Little red larvae things in sump

[Michael E.]

Found a few of these floating on the surface of my sump. They wiggle a little bit, but don’t actually submerge. Any idea? They don’t seem like mosquitos to me….hopefully not

 

[Michael E.]

Bump

 

[JasTheReefer]

Found a few of these floating on the surface of my sump. They wiggle a little bit, but don’t actually submerge. Any idea? They don’t seem like mosquitos to me….hopefully not

I have something super similar I just discovered but they are swimming in my tank! Mine are smaller tho maybe, unsure you have very clear pictures but looks just like some of the things swimming! Some look just that and some look they have tons of legs!

 

[oceanleaf]

If it mainly stays at the surface, then it's likely an insect larva.
A mosquito larva is a possibility but very unlikely based on the morphology.
It's possibly a larva of a saltmarsh midge in the pupa stage.
These insects are quite rare outside of saltmarshes. Did you introduce a mangrove or macroalgae by any chance?

 

[Cnidoblast]

It's a dipteran larvae of some description - see if you can feed them to a omnivorous fish maybe?

 

[Michael E.]

If it mainly stays at the surface, then it's likely an insect larva.
A mosquito larva is a possibility but very unlikely based on the morphology.
It's possibly a larva of a saltmarsh midge in the pupa stage.
These insects are quite rare outside of saltmarshes. Did you introduce a mangrove or macroalgae by any chance?

Thanks for the response! No macro or mangroves.

 

[Michael E.]

It's a dipteran larvae of some description - see if you can feed them to a omnivorous fish maybe?

Thanks. This gives me a pretty good place to start. The fish do nip that them.