Fresh ecosphere from a pond nearby. Built it today. So far I have seen the following critters:
- An extremely high density of daphnia
- Tubifex
- Ostracods
- Blood worms
- Copepods
- Very small snails (unsure of species)
- At least one hyphydrus ovatus
And I have several of these guys. They're quite common. Almost always at least one in view. They come in many different sizes. They stay still for a while, then dart forward. I'm worried it's a predator… Can anyone help ID?
by Objective_Emu_7542
5 Comments
Forgot to mention the phantom midges in my list – they’re even in this video lol
Remove them unless you’re aerating. Are you dealing the jars? You should very slowly and gradually seal and jarrarium/ecosphere by the way, allow the habitat to adapt and reduce massive die-off and subsequent off gassing.
Looks like damselfly to me. Predatory so they usually don’t play well in small setups. I would personally recommend removal just because they will probably eat everything else.
Doesn’t look like any species I’ve seen! But quite similar…
It is not! This is a larval mayfly and it is not predatory. The frilly bits along either side of the body are gills, and that is not where a damselfly’s are located. The long tail filaments are also absent in damselflies, they have paddle-shaped gills there instead.
I’m trained in benthic macroinvertebrate ID for ecological surveying 🙂