What's this in my daphnia culture?

[RonWill]

Folks, I've finally managed to get a few small dahnia cultures going but guess what I found while harvesting this morning.

This larvae-like worm is new to me. Anyone know whether it's friend or foe?

[A.Rashid]

Ronnie, for your info thats bloodworm cacoon after that transform if a mosquito.. and a very nice one indeed.. non blood sucking mosquito.

I saw it transform when I was about to feed the daphnias to my fishes.

[RonWill]

Rashid, are you sure? Under the magnifier, it doesn't look like bloodworm to me... and it isn't even 'red'

[zmzfam]

Ronnie,

Rashid is saying that whatever is in your culture is the empty casing of the bloodworm, after it has transformed into the midget fly.

You are saying that it is still moving? Perhaps some kind of nematodes?

[stormhawk]

Ron, depending on the size of them buggers, they can be anything from chironomid larvae (bloodworm and relatives), mosquito larvae or just the plain ol' rat-tailed maggots that we get in tubifex all the time.

On a 2nd look at the pic, they really do resemble them rat-tailed maggots. The black tip at the end is a characteristic of these maggoty buggers.

[turaco]

Ron, most likely maggot. You are using babana skin for your daphnia culture right? I saw lots of these guys when I didn't clean up my work place feeding area .

[RonWill]

Rashid & Zul, those are not casings but live whatchamacallit's. Otherwise, I wouldn't be thinking of feeding them to the fishes!

Jian Yang, the pic in this PDF file differs from what I'm looking at.

This site describes Rat-tailed maggot (common name) "as the larvae of the drone fly (Syrphidae: Eristalis tenax (L.)). The name refers to the maggot's long tail, which is actually a breathing tube, or siphon, used by the maggot to survive in very wet environments".

Gan, the culture with this larvae/maggots was not fed with banana skin, but yeast mix and other 'junk'.

[A.Rashid]

OIC, the wringglers are live and kicking huh... then I rest my case... I do not know what it is. Is it from the bag I gave you or you bought from Limbang?

[RonWill]

Guys,
I honestly don't recall the source of daphia starter in my culture but since I know killies also gorge on those big fat maggots found in contaminated microworm cultures, can these rat-tail (or whatever) be used as a food source?

[zmzfam]

can these rat-tail (or whatever) be used as a food source?

Never try, never know. Try it on your common killies first, if you want of course. BTW, what size do they come in?

[A.Rashid]

Definately not 8 inches eh Ronnie, if not Freddy will sure want it... heheheh

[stormhawk]

Sorry Ron the name was quite mis-leading. My initial thoughts where that these whitish maggots were the rat-tailed maggots. They're a larva of some kind but I have no idea for which insect. I've not fed these to my fish because I usually manually remove these and those fat "blackworms" I usually find in tubifex that I buy from the shops. They will wriggle slightly when caught in a grip of a tweezer.

[stormhawk]

Was checking through the web and came across some larvae pictures. These buggers might be larvae of biting midges. I'm not sure which species but whether they're good as a food source, I don't know. Try it out with the guppies.

[nonamethefish]

Sound like glassworms. Excellent food for pretty much anything.

[RonWill]

Sound like glassworms. Excellent food for pretty much anything.

Hi What's-your-name "nonamethefish",
Welcome to the forum. You should have noticed that we address each other and sign off in our real names. IRS doesn't track who's in arrears while they're in this forum, so how do I address you?

I did a brief google and not convinced, tried dogpile.com for more images. The closest 'glassworms' image that resemble those in my culture;
Glassworms: A Native Food For Native Fish by Konrad Schmidt, a publication of the North American Native Fishes Association, where it describes, "Glassworms or phantom midge larvae (Chaoborus americanus) are the immature stage of a non-biting insect that resembles a mosquito"

There're more specimens I kept in separate container, hoping that someone can volunteer to take closeup shots at microscopic level... anyone?

BTW, "nonamethefish", are you feeding glassworms to your fishes?

[stormhawk]

Ron, I'll bring my cam along this weekend. Should be able to get a better macro shot. By the way, get a better magnifier, we might get better results that way. I don't think its a glassworm though because as I read somewhere, they occur only in cool waters.

With regards to feeding glassworms to fish, some species of fish, like the dwarf gouramis (Colisa spp.) have been known to choke on glassworms and die. This reference is in the anabantoid book by Jorg Vierke, published by TFH in the 70's.

[whuntley]

All this talk of glassworms in SG surprises me.

My impression was that the typical larvae we call glassworms are a lot like transparent mosquito larvae but have a more horizontal posture in mid-water as they live underneath the ice in really cold areas. They are collected through holes in the ice, and aren't red because they need less hemoglobin than bloodworms in their colder (hence better oxygenated) water.

They are very predatory on smaller fry, but make superb food for grown killifish.

BTW, I have actually watched a regular mosquito larvae grab and kill a small baby killy, too. It must not be very common, as I haven't heard of it from others.

Wright

[nonamethefish]

Sound like glassworms. Excellent food for pretty much anything.

Hi What's-your-name "nonamethefish",
Welcome to the forum. You should have noticed that we address each other and sign off in our real names. IRS doesn't track who's in arrears while they're in this forum, so how do I address you?

I did a brief google and not convinced, tried dogpile.com for more images. The closest 'glassworms' image that resemble those in my culture;
Glassworms: A Native Food For Native Fish by Konrad Schmidt, a publication of the North American Native Fishes Association, where it describes, "Glassworms or phantom midge larvae (Chaoborus americanus) are the immature stage of a non-biting insect that resembles a mosquito"
Thanks Ron for the welcome! I'll go by Joseph.
There're more specimens I kept in separate container, hoping that someone can volunteer to take closeup shots at microscopic level... anyone?

BTW, "nonamethefish", are you feeding glassworms to your fishes?

Thanks for the welcome Ron! I'll go by Joseph.

For the glassworms, I used a few briefly when they appeared in a outdoor daphnia culture. The fish loved them. But fish love bloodworms so the difference may not be too significant.

As for choking, I've had that happen with sticks, hair algae, and even pine tree leaves(which I would no longer reccomend by a pond due to the leaves shape acting as backward pointing barbs). I'd like to think of choking as an unpreventable accident unless you have a lot of foresight.