What are these little creatures in my pond?

Question

Some little creatures have appeared in my garden pond...just under 1cm in length, small head with feathery gills, long thin body and slightly forked tail (like a swallow)...just curious to know what they are...they disappear under water when a shadow appears over the pond

Answer 1

Sounds more like Mosquito larvae than tadpoles - particularly at this point in the 'summer' (assuming you are in the UK).

Answer 2

Id think they would be an aquatic invertebrate, long thin body and feathery gills makes me think possibly fairy shrimp see the link and scroll to anostraca)

if thats not it, be great if you could get a photo or draw a sketch, or better still collect one and ill guide you through an id key

-a more common thing would be mayfly larvae, but i wouldnt call those long and thin and they have 3 fine tails, stoneflies have forked cerci, but are generally indicative of clean running water, not still ponds,

a diversity of aquatic invertebrates can be healthy things to have in your pond, as long as they are in balance ie its not just all culicid (mosquito ) larvae-

http://www.aquatax.ca/BugGuide.html- see the fairy shrimp, they are the closest things to sea monkeys i reckon.....

alternately some form of dipteran (fly ) larvae - where are the gills located? (head/thorax/abdomen), do they have 6 x segmented legs?,

Answer 3

Mosquito larvae.

We used to call them whirlygigs, because of the way they move!

Answer 4

I think they might be mosquito larvae...

Do they sit there just below the surface as if breathing?

If so then get rid. Unless you feel they'll be nice food for a bird in the future or nice to feed on you when they're older  ;-)

Answer 5

Tadpoles

A tadpole (also known as a pollywog, polliwog or polywag) is the wholly aquatic larval stage in the life cycle of an amphibian.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tadpole

Tadpoles can be found in the Rosliston ponds also 'toadpoles' and 'newtpoles'. Hundreds of eggs are laid because only a few will survive because of the many predators feeding on them.

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=h...

Answer 6

Mosquito larvae and pupae breath air just like we do. They do not have gills.   Tadpoles have gills but are not easy to see at first glance and may have forked tails from mutation or genetic malformations.  My guess is that the animals you are looking at are either tadpoles or some other sort of aquatic amphibian.  

Answer 7

Given that they have forked tails I don't believe that they are tadpoles (tadpoles don't have forked tails).

Sounds more like more like some kind of larva to me - have a look at this PDF document (you'll need Acrobat Reader to view it) which contains pictures of various kinds of pond life, it may help:

http://www.gisbornesc.vic.edu.au/kla/jan...

Answer 8

I had something like that in my childrens paddling pool after leaving it for a few weeks. We looked up what they were and I think they are some kind of ceature that eventually turns into a kind of fly.