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Post by parker002 on Aug 9, 2013 8:56:09 GMT -5
My waterfall has built-in filtration - water is pushed into the bottom of the basin and then up through the filter media until it eventually spills over the top. I'm used to pulling up the plastic grates and finding 1000's of clumps of snail eggs. However, yesterday I pulled them up and found none. In their place, I found some strange little paper-like cones. At first glance, I would say they look like some kind of freshwater crustacean, like a barnacle or something. However, most of them are empty, so I think they are some kind of insect egg casing. They're firmly attached - they don't just wash off and even scraping isn't highly effective. The grate that they are on sits underneath all the filter media and is exposed directly to the outflow hose of the main pump. So they have no light, are submerged in almost a foot of water, and sit in an area where water is moving at around 4000gph. Any ideas? Here's some pics:
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Post by devonjohnsgard on Aug 9, 2013 12:00:43 GMT -5
This is kinda a hard one. Are you able to see if there are anything in the pond that would have come from the shell? If you were able to find that, it might solve the question. I have heard of placing a piece of lettuce in the pond next to shells like this and see if they attach to it. This might help with figuring out what comes from these shells. Good luck and get us posted.
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Post by parker002 on Aug 9, 2013 15:44:36 GMT -5
I did find a couple that still had something in them - it has to be an insect of some kind. 2 body segments, fuzzy white antennae.
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Post by devonjohnsgard on Aug 9, 2013 17:22:43 GMT -5
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Post by parker002 on Aug 10, 2013 15:57:24 GMT -5
I have not observed them swimming. They're brown though and look almost like ants. They are in the size range - maybe 2mm long.
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Post by saw on Aug 12, 2013 12:58:40 GMT -5
Hi Parker, I did a little bit of research and I think I may have figured out what it may be. It looks almost like a tube fly pupa. Here is a link of where I got my information; www.seanet.com/~leska/Online/Guide.html
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Post by parker002 on Aug 13, 2013 12:14:11 GMT -5
THANKS!
The picture of the black fly (simuliid) pupa looks exactly like it.
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Post by parker002 on Aug 13, 2013 12:24:16 GMT -5
Yep, after further searching, I'm certain they are black flies. Good news is they are harmless to the fish, bad news is that the adult flies BITE. Fortunately, the fish snack on the larvae.
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Post by saw on Aug 13, 2013 13:37:28 GMT -5
Great! I am sure your fish will keep the population down.
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Post by goldenpuon on Aug 18, 2013 13:59:22 GMT -5
I'm glad you figured it out!
Renee
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