ID on water creature

[duncan27]

alright, I was cleaning my pond today and found these little guys. Thought at first they were leeches. I know I have some of them in there because I have found some mixed with my blackworms when I was feeding my fish and newts.

I found about 7 of them on the roots of a hiyacynth (sp?) floating plant. upon closer look I saw they didn't move like leeches and had a triangular head with 2 eye pattern spots. I remember these from natural science class back in school but can't remember the name. Any help would be nice. the biggest one is about 1 cm long and glide through the water

It is fun playing with my pond. Find little critters here and there that I didn't expect like damsel fly larva and mantids hanging around it. I would love to find a hydra as I thought those were really cool back in my science class. But they are pretty small and I would probably miss them amongt the other things.

 

[duncan27]

AH HA Planaria!!!! ok guys, thanks. found the info. took some digging.

 

[arachyd]

You might want to offer some to the local biology teachers. I'm sure they'd appreciate it for their students.

 

[duncan27]

good idea. I know I really enjoyed them along with the other pond critters during natural science.

 

[froggyman]

try some fun experiments on him like cutting him in half and stuff

 

[Senses-Tingling]

Planaria are extremely bountiful and found in every pond and lake in the US (although I can't guarantee they are in the Great Salt Lake).
The hard thing about finding hydra is that they are usually very transparent. They sometimes have a tint to them, but many times they are clear. When pond water is put into an aquarium, it's easier to find hydra cause they attach themselves to the glass sides.

 

[duncan27]

might have to try that, I have an aqarium in the house that I sometimes transfer critter from the pond to observe better.

 

[Senses-Tingling]

Planaria are actually relatively easy to ID to species level. It can be fun too, once the slide dessicates a little and the worm slows down. Just make sure you get some good pics before the slide dessicates to the point where the planaria get crushed and spill their guts. You can add water to the slide by slowly adding water to the corner of the cover slide in order to keep them alive. Many of the planaria that I ID'd were correctly ID'd by their photos, long after they had expired.

 

[arachyd]

I've had hydra in my tropical fish aquaria and they look like a tiny sea anemone.

 

[duncan27]

how did you get them?? Just get lucky and they made it in piggyback on something?

I am sure that is how I got the planaria

 

[arachyd]

Probably on a snail or something. I can't really say I felt lucky. They were killing every newborn fry and I just could not get rid of them. I finally had to scrub everything and start over.

 

[duncan27]

lol, well that seems to be the way of it... you want em you can't find em.... you don't and guess what, there they are.