Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi all, brand new to the forum so forgive my intrusion without much introduction. I don't have an aquaponics system, although I hope to one day have a good ebb/flow setup. I'm here because this seems like the most logical place to find some help identifying whatever alien species this may be.

For background, I trim random plants from time to time and set the clippings in a rock crevice in the waterfall of my small pond so they will root. I recently did this with some potato ivy and I actually left it there much longer than usual. I pulled them out today and there were little tapered tubes with these fang like appendages in the openings. They appear not alive and hollow, like perhaps they were some sort of molt for an insect or something. The tapered shape makes me think mosquito, but I've never seen them attached to anything or in flowing water.

If you guys have ideas, please let me know. I've googled without much luck. I'll try to attach some pics if I can figure out how on this forum (appears link only unless we have personal repository on the site)

Thanks,
David

Yep, forget the name of them, they are a harmless bug in water, I've always had them in my systems attached to the inside of drains and pipework etc.. Nothing to worry about..

I found a few hundred larvae clinging to the lip of my waterfall this morning. About an 1/8" long. They looked like a leach with a pincer on the head end. Any idea what they are?

1/8" is pretty small but usually they are some sort of fly or gnat larvae. Black fly larvae are really common attached to rocks in flowing water but they are larger than (at least the ones I've seen).