dnc15s unknown critter

DRC Archive General Saltwater Discussion
1

Tied in from another thread.

Not a huge deal, but I wanted to make it clear that fish lice and isopods are a bit different. Fish lice are practically clear and flat(kind of like flat worms). They are just about impossible to see on fish until they are removed.(often through fresh water dips) Parasitic isopods are 3Demensial almost like a terrestrial pill bug or rolley polly. Often when an ispods gets on a fish there is a bulge(below or above the skin).

Sorry I didn’t get a chance to look at it last night. It was Friday night and I needed to spend time with my woman who was going to be out of town for the weekend.(to pick up our new cat :slight_smile: )

I will take a closer look and get photos now. Meanwhile can you still see the critters moving in the water at all? When you see them moving is it just the water current(power heads) pushing things around or are they moving on there on? Do they seem to be walking across the rock with out leaving the surface or do they seem to be swimming around and landing on the rock to rest? Like I said they really looked like terrestrial insect larvae to me which may have come off the newspaper it was packed in. If I was sure it was terrestrial and didn’t have the tools to look closer I would say it was an isopod though. Let me look closer now.

Jon

2

Here are some images of the animal. We can ask a couple of people to take a look at it, but I would first like to know if the animal is in fact alive in a marine environment. I don’t know if you were 100% sure you saw them moving on there own in the tank or if they were just moving around in the water current. We can ask an invertebrate taxonomist to take a look at it or a person who studies isopods for a living or maybe even a few entomologist.(I have several contacts for all of the above) but I would rather not bother them until I have more information.

The isopod I dealt with several years back lived in a smaller container then the one you brought to the store for months and he was larger. None of the animals you handed me were alive. I didn’t know if you had left them out in the car while at work.(freezing temps would kill most tropical inverts whither terrestrial or aquatic).

The link to pics.

Jon

3

looking at the pics on your site it looks like an insect larva to me… but I am in no way positive by any means, nor an expert. I know we discussed at the store that maybe some insect landed on the rock in some time during transport and may have left the eggs… pictures sure do look more like insect larva rather than something else.

Then again it could be my old eyes and lack of knowledge… verdict_in

Additional specimens actually living in the marine environment rather then dead specimens would change my opinion.

4

That’s exactly what I said when I first saw them, but I think they said they saw them moving in the water. Still waiting for that to be confirmed.

5

If they are insect larvae, or pupae, that doesn’t mean they weren’t brought in on the rock. There are some insects that live in saltwater as juvies. That’s why we use midge flies while fishing saltwater.

6

[quote=“Jocephus, post:5, topic:1057”]
If they are insect larvae, or pupae, that doesn’t mean they weren’t brought in on the rock. There are some insects that live in saltwater as juvies. That’s why we use midge flies while fishing saltwater.[/quote]

This is true, and I think it looks like they could very well be insect larvae, probably diptera (fly). I don’t have a key for dipteran larvae or I would try and find out what they are, at least try to key them to family.

7

I had a feeling Ento_Reefer would be posting on this thread at some point, lol. Still haven’t heard from dnc15 though…

8

[quote=“Gordonious, post:7, topic:1057”]
I had a feeling Ento_Reefer would be posting on this thread at some point, lol. Still haven’t heard from dnc15 though… [/quote]
Umm check the thread above yours. Your a psychic minus 1 hour, 10 min, and 10 seconds :stuck_out_tongue:

9

looks like a rice crispy to me…

10

dnc15 do you want the container back that these things came in? Or should I trash it?

11

Hey Jon sorry I havent had time to get on the computer. I do want container. I think they were dead not sure but almost 100% that they were dead. Sorry about taking so long…