Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

they swim free like a mosquito larvae mostly on the surface. no legs. they look kind of like red underwater legless caterpillars.

hopefully they're not anchorworms as these sound nasty. anyone familiar with anchor worms?

My fish have had anchor worms before. They are white to clear. and look like little streamers coming out of a pimple on your fish. I've never seen them -except- attached to a fish.

How about the larva of a midge? Look towards the bottom of the page here
http://www.pbase.com/tmurray74/midges_chironomids
There's a red one you might like. I don't know if they swim, but it's red and segmented.

oooo, here's a close up
http://www.troutnut.com/specimen/388

Biofarmer, if you can access a library (I can't seem to find it online), look for a book called "Australian Freshwater Life" by W.D. Williams. It is an excellent reference book for all Australian freshwater invertebrates. My copy is over 20 years old, but I use it all the time to identify stuff. It has detailed identification keys.
If you can't get it, PM me and we can work through it to id your "red wormy thing"

thanks for the replies,

i had a look at your link janet and looks like you may be on the money. i found this pic which looks pretty identical to what i have. glad its not likely to be anchorworm. here is the pic:

Well Partner, you have a free foodsource. The horse are back in the corral, and the oil well is fixed. My work here is done. (Rides off in to sunset.)

Ah Janet - you're bordering on being a legend

We have those red wrigglers here, they appear in the stock troughs in the paddock. I don't know what they are but they must the the larvae of some sort of insect. Maybe I should catch a few and see if they hatch/pupate, maybe we will know for sure what they are then.

Nova

i love it, all good things

Love all your little creatures!

Can't tell you what any of them are, but isn't it great to see what 'pops up' when it has the chance!

Mother nature is an amazing thing! lol

We had some more of them appear in the dogs water bowl while we where away on holidays. Not sure what they are yet, but the tropicals and the goldies loved them.

Nova

Yep the red things are bloodworms (midge larvae)
The jellyfish/barnical things (good guess btw!) look to me like the commensual (eat at the same place) critters that live on crayfish (espec our destructors in creeks around here)
They don't actually eat the crayfish, and in some studys crayfish with them did much better than those without them. I imagine that some have come in with some crayfish and found the place livable. They are not harmful but not many fish eat them at all!
Anyway not a 100% positive ID but ya have a look for crayfish parasites and should find a pic or 2.. but ya they are not bad parasites hey, if anything they be nuetral!

just saw this post. good info Don.

i had crayfish in the tub around the time. the supplier was questionable to say the least. had a small tank pilled up, way overstocked many dead. if i knew then what i know now i would never have bought from them.

from what i gather most crayfish parasites are more of a presentational problem then functional. hence the reason freshly moulted crays are used for market. they may not cause harm to the cray but they do the market price. by the sounds of it you know your stuff though.

do you feed fish for a living?

I used to.
Now a hobbyist again for a bit.
Looking for a nice job in fish world.....
At the moment I work for surfcom which is a radio command for the surflife savers.. helps lias them all with choppers and abulances... watch all the cameras fer people drowning... very boring and copious chances to stuff up.
But ya have fed some fish in me day pallets of ridleys lol