twinkles Posted August 25, 2009 Report Share Posted August 25, 2009 i just went to feed the angels, and saw this crawling on the bottom of the tank It was very disturbing Gingerly netted it out and chucked it in a dish, help? Its like a centipede, but i don't think it is, and what was it doing in my tank? It was crawling round but now i've taken it out it looks dead :-? Most frightening thing i've ever seen in a tank. I like centipedes, i can pick them up no problem, but seeing this creature in there freaked me out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twinkles Posted August 25, 2009 Author Report Share Posted August 25, 2009 also it doesn't crawl, it waved its legs around but smooches its body foward like a worm.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BikBok Posted August 25, 2009 Report Share Posted August 25, 2009 looks liek soem sort of larval stage of a fly perhaps.. not housefly .. but something similar to a caddis or mayfly .. it's not any of those (they are cold water) but that's what it reminds me of. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twinkles Posted August 25, 2009 Author Report Share Posted August 25, 2009 eewww i hope there's no more i'll never feel the same looking into that tank again it has a tight hood too, can't see anything falling in... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fmxmatt Posted August 25, 2009 Report Share Posted August 25, 2009 You'd love marine tanks then, all sorts of greeblies once its established lol It looks like an earwig mixed with a centipede, but the fact that it died when it was out of water is strange Will be interested to find out what it really is. When I first was setting up my marine tank I put some dead coral rock in there, and then I saw this large spider floating around shortly after, hahaha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twinkles Posted August 25, 2009 Author Report Share Posted August 25, 2009 i wouldn't mind if it was in a marine tank, its just the fact thats its not supposed to be there and i don't know what it is It might have been dying from water, but kept wriggling for a bit after it took it out? Didn't seem like that though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
livingart Posted August 25, 2009 Report Share Posted August 25, 2009 possibly a beetle larvae antiporus, coptotomus maybe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stella Posted August 25, 2009 Report Share Posted August 25, 2009 Dobsonfly larva. With those huge manidbles they are colloquially called 'toebiters'. They eat other stream invertebrates. They only have six actual legs, like all insects. The extra 'legs' are gills. They live for 2-3 years in water then pupate in damp hollows out of the water. The adult looks like stonefly adults and only lives a few days. The female can have a wingspan of 7cm and the males are half this. A photo of an adult: http://thenewzealandsite.com/photo.php/1794/ I SOOOOO want to see one! How on earth did it get in there? Live plants/food? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stella Posted August 25, 2009 Report Share Posted August 25, 2009 (oh and native to NZ, there is only one species: Archichauliodes diversus) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SamH Posted August 25, 2009 Report Share Posted August 25, 2009 Better not have sent me one Twinkles Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenix44 Posted August 25, 2009 Report Share Posted August 25, 2009 eww. make sure it does not sit in your ear. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SamH Posted August 25, 2009 Report Share Posted August 25, 2009 eww. make sure it does not sit in your ear. *Shivers* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twinkles Posted August 25, 2009 Author Report Share Posted August 25, 2009 thats exactly what it is, just been googling pics of dobsonfly lavae now i can stop being disturbed by it :bounce: i know where it would have come from, the piece of wood in the tank was fished out of the bottom of the river, to big to boil so i just scrubbed it well and chucked it in. Its been in there a couple of months Goes to show creepy crawlies like that can sneak in and survive in a tank Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twinkles Posted August 25, 2009 Author Report Share Posted August 25, 2009 looked just like this one and about 4cm long don't worry sam, different tank Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aquila Posted August 25, 2009 Report Share Posted August 25, 2009 They are pretty cool. We get them in for the aquatic insect section in one of the labs I help TA for Animal Diversity. My favourite trick for the students is putting in a thin poker right into the jaws so they clamp down on it..and then lifting it out of the water! The thing will hold on like that for ages! Go Megaloptera! hehe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heir Posted August 25, 2009 Report Share Posted August 25, 2009 Dobsonfly larva. With those huge manidbles they are colloquially called 'toebiters'. They eat other stream invertebrates. They only have six actual legs, like all insects. The extra 'legs' are gills. They live for 2-3 years in water then pupate in damp hollows out of the water. The adult looks like stonefly adults and only lives a few days. The female can have a wingspan of 7cm and the males are half this. A photo of an adult: