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Outside we have a man made pond of sorts made from a plastic horse trough... today I noticed it was FILLED with these gross larva looking things and I was wondering if it would be safe to feed them to my fish? or at least find out what they are.

they are dark blackish brown in color, and at first i thought they were planaria, or maybe tiny tadpoles, but they have legs and antennae like a mosquitoe larva? they're about 1/4 inch long i'd say and they swim very very fast and swirl around... and are extremely disgusting. any clues what they might be? i'd say they most closesly resemble large black planaria with lots of legs. I live in Massachusettes so it has to be something native to here.

i had second thoughts about feeding them to my fish because they are wild and might have parasites or something... but its like a whole pool of free fresh live food!

sounds like some kind of mosquito larva to me. can you get a good pic of one of them by any chance?

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"That's the trouble with political jokes in this country... they get elected!" -- Dave Lippman

I haven't had a problem feeding stuff from my horse tank to the fish. Usually I stick a couple white clouds or danios out there to keep the mosquito and gnat larvae down.

Whatever you do, look up dragonfly nymphs and make sure it's not those as they will wipe out all your fish.

Some research on the larvae will pay off well.
If you can't identify it, don't put it in your tank.
At best you've found live food at a great price


The Amazon Nut...

If you can get photos of these things, I'll have a stab at identifying them. If they're fish food, chances are good I'll be able to home in on that straight away. If they're potentially dangerous to your fish (e.g., Great Diving Beetle larvae or Dragonfly nymphs) then one of my Entomology Society colleagues, who specialises in aquatic insects, will be able to make at least a tentative identification. Remember of course that his expertise is in UK native insects, and that anything from another continent will probably result in a delay while he contacts some other experts further down the line!


Last edited by Calilasseia at 29-May-2005 16:56

Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Is this them?


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