Interesting things found in your aquarium

[shkote]

Have you found something interesting living in (or invading) your aquarium? 

While doing water changes this weekend, I decided to snip off a piece of guppy grass from my mutt guppy tank and take a closer look at the bryozoan colony living with them. They aren't crazy about being moved and close up for a bit, but open back up and fan around once the water settles. I can't confirm they are plumatella repens, as I've read they are incredibly hard to identify, but that's what I've been calling them. 

And a bonus photo of a little alien nymph hitchhiker in one of my old tanks. 

What do you have coexisting with your fish and inverts? 

[TheDukeAnumber1]

I also had bryozoan for a while.

 

And I had waterlily aphids for a bit too.

 

[Chandra]

Aquariums keep surprising me. When I have setup my first planted tank, after the tank cycled I found a mysterious species moving across my aquarium.

I panicked but I found it was a damselfly nymph. Its usually a pest that comes from plants. It could prey on fish so got rid of it.

 

 

When I was setting my second tank, I ordered plants from another vendor for carpeting plants in mat size.

To my surprise when I opened the peat, I found egg like balls and I was shocked again. The seller couldn't tell me what they were and why they were there.

People told me they are eggs and what not but it turned out to be fertilizer. So funny!

[JerseyBundy]

Found a Leech (i think). Lights came on and this ugly thing was on my glass.  Its gone now. 

[shkote]

@ChandraMy dragonfly nymph was a hitchhiker from plants shipped from the other side of the country. Cute little critter, but unfortunately it was a shrimp tank it invaded and took out half the colony before I noticed it. I moved the colony rather than breaking down the tank and put larger fish in and never did find anymore of them. 

@TheDukeAnumber1What happened to your bryozoan colony? Did they end up dying out, or did you remove them? I put this colony back into the tank, I'm enjoying watching their little fans waving through the water, and how they react to fish being too close. They don't seem to reproduce very quickly so I don't see it as a takeover situation. 

@JerseyBundy Of all the creepy crawlies I have encountered in my tanks over the decades, Leeches are by far my least favorite. Glad you were able to get it out. 

 

[TheDukeAnumber1]

@Lynze I enjoyed their presence. They lasted for several months with a colony in the corner and smaller colonies on wood and anubias nana petite. I was having hair algae issues on a large piece of wood that became more maintenance than it was worth so I removed it and switched things around. Shortly after that I stopped seeing them around.

[Eclipse]

I had a moth just living on top of my floating plants. Don't know how it got in there but apparently some moth larvae can be aquatic. I'm sure it got eaten by my betta eventually. 

[Errk25]

I collected some plants from our local waterways for my 150 gallon gold fish stock tank pond.  Hyacinth, frog bit, and duckweed. After a week or two I noticed some little fish in the pond. Thought they were maybe mosquito fish that had hitchhiked in with the plants as eggs or fry. As they got bigger I could tell they were common carp. There ended up being six if them. 

[ADMWNDSR83]

36 minutes ago, Errk25 said:

I collected some plants from our local waterways for my 150 gallon gold fish stock tank pond.  Hyacinth, frog bit, and duckweed. After a week or two I noticed some little fish in the pond. Thought they were maybe mosquito fish that had hitchhiked in with the plants as eggs or fry. As they got bigger I could tell they were common carp. There ended up being six if them. 

I'd give it a few months, then use frosted mini-wheats on a small barbless hook and have some fun.  But maybe that's the fisherman in me showing through! 😉