[JanS]

Today when I was pulling some algae out of a deep dark recess this "thing" came out and almost ran up my arm..... :shock:
It looks like a big white spider, but it has a head almost as big as it's body, and bigger eyes.
I took a couple of poor photos to see if anyone has any idea of what it might be. I had glare on the glass and some algae, but maybe you can get some sort of idea from them.
It doesn't seem to be bothering anything in the tank - I even have tiny baby shrimp and they seem to be okay.

Thanks for any insight.

 

[JanS]

I wish I could have gotten a better photo, but it was limited before it went back down to it's hiding spot.

Yes, I got a surprise plant package (which I'm not real fond of - I like to know what I'm getting) from someone on Aquabid, along with some Zebra Oto's about 3 or 4 weeks ago, and that's the only place I can figure it came from. I rinsed the plants, but that was it.
The thing is about twice the size of adult Amano's and I think it has 4 legs.
I'll have to look up some photos of dragonfly larva and see if they're similar.

 

[JanS]

Thanks for the help. It seems to be unanymous that it's probably dragon fly larva. Ack, lets hope it's not a cockroach...
I guess I'll get it out of there ASAP since I only have little fish and shrimp in that tank. Oh goody, now I get to stick my arm back in the deep thickets to try to rouse it out again... :shock:
I have a running tank that's empty, so I think I'm going to stick it in there to see what it turns in to.

BTW, is this a common thing to hitchhike in aquarium plants? It's a first for me, anyway....

 

[JanS]

I just thought I'd see what it's growth rate, and habits are since I have the empty tank (if I could find it again...).

I used to santize all of my plants, then I kept hearing it isn't necessary so I just started rinsing them off. I'm going to start sanitizing again now, especially if PG says others have been getting them as hitchhikers.
I do/did/ use Lime-it and it seemed to do the trick. It just takes a ton of rinsing to get the white spots off.

I'm almost 99% sure I know where this hitchhiker came from, so luckily I only put those plants in this one tank.

 

[JanS]

Oh wow, great pics! Eeew though..... I'm not squeamish about stuff like that (well snakes are my only phobia), but it kind of gives me the willies to have something like that in the tank.
I might wind up tearing the tank down to find it too since I've been trying every day since posting this and can't find it.... Sob.....
I should have grabbed it that day instead of taking pics.

Update: I was down there poking around with my long handled trimming scissors and found it - please let this be the only one..... :shock:

Anyway I took a couple of pics just to confirm that it is actually a Dragonfly larva (sure looks like it to me though)....

 

[JanS]

Would Mbuna's tear it apart? I would enjoy seeing something this ugly get killed.

Well, I wound up impaling it with my scissors to catch it if that's any consolation... :wink: