What's that little transparent creature ?!!!

[patrickttg]

Hi Pll,

I would like advise on my mini tank (45CM X 20CM X 20CM) for 8 Shrimp + 6 Mirco resboras tank. The tank have a 3 spices of hardly plants, no soil, DIY CO2 and one small internal filter.

I recently saw some very tiny near transparent tapoles like creatures on the surface of my tank and was quite worried can anyone advise what this is and how can I get rid of it, will this be a problem for the shrimps and fishes in it ??

Thank you

Pat

[budak]

unless they are mosquito larva (quite unlikely) or propagated from some live food, I don't think they are any worry... the most likely ID is shrimp larvae. Just leave them alone, and you should see your shrimp population increasing...

[BPT]

That reminds me that twice I found such creature in my pond. One specimen about 1 cm length is like the tadpole you decribed. It has elongated, transparent, and slender body with 6 legs (I think ). The triangular shape head is mantis like, and the tail similarly like shrimp fan. This little creature swims like a fish, wiggling its body.
The other larger specimen seems to be more adult form of the first creature. It resembles more of a cockroach where the cartilige segments are more visible. For sure though this ain't no shrimp.

[patrickttg]

Hi there,
The first "creature" you mentioned I too saw that before, it came with some plant I brought... seem to has some sting somewhere. I think it may be the Branchinecta conservatio or Fairy shrimp ( Pic found in the AQ Shrimp guide )

The second one no idea what it is.

Back to my tank, the tiny creatures are nearly invisiable if you don't look closely. I think there is some tapoles shape one, some flea like ( Moving quite fast ). The snails population is blooming too in that tank.

Btw can anyone advise me how a malayan fries look like ? Cos I just brought some and it seem a few is ready to sprawn.

Thanks

Pat

[crandf]

By the time you see your 1st malan shrimp fry, it will have grown to look just like their parents scaled down to about the size of this fullstop.