http://thenewzealandsite.com/photo.php/1794/ I SOOOOO want to see one! How on earth did it get in there? Live plants/food? Would love to forage trough a riverbed with you one day and pick your brains. Have seen a Dobsonfly in real life their wing texture is quite hard to describe... Kind of like... super thin paper/plastic. Would make good fodder for my Butterflyfish I would imagine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twinkles Posted August 25, 2009 Author Report Share Posted August 25, 2009 Would love to forage trough a riverbed with you one day and pick your brains. ditto i spend hours staring into the river and the swamp, sometimes with a magnifying glass, at all the tiny creatures who live there, but have no idea what most of them are. It fascinates me that such amazing diversity exists in little pockets of water, un-noticed by anyone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stella Posted August 25, 2009 Report Share Posted August 25, 2009 Goes to show creepy crawlies like that can sneak in and survive in a tank Most home aquaria have a selection of critters that were not intentionally put in there, and most owners are unaware they are there. Someone did a study of this in NZ and I can't quite remember the numbers, but I think petshops had a higher number of unintentional critters and some were previously not known to be present in NZ, making them more of a border-control issue than previously realised. I came home with two dobsonfly larvae and chucked them in a tank with some feisty kokopu who had never seen one before. One was bitten and spat out, and the fish ignored them after that - very odd! I wonder if they have some natural inclination to avoid them? Apparently the pupae are excellent 'flies' for trout, but not the larvae. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aquila Posted August 25, 2009 Report Share Posted August 25, 2009 Most home aquaria have a selection of critters that were not intentionally put in there, and most owners are unaware they are there. Someone did a study of this in NZ and I can't quite remember the numbers, but I think petshops had a higher number of unintentional critters and some were previously not known to be present in NZ, making them more of a border-control issue than previously realised. I came home with two dobsonfly larvae and chucked them in a tank with some feisty kokopu who had never seen one before. One was bitten and spat out, and the fish ignored them after that - very odd! I wonder if they have some natural inclination to avoid them? Apparently the pupae are excellent 'flies' for trout, but not the larvae. Maybe their exoskeletons are too tough? Or maybe the larva just clamped down Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twinkles Posted August 25, 2009 Author Report Share Posted August 25, 2009 i was suprised that the angels hadn't found it and eaten it, its roughly the shape of a bloodworm and they are pigs. Maybe they got nipped Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stella Posted August 25, 2009 Report Share Posted August 25, 2009 Would love to forage trough a riverbed with you one day and pick your brains. hehe Really I am just self-taught over the last few years, and now know good places to look things up The Trout's Larder (book) has a very accessible guide to the main groups of stream critters, with basic drawings and photographs. Have seen a Dobsonfly in real life their wing texture is quite hard to describe... Kind of like... super thin paper/plastic. Awesome! I imagine they are like stoneflies. I had to pin stoneflies and mayflies for my entomology paper last semester - evil things! So damned thin and squishy!! Look amazing under the microscope though. If anyone is interested in learning various major groups of native fish, inverts and plants, there are some rather good large posters available free here: http://limsoc.rsnz.org/index.php/publications/posters/ The fish and inverts ones are great, but the plants one is a little vague (guess I am not really into plants... it may work for you) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heir Posted August 25, 2009 Report Share Posted August 25, 2009 [quote name="Aquilam_11 Maybe their exoskeletons are too tough? Or maybe the larva just clamped down Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenix44 Posted August 25, 2009 Report Share Posted August 25, 2009 enable bb code in your posts heir Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stella Posted August 25, 2009 Report Share Posted August 25, 2009 and make sure the codes are complete, you deleted the ] that should be at the end of Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cricketman Posted September 1, 2009 Report Share Posted September 1, 2009 seen a few of them doing MCI scores in the rivers down here for tech... one turned into a finger biter for me... :roll: they have a good grip! they also eat anything else in teh rivers, you have to put them into a meths jar straight away or else theyll eat everything in the container! and even then they take a while to die, whilst still trying to chomp any other invert in the vicinity! very cool under a microscope though! might try get some photos when i do some MCIs at Living Art, i think the polytech has a microscope with a camera port?? :-? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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