Insect-like creatures

[SgtMaj]

Hello, I would like some help identifying some creatures in my tank... they look like insects. There's a photo attached, but it's not the greatest. It kind of looks like a little clear earwig without the pincers. Any ideas on what it is? I have a couple of them, and both are about 1cm in length and VERY fast.

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c158/Gatbunton/DVC00048.jpg

[dennjl]

Looks like a large copepod to me.

[LeslieH]

1 cm? That's way too big for copepods and too big for tropical isopods. Can you get it with a turkey baster & photograph it in a dish?

[SgtMaj]

turkey baster... good idea, I'll have to get one and get back to you if and when I can catch them...

[zmazza]

Looks like a pod to me. Are you sure its a cm?

[SgtMaj]

Quite sure, maybe 1.5, but that's stretching it.

[justinl]

could be a mysid. either way these "insects" that pop up in many peoples tanks usually don't pose any threat at all in a tank.

[bencozzy]

amphipod most likely, could be a non paristic isopod.

[LeslieH]

I downloaded & enlarged the pic. Way too fuzzy but most likely a free-living isopod of some sort. Definitely not an amphipod as it's dorsally-ventrally compresssed.