Please help ID if this is a parasite

[michael lai]

Hi Baranne,
I have a couple of tanks at home and i have discover them twice. different tanks at different time. 1 of them was hiding under a flat piece of DW. The other built a nest on the tank's glass wall using leaves and debris they could find. Thought I saw spider web too.....like Ranma said, they ambush..any small critter silly enough to go near...they strike like mantis rushing out to grab the prey.They morphed into adult form in 2-3 weeks time cause I didn't see them after that.

[hwchoy]

Joe, I have good news for you. It is not a parasite.

however I think you might like to know that it is predator.

[ranmasatome]

Hi Baranne,
I have a couple of tanks at home and i have discover them twice. different tanks at different time. 1 of them was hiding under a flat piece of DW. The other built a nest on the tank's glass wall using leaves and debris they could find. Thought I saw spider web too.....like Ranma said, they ambush..any small critter silly enough to go near...they strike like mantis rushing out to grab the prey.They morphed into adult form in 2-3 weeks time cause I didn't see them after that.

Michael.. the ones that build "nest" homes may be a different kind of insect.. i suspect those are under the family of Trichoptera.. goggle it and see if i'm right... there are a vast majority of species under this family..but most of them build "nest" in the larval stage..
When an adult..they looks like moths but lack the tubular mouth parts that the moth and butterflies (Lepidoptera) have and instead of scales they have hairy wings.. more commonly known as caddisflies..

[baranne]

Joe, I have good news for you. It is not a parasite.

however I think you might like to know that it is predator.

Hi Choy,

I am not sure if I should take that as a good news or not...

[baranne]

Hi Baranne,
I have a couple of tanks at home and i have discover them twice. different tanks at different time. 1 of them was hiding under a flat piece of DW. The other built a nest on the tank's glass wall using leaves and debris they could find. Thought I saw spider web too.....like Ranma said, they ambush..any small critter silly enough to go near...they strike like mantis rushing out to grab the prey.They morphed into adult form in 2-3 weeks time cause I didn't see them after that.

Hi Michael,

I did not see it building nests as well, so I think what you have might be different like what ranma said.

[edinjapan]

Hi Michael,

I did not see it building nests as well, so I think what you have might be different like what ranma said.

If it was building a nest out of the debris on the bottom it was a caddis fly larvae, check out the picture below

http://www.fws.gov/r5crc/Salmon/work...c_creature.htm

[ranmasatome]

it doesnt always have to be at the bottom of the tank... thre are so many species and diverse methods of building in this family.