though a good chance there insect larvae.

 

[Chad]

That certainly sounds like tadpoles. I've raised them since I was a kid and that's about the best way to describe the movement. I suppose it's possible they hitchhiked or some eggs did. There are several species with some dry season habits so it might be possible.